Stratasys, a leader in applied additive technology solutions announced that two of its customers, two leading laboratories in North America and Europe are driving large-scale production of clear aligner molds using Stratasys’ dental 3D printing solutions such as the Stratasys J700 Dental 3D Printer.
The two top dental labs, the Missouri-based DynaFlex and Malaga-based Ortoplus are using the 3D printer to produce cost-effective and efficient clear aligner molds. Clear aligner molds are a popular alternative to complex and manual placement of traditional dental braces.
Built on the award-winning Poly Jet-based technology, the J700 Dental 3D printer is allowing the two labs to rapidly capitalise on clear aligner marketplace by offering them unique combination of throughput, high quality and reduced time-to-final part.
Polyjet technology is a direct 3D printing technique which produces extremely smooth and dimensionally accurate parts. This technology is able to print with the widest range of materials available for any other technology.
The 3D Printer enables seamless digital workflows supported by GrabCAD Print™ and allows users to capitalize on smart default settings, tips and notifications for a more seamless 3D printing process. With its ability to offer users a detailed model views alongside tray and slice previews, it can also help users to implement intricate, detailed adjustments before going to print.
Speaking about the advantages of using the 3D printing solution from Stratasys, Darren Buddenmyer, CEO of DynaFlex said, “We’ve been in the clear aligner market for quite a while, but have only been able to produce in small quantities.”
“We soon realized our team needed a faster printer, one that could produce on-demand and didn’t require high levels of expertise to operate,” Buddenmyer added.
The Stratasys J700 Dental 3D Printer is designed to address large-scale capacity and achieve the high-throughput requirements for production of clear aligner molds. The 3D Printer is optimised to produce highly accurate 3D print with little calibration and learning and can 3D print as much as 400 plus molds per day.
Ortoplus, another top dental lab has also achieved exponential growth after using the J700 3D printer and has registered an estimated growth of 23% annually. Speaking about how the additive manufacturing solution from Stratasys helped the company achieve this growth, Ana Fernandez, R&D Director at Ortoplus commented, “We’re very excited about the Stratasys J700, because it has the potential to take our clear aligner business to the next level”.
“After evaluating several 3D printing alternatives, it is clear that Stratasys is one of the most optimized solutions for out-of-the-box clear aligner production. This makes it easy to build patient models of extremely high quality, and start production right from day one,” Fernandez added.
Offering more details of how Stratasys is committed towards offering high quality, reliable 3D printing solutions for dentistry, Michael Gaisford, Director of Marketing for Healthcare Solutions at Stratasys said, “At Stratasys, we’re committed to offering orthodontic and dental customers new opportunities to make the transition to digital dentistry, leveraging advanced 3D printing. The Stratasys J700 Dental makes it easier than ever to capitalize on new opportunities offered by large-scale, high-quality production of clear aligner molds.”
“We firmly believe that only Stratasys is capable of delivering the levels of quality, reliability and performance that today’s dental market demands,” Gaisford concluded.
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