Dental Asia March/April 2022

DENTAL UPDATES
Virtual event by Dentsply Sirona to announce collaboration with Google Cloud
and Primeprint
Dentsply Sirona has announced details about a
collaboration with Google Cloud and a separate
new 3D printing solution, Primeprint, in a virtual
global on 4 Mar 2022.
The company will introduce a series of
innovations designed to enhance digital
workflows with benefits for dentists, dental
labs and patients globally. A highlight of this
event will be interviews with Urs Hoelzle, senior
vice-president in engineering at Google, and
Don Casey, CEO of Dentsply Sirona, who will be
announcing a new collaboration between the
two technology companies.
GOOGLE CLOUD
The collaboration with Google Cloud will help
dentists and dental labs to unlock benefits of
digital dentistry – whether they are continuing or
just starting on their digital journey.
The new digital dentistry solutions will be
based on six key principles: enabling high-value
dental care; next-generation digital featuring
secure and seamless sharing of data with
laboratories and other dental practitioners; easy
access to data whenever needed; high-quality
3D visualisation of dental imagery; stringent
data protection and security standards; and
an innovative environment for software, data
integrity and storage.
Christian Martin, managing director of Alps
region at Google Cloud, commented: “Dentsply
Sirona is transforming the dental industry. At
Google Cloud we believe that we have the right
expertise, capabilities and services to strongly
support Dentsply Sirona in its vision for the
future of oral healthcare.”
Casey added: “This exciting collaboration will
allow us to deliver on our promise: empowering
millions of customers by proudly creating
innovative solutions for healthy smiles. We will
succeed in this by giving dentists an innovative
platform to underpin the digital infrastructure
of their practice and enabling a seamless
workflow that helps dentists to focus on what
matters most: treating their patients.”
PRIMEPRINT
Separate from the collaboration with Google
Cloud, Dentsply Sirona will also launch
Primeprint, a medical-grade 3D printing
system for dental practices and dental labs.
Primeprint is a smart hardware and software
solution that is optimised for dental
applications. It runs the entire
printing process, including
post processing, and
delivers “reproducible and
accurate” results with strictly
biocompatible materials.
The printing process meets
high regulatory
requirements for
medical products.
■
New SLS powder: Glass filled Nylon 12 for strong, heat-resistant parts
Formlabs has introduced the Nylon 12 GF
Powder, a glass-reinforced plastic powder ideal
for producing stiff, thermally stable parts on the
Fuse 1 selective laser sintering (SLS) printer.
The Nylon 12 GF Powder is the third material
designed specifically for the Fuse 1 ecosystem,
providing Formlabs customers with options to
scale in-house production affordably. The new
material joins Nylon 12 Powder and Nylon 11
Powder in the Formlabs SLS materials library,
enabling customers to diversify their operations
and scale production with varied material
properties.
This new material combines the utility of
Nylon 12 with the rigidity and heat resistance
of glass filler, making it ideal for any application
requiring sustained load-bearing ability and
elevated thermal resistance. Fuse 1 users can now
add Nylon 12 GF Powder to their catalogue if they
need stiff, functional prototypes, robust jigs and
fixtures, replacement parts, and parts with threads
or sockets.
The Nylon 12 GF Powder can be used for strong,
stiff, stable medical devices and replacement
parts in the healthcare industry, particularly
for customisable end-user medical device
components.
Stiff, static jigs and fixtures, brackets, mounts,
and casings are all product types that would
benefit from the strong, rigid mechanical
properties of this new powder.
Nylon 12 GF Powder also withstands
elevated temperatures, with a heat deflection
temperature of 113°C. Many materials can
deform when exposed to high heat, and lose
their dimensional accuracy, especially when
the heat is combined with a load-bearing
application. Nylon 12 GF Powder has the
thermal stability to withstand applications
where other SLS powders would show signs of
elongation and deformation.
HIGH PERFORMANCE VERSATILE
MATERIALS
The Nylon 12 GF Powder’s tensile modulus is more
than 50% higher than that of Nylon 12 Powder,
and almost 75% higher than Nylon 11 Powder.
Customers should choose Nylon 12 GF Powder
when printing parts that need to bear heavy loads
for a long time without any bending or elongation.
Other benefits of Nylon 12 GF Powder include:
a minimum refresh rate which ranges from 30-
50%, and can be adjusted to minimise material
waste, optimise cost per part, or improve part
finish; a simplified material changeover process,
which reduces downtime and enables more
in-house, multi-material production with a single
printer unit; among others. ■
22 DENTAL ASIA MARCH / APRIL 2022