Robocam’s new sintering furnace holds up to 200 units per sintering cycle and offers exceptional temerpture homogeneity due to six heating elements made of molybdenum disilicide.

Robocam. Primarily a supplier of zirconia, alumina, and plastic milling blanks as well as other complementary CAD/CAM-based products, Robocam will soon launch its own CAD/CAM system. None of the components except the sintering furnace were on display, but a slick booklet showcased the new system.

The scanner looks eerily similar to a 3Shape scanner but the Robomill milling unit is completely a company concept. Small and compact the 3-axes milling machine can be expanded to 5-axes, features auto cooling, tool length measurement and replacement and is powered by Delcam’s DentMILL software. The sintering furnace handles both sintering and firing for ceramics and can hold up to 200 units per sintering session. For those who color zirconia copings via the dipping process, this company also sells a dry heat processing unit for completely drying the dipped coping prior to sintering and scan spray for enhancing the scannabilit of plaster models.

BZT showcased two milling solutions: the Microdental ECO (left) and Microdent HSC (right).

BZT Dental. This German-based company showcased two milling solutions, the Microdental ECO and Microdent HSC as well as a 3Shape D-640 scanner with Dental Solutions DS-CAM design software. The two 4-axes milling units feature a milling blank holder that rotates 360? during the milling process, an automated tool length measureing system and tool changer that holds 13 or 14 tools respectively, and a suction system with automatic pneumatic filter cleaning.

The 4-axes miling unit from Hadens  offers 3-axes milling with rotary AC servo motor.

Hadens Co. Ltd. Comprised of a 3D laser point scanner, 4-axes milling unit, and microwave sintering furnace, the Korean-made Hadens CAD/CAM milling unit offers 3-axes milling with a rotary AC servo motor and spindle that rotates 60,000 rpm. The microwave-powered sintering furnace reaches maximum temperature of 1600ºC within an hour, and shortens sintering process times.

GTmedical. From Spain comes three choices in milling power that each come with a 3Shape D640 scanner loaded with the company’s own design software optimized for designing implant abutments for GTmedical’s implant line. The D50 Granite and D40 5-axes milling units are capable of milling a variety of materials includlng zirconia, PMMA, chrome cobalt, titanium, and chrome nickle. Both come with automatic tool change, the D50 holding 12 tools, the D40 6 tools and both can accommodate multiple milling blanks. The D30 is a 4-axes desktop unit.

The Engine DentaCut 4-axes milling machine features a 5-too auto changer.

Heizmann. The complete Engine DentaCut CAD/CAM system from this German company includes a Smart Optics stripe-light laser scanner with its Smart Designer Top-CAD design software, the Engine DentaCut 300 milling unit, and two PCs. The 4-axes milling unit features a 5-tool auto changer with tool length sensor, DentMill control software, and milling accuracy to ±20 microns. A Mihm-Vogt sintering furnace and suction unit also are available.

Lycodent. Lycodent offers two systems, the continuous drive 4-axis Pluralmill D40 and the 5-axes Pluramill D50. Both are capable of milling continuously 24/7 with auto tool measuring and changing technology and mill any material including chrome cobalt. The machines can accept data from open-architecture scanners producing STL output files and can yield 40 to 50 units per milling blank.

R+K CAD/CAM. Germany-based R+K has three milling soltuions, the Organical 4X-M, 4X-T, and 4X-t Desktop. The 4X-M mills metal such as chrome cobalt and titanium as well as sintered zirconia, plastic, wax, and composite while the others mill only non-metal materials. Each milling unit as an integrated tool holder with 16 plug-in positions and a tool measuring device. Two milling blanks can be loaded into the units for continuous production of copings, full-contour crowns, onlays, bridges up to 16 units, and with the addition of AbutmentDesigner software, customized implant abutments and overdenture bars.

Other companies with milling technologies included Ombi Srl with their 3-, 4- and 5-axis milling solutions; Orotig, another Italian company showcasing the Whitec 3-axes wet milling unit housed in a 180º glassed housing; the Swiss company Witech with its four robust milling options; and Luxburg & Rein, a company located in Berlin, whose milling options range from the small LR-3 Compact and LR-4 desktop machines to the large LR-7 industrial milling unit.

Related Articles

• Click here for the full story "CAD/CAM, CAD/CAM Everywhere" in the May 2009 issue of Dental Lab Products.
• Eye on technology: CAD/CAM