Statasys Dental Lab

Dental labs can increase production with new Stratasys 3-D printers

May 13, 2014
Dental labs can increase production of restoration wax-ups with easy-to-use process and low cost-per-wax-up

Stratasys Ltd.today introduced the highest precision wax 3-D printers available to the dental industry — the Stratasys CrownWorx and FrameWorx 3-D printers.These new printers allow dental laboratories to produce wax-ups for crowns, bridges, and denture frameworks. The machines will be unveiled May 17 at the LMT Lab Day West Show.

Stratasys CrownWorx and FrameWorx 3-D printers use wax deposition modeling technology, a jetting technology that is designed to enable consistent quality and a reliable process. The machines produce superior-fitting wax-ups for crown, bridge, coping, and denture frameworks via an automated method that can fit easily into a lab’s established workflow, enhancing production capacity.

Stratasys CrownWorx and FrameWorx 3-D printers use wax-like materials that produce smooth surface finishes and minimize post-processing. The materials burn out with no residue, material shrinkage, cracking, or expansion to allow precision casting and reduce costs previously incurred when finishing gold and other precious metals.


Stratasys CrownWorx
Based on resolution, the CrownWorx 3-D printer is best-in-class for creating crown, bridge, and coping wax-ups. CrownWorx uses WDM Technology to jet micro-drops of TrueCast material that builds dental wax-ups, layer by layer.

Stratasys FrameWorx
The FrameWorx 3-D printer uses WDM Technology to jet micro-drops of TrueCast material onto the build tray to create a denture wax-up layer by layer. TrueSupport material is quickly sprayed around the casting material to form a support structure. This enhancement increases production speed for partial denture wax-ups because they require more support material than crowns and bridges. After printing, TrueSupport is dissolved, leaving behind smooth and detailed wax-ups.

“These wax 3-D printers and new materials are an ideal fit for small labs interested in upgrading dental casting technology,” says Stratasys Director of Global Dental, Avi Cohen. “We believe dental labs adopting these 3-D printers will benefit from the automated and digitized workflows, enabling them to cut costs while producing more restorations. These systems complement our broad system portfolio, which includes large dental 3-D printers.”

TrueCast and TrueSupport

TrueCast is a firm but flexible material that mimics real wax and allows labs to 3-D print any dental wax-up with extreme accuracy. It is 100% castable for any alloy. TrueSupport is a true wax-blend material that is automatically generated to protect a wax-up during printing. It has a low melting point that produces delicate restorations and is easily removed from each wax-up, after production.

More information about CrownWorx, FrameWorx, TrueCast, and TrueSupport is available at StratasysDental.com.