By Ludwig Schultheiss Team Member of INFINIDENT, Germany Leave a comment

Especially for the manufacture of prosthetic restorations made of non-precious metal alloys (NPM), generative manufacturing processes such as laser sintering offer dental laboratories significant advantages over classic analogue conventional casting or ablative CAD/CAM manufacturing processes.

Thus far, additive technology, in which micro grained cobalt chromium (CoCr) powder particles (>36m. grain size) are melted in layers using a laser beam, has mainly been used in the fabrication of prosthetic restorations such as single copings and large span bridge frameworks. This allows individual restorations with convincing density and fit to be fabricated in large quantities, free of porosity. The materials usage is particularly efficient. In contrast to ablative processes, such as milling technology as only the exact material is consumed that is actually required for the object digitally designed in the CAD software.