Australia Debuts Metal AM Dental Applications

Proslab Dental, Melbourne, Australia, has debuted the first metal additive manufacturing (AM) machine for dental applications in Australia. Until now, dimensional change during the manufacturing process of removable partial dentures (RPD) has been a difficult technical challenge due to the reliance on traditional techniques such as “lost wax.” Thanks to metal powder bed fusion technology, Proslab can meet this challenge.

Damian Synefias, CEO of Proslab, explains, "We have been manufacturing cobalt chrome frames for a long time now and after bringing in the scanning, designing and digital workflow many years ago, the casting process was always our problem area. There was no other accurate technique to finally finish off the process we had in scan and design.

"With the help of Renishaw and the state-of-the-art AM 400 laser printer, we are now in a position to produce the most accurate 'casting' for the patient that there is. It allows us to be more confident in our work with none of the dimensional change in the framework that we had become accustomed to from traditional techniques."

Being able to create complex geometries and mass customization, at a commercially viable cost, is a real driver for Australian industries which are often hamstrung by scale compared to their overseas counterparts.

www.proslab.com.au