Desktop Health Metal Binder Jetting 3D Printing for Dental Applications

On August 10, 2021, Desktop Health, a healthcare business within Desktop Metal, Inc. is committed to developing 3D printing and biofabrication solutions for personalized medicine, announced the expansion of its dental technology portfolio to include a turnkey metal 3D printing solution for dentistry along with the launch of chrome-cobalt for use in dental applications.

The Shop System™ is one of the fastest metal binder jetting solutions, that can deliver superior surface finish and resolution, offering a promising pathway for custom dental appliances and surgical guides. It brings mass customization through 3D printing to the dental lab, eliminating labor costs associated with machine programming required for CNC milling, typically a common manufacturing process for producing metal dental components.

Dental applications

The Shop System is able to print up to 32 partials in less than four hours, as compared to the nearest competitive system which supports up to 10 partials in 9 ½ hours. In addition, metal parts on the Shop System print fully supported in the powder bed and feature hand-removable sintering setters, drastically reducing labor time and costs associated with post-processing parts printed on laser-based 3D printing systems. By reducing post-processing and providing high throughput printing, the Shop System can drive down part costs for custom dental applications, such as partials, to as low as one-third the cost that can be achieved for comparable part quantities produced using laser-based 3D printing systems.

“We are excited to introduce the Shop System and chrome cobalt for binder jetting to the dental community, expanding our suite of best-in-class 3D printing solutions from photopolymers to metals,” said Michael Jafar, President and CEO of Desktop Health. “We are uniquely positioned by offering dental labs not only a leading photopolymer platform, but also a turnkey solution to produce metal appliances and surgical guides with superior surface finish in higher production volumes compared to laser-based 3D printing systems.”

The Shop System solution includes all the software, hardware, and materials a dental lab needs to begin binder jetting dental appliances — from build preparation through printing and sintering.

Key benefits include:

Easy to use and operate. Designed with dental labs in mind, the Shop System produces parts at the push of a button through its easy-to-use software interface. It features engineered powders and default processing parameters optimized to deliver exceptional quality and ensure repeatability. The use of software-generated hand-removable sintering setters eliminates the need for costly and labor-intensive post-processing steps.
High productivity and superior print quality. Featuring variable build sizes up to 16L and a high-speed, single pass print carriage, the Shop System produces high-quality, end-use metal parts up to 10 times the speed and at a fraction of the cost of legacy additive manufacturing technologies, amplifying dental technicians’ existing throughput with up to hundreds of customized parts per day.
Rich feature detail with exceptional surface finish. Dental technicians can print dense, complex parts with incredibly fine feature detail and excellent surface finish right out of the furnace. Using an advanced single pass printhead with 1600 native DPI, the Shop System delivers 400 percent higher resolution than legacy binder jetting systems. Reliable print quality is enabled by the 5x nozzle redundancy on the printhead — 25 percent higher redundancy than comparable binder jetting systems.

“3D printing of metal parts for dentistry can finally see an efficient solution with binder jet technology from Desktop Health,” said Christopher M. Silvoy, DMD, an expert in dental implants and a diplomate of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI). “The Shop System allows a simple and safe process for producing accurate appliances with an extremely well-integrated system and workflow. With a large build volume and fast build times, the system provides an opportunity to eliminate outsourcing, increase quality of outcome, and potentially change dentistry.”