Formlabs

	Formlabs announced that Castable Wax Resin is now available for dental indications. The highly accurate material is designed for casting and pressing crowns, bridges and removable partial dentures using patterns 3D printed on the Form 2.

	Tested at length with dental technicians, 

 provides accurate, sealed margins and contains 20% wax for reliable casting with clean burnout. Printed patterns are strong enough to handle with no post-cure required, allowing for a faster, simpler workflow.

	Digital fabrication companies frequently promote a “digital revolution”-a sea change in how things are made, where digital technology replaces analog workflows entirely. Digital vs. analog is framed as a rivalry between  separate paradigms, but in the dental industry, the reality is that digital and analog are not enemies. Most dental workflows today are a hybrid of both.

	Fully digital 3D printed prosthetics such as digital dentures are beginning to emerge. However, dental labs still make many esthetic, biocompatible dental restorations from metals and pressed ceramics. The dental industry has refined these analog workflows over hundreds of years. This is not merely a technical process: it is a craft.

	The most efficient, consistent workflows result from a hybrid of the digital and traditional worlds. The most advanced dental labs are asking how digital technology can supplement these long-perfected analog workflows to add the labor efficiencies they need to stay competitive under today’s heavy demands. 

	Formlabs has already simplified the digital workflow for a number of key dental indications (

), with thousands of successful prints in the field. With the latest addition to our library of Dental Resins, Formlabs has set out to make castable and pressable patterns from dental CAD software as easy and cost-effective as possible.

	With Castable Wax Resin, tested and developed by dental technicians to meet strict requirements for marginal fit and clean burnout, dental labs can make substantial efficiency gains while continuing to produce high quality traditional restorations in-house.

	Get started with precise, consistent patterns

	Castable Wax Resin is 20 percent wax-filled for clean, easy casting and pressing. This material offers the flexibility dental technicians expect, including fast, reliable 1-hour burnout. This resin does not require post-curing. After a quick wash in isopropyl alcohol, parts are clean and ready to invest, with no residual tackiness.

	The Formlabs workflow is the most intuitive solution for incorporating 3D printed patterns into your existing casting and pressing processes. Nest your digitally designed restorations for printing in our easy-to-use PreForm software, send the prepared job to the Form 2, and print. Then, set up your investment and cast or press the part as usual.

 (PDF) for design guidelines, burnout schedules, and a step-by-step look at how to work with Castable Wax Resin.

	There are more than 50 million crowns, bridges, and removable partial dentures prescribed in America every year. As this number increases, the number of dental labs and technicians continues to decrease, so efficiency is key. Formlabs is excited to introduce a more efficient, scalable workflow and more accessible price point for casting and pressing patterns.

Articles

This highly accurate material blends the digital and analog worlds, providing sealed margins from 3D printed patterns

Formlabs announces new Castable Wax Resin for dental indications

	Formlabs has developed its own print preparation software, PreForm, to make the print process for its stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer, the Form 2, as simple and automated as possible.

	Updates to software settings can have a major impact on print quality and speed, without the need to change out hardware. In PreForm 2.19, we’ve added faster print settings for dental surgical guides, smaller support touchpoint sizes for highly detailed surfaces, new settings for Castable Wax Resin for 

, and some updates to large model handling. 

	Faster print settings for Dental SG Resin

	Throughput and efficiency can make or break the work of the people using our printers in the field, and we are always looking for ways to make printing on the Form 2 faster without sacrificing print quality.

 is our autoclavable, biocompatible material for 3D printing 

. This material was designed to help guarantee accurate implant placement, decrease risks, and improve clinical outcomes. 

	With our latest update to PreForm, we’ve made the Form 2 up to 100% faster for Dental SG Resin with a new 100 micron print setting. Dentists can now print a surgical guide in under an hour and potentially complete an implant in one day. For patients, this could mean a single appointment from scan to surgery.

			Recommended for: Printing fast, single site quadrant surgical guides 

			Not recommended for: Surgical guides with multijple implant sites or unites, esspecially cross arch, demdnad the highest fit and accuracy. For these guides, we recommend 

	Smaller touchpoints for highly detailed models 

	In response to many requests, we’ve lowered the minimum touchpoint size for support structures to 0.10 mm. This means you can use the smallest possible touchpoint size on highly intricate surfaces to minimize post-processing and retain detail.

