Friday, March 13, 2015

Stratasys Introduces a New 3D Printer to its Dental Line

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Stratasys has introduced a new addition to its line of dental printers, the Objet260 Dental Selection. Leveraging Stratasys’ unique triple-jetting technology, the Objet260 Dental Selection raises the bar in 3D printed dental model realism to improve the accuracy and efficacy of digital dentistry.


The versatile new 3D printer is designed to help mid- to large-sized dental and orthodontic labs grow their business by producing realistic models with true-to-life look and feel as part of their end-to-end digital dentistry workflow, including intra-oral scanners.


Its ability to build diverse models with multiple materials on one tray, in one print job, increases productivity which can further improve profitability.


“We are using the Objet260 Dental Selection 3D Printer to produce realistic 3D printed gingiva masks and models we couldn’t do before. We have not had 3D printed dental models that so closely resemble the actual teeth and gums,” said Stefan Remplbauer, general manager of Austria-based 3DMedicalPrint. “The initial reactions from our customers, which include dental technicians, dentists and surgeons, have been extremely positive. This is definitely going to help set 3DMedicalPrint apart from our competitors.”


Unprecedented true-to-life dental model realism


Pivotal to the capabilities of the Objet260 Dental Selection is the ability to enable dental and orthodontic labs to enjoy unprecedented realism of the stone models. This permits the production of life-like gum textures for precise functional testing, as well as a wide range of shades for customized, color matching.


The Objet260 Dental Selection 3D Printer is compatible with all PolyJet dental materials, plus an array of dental-specific material palettes to produce life-like colors and textures for teeth and gums. This allows users to serve a broader range of dental applications with a single system, reducing equipment costs. These usages span implant testing with stone models that mimic the look and feel of real gingiva for accurate functional evaluation, as well as models with rigid features that require gum-like materials. Labs can print surgical guides directly from CBCT scan data, with high-definition tooth, root and nerve-canal anatomy rendered in contrasting materials to help prevent dental nerve injury.


Read more at ENGINEERING.com




by ENGINEERING.com via Fabbaloo

Friday, March 6, 2015

3D Printed Parts Provide Low-Cost Alternative for Lab Equipment

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The 3-D printing scene, a growing favorite of do-it-yourselfers, has spread to the study of plasma physics.


With a series of experiments, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found that 3-D printers can be an important tool in laboratory environments.


“The printer is now a crucial piece of our laboratory and used regularly,” said Andrew Zwicker, the head of Science Education at PPPL and lead author of a paper that reports the results in the current issue of the American Journal of Physics. “The versatility of the printer is such that our first reaction to an equipment need is no longer whether we can find or purchase the required piece of equipment, but can we print it?”


Three-dimensional printers create objects by laying down layers of material, whether plastic, metal, ceramic or organic. A computer controls a moveable nozzle that extrudes the hot material according to digital computer-aided design (CAD) files. Each layer is thin, often measuring only several hundred millionths of a meter in height.


Hobbyists have used 3-D printers to build curiosities such as sets of interlocking rings. But researchers have become interested because the printers can build customized parts for experiments, often at very low cost. And because a 3-D printer can produce parts quickly, the time between when a need is recognized and when a part is ready to install can be just a few hours.


During the experiments, Zwicker and his team printed plastic parts, including a cone and a cylinder, to test basic properties such as size, shape, use as an electrical insulator and ability to operate in a vacuum. The researchers also printed parts for an electrode in a plasma physics experiment, and replacement parts, such as a guard for a cooling fan and a handle for a piece of test equipment. Zwicker needed to see if the parts could withstand moderate vacuum environments in some plasma physics experiments and could withstand physical stresses. The team also needed to determine whether the dimensions of the parts matched the specifications of the designs.


Read more at ENGINEERING.com




by ENGINEERING.com via Fabbaloo