PM - Concept Laser Laufer Zahntechnik

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█ Dental technology: Laufer Zahntechnik as service partner to dentists

Printing instead of milling dentures

Use of generative technologies for the industrial fabrication of dentures in an effective process chain

Mannheim, 28.03.2012: Dentures "Made in Germany", so with top quality and at a cheap price too, which at first glance seems to be a contradiction in itself. How is this actually achieved? Laufer Zahntechnik GmbH in Mannheim has managed to achieve this balancing act with the aid of an entirely new orientation of the process chain. Andreas Laufer, master dental technician and managing director of the company, gave us an insight into the tasks and direction of focus of a service company catering for the needs of the modern dental practice.

When it comes to manufacturing dental restorations, there are conventional techniques such as mould-based casting or milling from the complete workpiece, with milling currently being the most widely used technique. These manufacturing methods have weaknesses in terms of quality, take time, but above all tend to be expensive in relation to the unit costs. A milled unit costs approx. 19.90 EUR. According to Laufer, the dental laboratory is able to offer the same unit manufactured metal laser melting at a cost of 9.90 EUR. How is this done?

Magic word: Laser fusing

Andreas Laufer focused as a pioneer back at the end of the 1990s on CAD/CAM technology, initially in the area of milling. In 2003, his interest was then sparked by the generative metal laser melting technology. At this time, this represented an entirely new approach to manufacturing whose charm Laufer recognised early on: "The possibility to move from skilled production by a traditional method to an industrial scale was now achievable," says Andreas Laufer today. This technology, which at the time was still in its infancy, promised, thanks to the tool-free manufacturing method, a high degree of efficiency and economic viability taking account of the costs of employees, material consumption and machine costs. In addition, the time taken to process an order from when it is received through to delivery of the product to the dentist has been drastically reduced. A generative structure also means less reworking is required, the finest quality coupled with high precision, density and a great fit, as well as greater freedom of design. Today Laufer works with LaserCUSING® machines of the Mlab cusing type made by Concept Laser from Lichtenfels. Thinking outside of the box and having the courage to focus on manufacturing on an industrial scale paid off for Laufer.

Progress on the learning curve

As a pioneer of this technology for dental laboratories, Laufer continuously optimised the internal processes in order to be able to manufacture products as cheaply as possible. For example, Laufer today manufactures its own build plates for the LaserCUSING® process. "This allows," says Andreas Laufer, "multiple usage with a long life cycle of up to 40 use cycles." Further technical progress was also made thanks to the further development of the CAMbridge™ software. This program allows, for example, automatic support generation and automatic positioning of the crowns and bridges on the build plate. The program CAMbridge™ places the dentures which are to be manufactured into position fully automatically in order to achieve a maximum packing density on the build plate. "The data preparation can be carried out easily and conveniently. This saves time and money. The technology has now come of age. Today a dental laboratory can successfully complete the necessary initial training on how to use this CAD/CAM technology within just a few weeks," says Andreas Laufer. In terms of perspective, according to Laufer, the time really works in a tangible way for this technology, which is now well developed.

Paradigm shift for industrial fabrication

The switchover to LaserCUSING® paid off for Laufer, whose aim right from the outset was to transform the traditional artisan fabrication into industrial production. With fully automatic generative fabrication, on average 80 units are fabricated simultaneously on one build plate per day. The enormous cost advantages of this method lie in the batch size. The labour costs can also be reduced significantly: Instead of employing 6 to 7 dental technicians for completely conventional cast fabrication, only 4 employees are now required to produce the same quantity of product using the generative metal laser melting process. But the fully automatic fabrication overnight not only speeds up the technical production time itself, but also offers an enormous saving in terms of time for dentists as service partners: They can take an impression of the patient in the morning and send it to the laboratory. At Laufer the associated plaster-cast model is then created and scanned in, and the denture is designed. Towards the end of the working day, the build job which is prepared with CAMbridge™ is started on the Mlab cusing machine. Fabrication then takes place fully automatically overnight. The next morning the denture parts are subjected to a heat treatment at Laufer and then detached from the build plate. There is then reworking of the individual pieces of work. This involves breaking off the support structures by hand and reworking the denture with a handpiece. After approx. 2-3 minutes, the denture is ready to be dispatched or can have a veneer applied when further work is carried out in-house. Dentists and patients really appreciate this time-saving procedure: Within the space of just two days, dentists can insert the dentures into the mouths of their patients. Greater quality of life then thanks to the quality and time saving on offer.

