Carbon, the leading 3D printing technology company that is revolutionizing digital dentistry, is expanding its offerings to equip dental labs with time saving and cost reduction solutions. At Lab Day Chicago, taking place February 23rd-25th in Chicago, IL, Carbon was introducing automated print preparation for dental models, new validated post-processing options with Form Wash, and highlighting real world benefits from customers using the M3 Max printing solution. These solutions may enable dental labs to address the staffing shortages that are impacting the growth of businesses, while helping to lower production costs and increase efficiencies.
“The evolution of our platform is a direct result of us listening to our customers and developing features and solutions that help them bring products to market efficiently,” said Phil DeSimone, co-founder and member of the Office of the CEO at Carbon. “We’re excited to offer solutions that may save labs time and money while providing our customers with the tools they need to combat the labor shortages plaguing the industry, no matter who their resin or hardware provider is. Carbon’s platform continues to evolve to meet the needs of dental laboratories.”
Automation to Address Labor Shortages
To enable end-to-end automated workflows for key applications, Carbon is introducing automated print preparation for model production. This new automation feature, available only on Carbon printers, eliminates the majority of lab technicians’ manual preparation time, offering the ability to save up to 15 minutes of active labor per print project. With these automated preparation tools, print technicians can focus on higher value tasks throughout the lab.
New Labor-Saving Post-Processing Options
Carbon is helping dental labs address chronic labor shortages by validating Formlabs trusted Form Wash post-processing systems. The Form Wash process has an automated washing cycle which provides technicians more time to focus on higher value tasks. This sustainable, automated washing solution saves post-processing steps and helps labs to use isopropyl alcohol more efficiently. Both the Form Wash and Form Wash L solutions have been validated for use in production with the Carbon platform.
Increased Efficiency for High Volume Production
The M3 and the M3 Max printing solutions, provide a wide range of high-performance materials and software solutions tailored for applications across dental and lab needs. The M3 Max, which is currently shipping to customers, features a build area 2.2x the size of the M3 with a native 4k light engine that yields the same pixel size and resolution. The M3 Max is ideal for high volume production of dental models, nightguards, dentures and other indications.
“The print accuracy and the repeatability is definitely some of the best I’ve ever seen, and the data proves it too. The M3 Max is the next level of evolution, it has the speed of the M3 but can print 2.5x the amount of models, it’s an impressive amount of models,” said Sam Wainwright, Head of R&D at Dandy. “It’s clearly much, much more productive due to the build platform size. We’re getting double the productivity, at least, out of the same footprint in the lab. With that speed gain and build platform size, there seems to be no loss of accuracy and repeatability. As a lab, that’s what you want.”
Broader Denture Offerings Coming in 2023
As demand for 3D printed dentures continues to grow, Carbon is working with new ecosystem partners and planning to expand its denture teeth, base, and implant-supported denture offerings to meet customers' needs. Carbon plans to introduce these new options during the second half of 2023 and they will be available on all M-series Carbon printers including the M3 and M3 Max.