	Manually edit supports in high detail areas for best results, while using the usual touchpoint sizes in larger areas that require more support for successful printing.

0.10 mm touchpoints are very small and can break easily from the peel forces during printing. Using too many 0.10 mm touchpoints without some stronger supports nearby can lead to parts detaching from supports and failing. Include larger touchpoints to support large areas and minima features.

Manual support editing for intricate features and surfaces with high detail that benefit from minimal post-processing.

Use as the default support size across the entire part; minima features where supports initially connect the part to the raft;heavy or large cross-section parts requiring more support for successful printing; functional parts requiring high accuracy that may be prone to warping during printing.

We’ve improved performance for files over 1.5 GB, making PreForm faster and more reliable for large files.

You can now preview thumbnail images for FORM files in Windows Explorer! Save the FORM file with PreForm 2.19 and enable the file preview pane. (Note: FORM file previews are already available for Mac.)

Castable Wax Resin for dental casting and pressing: 

Castable Wax Resin now includes an updated 50 micron setting and is now also validated for 3D printing highly accurate patterns for dental crowns, bridges, and removable partial dentures while still delivering detailed and intricate jewelry printing.

 to read the release notes and give the newest tools a try. PreForm is free for anyone to download and experiment with your 3D models, even if you don’t already have a Form 2.

Formlabs releases PreForm 2.19 update

	On the shore of Lough Corrib in Ireland stands Ashford Castle, a medieval castle from the 13th century. The five-star hotel has attracted a long list of notable guests, from princes to queens, actors and US presidents. Its unique personality, charm, and friendly customer service inspired Sean Thompson to name his orthodontic laboratory after Ashford with the aim to profess the same qualities for the orthodontic industry.

	Having worked for several years in the Orthodontic and Maxillofacial Department at Sunderland Royal Hospital, Sean identified the growing demand for orthodontics, but the distinct shortage of high-quality laboratories capable of offering specialized orthodontic technical services. 

 in his garage in 2001, and as the clientele quickly started to expand, Craig Stevens and Graeme Winyard joined the board. Today, the three specialised orthodontic technicians manage the largest orthodontic laboratory in the United Kingdom with a 12,000 square foot facility and over 50 employees.

	Sean has always strived to keep the lab at the forefront of the industry, which today is more important than ever, as orthodontics is in the midst of undergoing its most significant technological evolution to date, from traditional workflows to digital technologies.

	Read on to learn to how Ashford created a digital department from scratch that now produces 1,200 clear aligners and retainers a month running a fleet of 12 3D printers, and achieves a cost advantage that empowers the lab to grow and attract new customers.

	Starting and scaling a digital department

	Ashford Orthodontics first started experimenting with digital orthodontics five years ago. 

	“Digital orthodontics was something we knew we had to get into. We couldn't afford not to do it if we really wanted to be a leading player within orthodontics,” Sean said. “We wanted to be an early implementer. Any business has to plan four or five years ahead, and you don't want to be left behind when others are moving on.”

	At first, the lab purchased two Stratasys Objet30 3D printers; industrial machines that were marketed specifically for orthodontics. They gained experience with the digital workflow and started accommodating digital jobs from clinicians, but because of the high cost and complexity of operating these large-scale 3D printers, the lab struggled to make a viable case for digital in their business. 

	“You had to invest a lot in software upgrades and keeping [the machines] serviced and calibrated every year, to the point that once you factor in the actual resin costs, you couldn't really produce a model for the price that we wanted to produce it, and certainly not in the volume we wanted,” Sean said.

“Plus with any printer, if you build your business around it, you can't just have one, you need to have two, and you need to run both of them at 50 percent. In case one goes down, you can always upscale the other to 100 percent. With the Stratasys machines, it was very expensive to grow a bank of those printers, so we decided that we would want a smaller printer, which could work harder for us, but then we could keep adding them. That's why we decided to go with Formlabs, and we've never regretted it,” Sean said. 

	The lab started off with one printer, then quickly scaled up to two, four, and at present, they’re running 12 

 printers. At the same time, the number of personnel in the digital department has grown from one technician to a team of eight digital technologists who are a blend of qualified technicians and computer experts.

