DWS Announces New Dental 3D Printing Business Unit and Dental Products

It hasn’t been long since DWS Systems released its last crop of 3D printers, showcasing the technology for which the company is known – SLA. SLA itself is known for being ideal for applications like jewelry and dentistry, and DWS has now announced that it will be forming a new business unit specifically dedicated to dental 3D printing. Through this new business, DWS plans to offer dental 3D printing products to both labs and dental offices. The company will be offering several new products that allow customers to create high-precision dental models, restorations and prosthetics with just the push of a button.

“The formation of a dedicated dental unit leverages the most powerful portfolio of lab and clinic digital dental solutions on the market today,” said DWS Founder and General Manager Maurizio Costabeber. “This positions DWS to better serve the American dental market, and offer its latest products to labs and clinics around the world. We believe that our decades of experience in digital dentistry, together with our advanced materials, push button user-experience, and precise, fast printing can successfully meet the demands of this multi-billion dollar market.”

DFAB Chairside 3D printer

DWS will be showcasing several new products at LMT Lab Day and Chicago Dental Society‘s Midwinter Meeting, both taking place this week. The LFAB is designed to produce dental models, surgical guides and prosthetics for dental labs, while the DFAB is tailored for dental offices and can produce precise color-matched prosthetics. The two are the latest to join the FAB family of 3D printers, which are meant for dentists, prosthodontists and lab technicians to produce dental prosthetics more quickly, efficiently and with a fewer number of procedures. FAB 3D printers can produce up to five-element precision bridges with accurate fit and correct occlusion within 20 minutes.

DWS has also developed a new material called Temporis for the FAB series. The biocompatible resin is designed for long-term use and meets European Union Class IIa invasive medical device requirements. DWS plans to seek North American clearances as well, as part of its expansion plans. Independent studies and tests on Temporis have shown that it has mechanical strength values comparable to well-established traditional restorative resin materials.

“The [DFAB] machine has no learning curve; it is a printer to follow the needs of dentists. It is a cartridge-based system, like a coffee machine, using disposable cartridges that you simply put in and close, while the printer then does everything. It works with a file from an intraoral scan, without human intervention, and does color matching. The revolution here is to allow the treatment in one dental visit,” Costabeber told 3DPrint.com when we saw DWS’ systems at CES 2018.

Maurizio Costabeber shows color-matched dental 3D printing from the DFAB at CES 2018 [Photo: Sarah Goehrke]

Both LFAB and DFAB 3D printers can create customizable colored restorations using light curable composites, for prosthetics that match the shade of the patient’s own teeth. In addition, the DFAB can replicate patient-specific color gradient using DWS’ Photoshade technology.

Finally, DWS will be introducing the XCELL 6000PD, a fully automated dental 3D printer that provides a wide range of dental treatments with the push of a button. The 3D printer features a cartridge system that makes it easy for users to change materials, and eliminates the labor associated with washing and curing the 3D printed parts. The high-speed XCELL 6000PD can handle multiple dental applications including dental models, temporary prosthetics, castable copings and aligner manufacturing, as well as surgical guides, partial frameworks, implant models for analogs and restorations such as crowns and bridges.

Interested parties can see these new products, as well as the rest of DWS’ portfolio, in Booth #B52 at LMT Lab Day or Booth #4434 at the Chicago Dental Society’s Midwinter Meeting.

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[Images: DWS]