	“The Form 2 is very reliable; we call it a workhorse. We know when we go home at night that when we come in in the morning, everything will be printed. There's not going to be a failure; everything will be there. Because of that, we can build our business around them,” Sean said. 

	Ashford follows a well-structured daily schedule that easily accommodated the digital workflow. Each working day, the lab has a cutoff time at about 3 pm. They review new scans sent in by customers, plan treatments and 3D print the digital models overnight. Early the next morning, a technician cleans and dries the 3D printed parts, and slightly later another technician thermoforms the clear aligners on the finished models. By the time most technicians arrive at the lab, the aligners are ready for post-processing.

	“Once you've got a model to work on, there's very little difference. If you are a traditional lab and you want to go and push the boundaries to digital, once you've done the learning side of it, the manufacturing side is pretty similar,” Sean said. 

	In the afternoon, technicians package and dispatch the finished appliances, so they’re at the clinicians within 48 hours. Overall, the digital workflow saves 24 hours as the scans arrive at the lab instantly, allowing Ashford to turn around jobs quicker and accommodate more work. 

“It works absolutely perfect for us. We launch the printers just before we go home at night; that's our night shift. We come in the next morning and by then, the night shift has done their job. It doesn't matter if they're sitting there for two hours, four hours, six hours-it's done. We totally rely on that coming in on the morning, so it's the quality and reliability of the print that matters to us,” Sean said.

	The lab has also learned to leverage the multiple printers and the large build platform of the Form 2.

	“It's quite easy for us just spread a few models along 10 or 12 printers and have them printed in a couple of hours. So if we do need to do quick runs, we can accommodate them across all the printers instead of putting them all on one. We find that that works very well for our business,” Sean said.

	Digital technology also allows the lab to store and access digital models at anytime online, which has proven to be beneficial with replacement retainers. 

	“There's no time lapse due to a child breaking or losing their retainer and having to go to the dentist to get a new impression. Teeth are drifting all the time and relapse is happening. We can just pull the file from the cloud-where we store them basically for free-print the model, create the appliance, and even send it directly to the patient,” Sean said.

	One of the greatest benefits of digital technology-particularly for orthodontics-is that the lab can reuse the 3D printed model to create multiple appliances.

	“A common trend now is to debond the brackets and instantly fit all the retention products chairside. By removing the brackets digitally, we can make an Essix, bonded, or a Hawley retainer, and a whitening tray all on the same model which simply isn't possible via the traditional route and plaster models,“ Sean said.

	Sean believes that digital technology can only surpass traditional workflows if it’s cost-effective. By passing savings on to their clients, they’re opening up the digital market to more and more clinicians, which Sean believes will be the way forward for everybody.

	“It shouldn't cost you any more to provide your services to your clients and patients via the digital route than via the traditional impression route. So what we've done is quite simply that we swapped the cost of the plaster models-which aren't needed anymore-with the cost of the resin model. Therefore, your lab bill is exactly the same, whether it's done via the traditional route or the digital route, except you can have things back 24 hours sooner,” Sean said.

	This value proposition has proven to be successful in attracting new customers from the UK, as well as internationally. While the lab makes only small margins on the Essix retainers and digital models, they’re highly valuable as trust builders.

	“We've got new clients coming to us every day, who have never used us before, so they don't know if the quality is going to be good or if the customer service is going to be reliable. When they realize that what we're providing here is very good quality, they trust us to send us the more complex appliances. So invariably, within two months of getting a new client who wants to use our services for digital orthodontics, they start asking if we can do twin blocks, fixed appliances, or functionals. Before we know it, they're sending us lots and lots of work, because we can accommodate all of their needs,” Sean said.

	The lab now provides services entirely digitally to three practices that don't have any impression material in their offices. They can only do that by Ashford being able to service all their needs via the digital route.

	“When we first started with the digital side of things, it accounted for maybe two percent of our business. Just this last month it's around 15 percent, and it is the fastest growing sector within the laboratory,” Sean said. 

	“At the moment, it's traditional techniques with a little bit of digital, but in a matter of two or three years, it's going to be digital techniques with a little bit of traditional. And that’s going to be the driving force for our department moving forward.”

A healthy, fully-digital dental lab isn't impossible-see how one owner did it.