Looking to the future

The previous possibilities have demonstrated at Laufer that it is possible to deliver high quality coupled with high speed when doing business in Germany. But Laufer also sees lots of other opportunities for improving the process chain. The central point here is to generate the data via a "mouth scan" done at the dentist's premises followed by printing of a plastic model. Why, according to Laufer, should it not be possible to replace the traditional plaster-cast model with a printed plastic model? For this would allow two pieces of work to be carried out in parallel: The printing of the model to check the fit and the construction of the denture. "This would make the processing of orders even faster," says Laufer, "scan in the morning and then fit the denture the very next day – simply 'production overnight'." Laufer sees important changes on the horizon with the materials too. Instead of finishing a metallic base with ceramic, as has previously been the case, it will be possible in future to employ high-strength full-plastic solutions whose processing will then also take place using generative means, with laser fusing. Laufer seems to have a number of other ideas for the future. The route that has been followed, from process optimisation, improvement of the process chain and the industrial approach on the basis of generative fabrication, demonstrate a clear path of growth. Laufer's range of customers now includes around 500 dental practices.

Print approved – ask for copy

Captions ██████████████████████████████████████████████

Caption 0 (lead picture): Andreas Laufer: "In the medium term, prosthetic dental laboratories will all adopt generative technologies. The industrial approach of the concept will force all established and time-honoured technologies to be examined in terms of the unit costs"

Caption 1: Quick implementation at the CAD/CAM workstation: Henry Müller designs the denture using the software DentalDesigner™.

Caption 2: Very easy to use: Clear user interface of the software DentalDesigner™

Caption 3: High productivity with close positioning of the denture elements with a range of different geometries on one build plate

Caption 4: Manual milling reworking of the dental technician – detaching from the build plate, processing with a handpiece and veneering

Caption 5: Great performance and compact: Mlab cusing machine from Concept Laser

███ Concept Laser at Rapid.Tech 2012: Stand 2-114 █████████

Brief information about Laufer Zahntechnik

Laufer Zahntechnik GmbH was founded by Andreas Laufer in Schwetzingen in 1989. Since 1995, the company has been based in Mannheim and, growing at a constant rate, it has developed to become one of the biggest and leading dental laboratories in Germany.

Specialising in sophisticated technologies in the areas of aesthetics, implantology and above all combined dentures, the company is today an expert point of contact for well over 500 dental practices from all over Germany.

Another persuasive factor is the great value for money that LAUFER Zahntechnik GmbH offers its customers. The aim of manufacturing very high-quality, yet inexpensive dentures in Germany has been achieved with very great success. Jobs have thus been secured and each year new ones are created.

The very good quality management is documented by the TÜV certification in accordance with DIN ISO 9001:2008 and is intended to underscore the company's slogan of Hightech – Made in Germany, inexpensive – reputable – reliable.

The service provided by the company today includes more than just high-quality dentures. Lots of other services, also in cooperation with other dental companies, are offered to dentists.

Contacts ████████████████████████████████████████████████████

Concept Laser GmbH

An der Zeil 8

D-96215 Lichtenfels

Germany

Phone +49 (0) 95 71 / 949 - 238

Fax +49 (0) 95 71 / 949 - 249

Website: www.concept-laser.de

Press contact:

Ilona Scholl

Phone: +49 (0) 95 71 / 949 - 241

Email:

Laufer Zahntechnik GmbH

Saarburger Ring 30

D-68229 Mannheim/Friedrichsfeld

Germany

Phone +40 (0) 621 – 48 48 80

Email:

Website: www.laufer-zahntechnik.de

Background info on LaserCUSING® ███████████████████████████████

LaserCUSING®

The LaserCUSING® process, a metal laser melting process, is used to produce metallic components which can be subjected to mechanical and thermal loading with high precision. Depending on the application, the materials used are high-grade and tool steels, aluminium or titanium alloys, nickel-based superalloys, cobalt-chromium alloys and in future precious metals such as gold and silver will also be used.

Description of the process

LaserCUSING® involves fine metallic powder being locally fused by a highly energetic fibre laser. Following cooling, the material solidifies. The contour of the component is produced by directing the laser beam using a mirror deflecting unit (scanner). The component is built up layer by layer (with a layer thickness of 20 – 50 μm) by lowering the bottom of the installation space, applying more powder and fusing again. The special feature about the machines from Concept Laser is stochastic navigation of the slice segments (also referred to as "islands") which are processed successively. The patented process ensures a significant reduction in stresses within the component. For single-part fabrication, a maximum installation space of 300 mm x 350 mm x 300 mm is available.

Overview of Concept Laser ███████████████████████████████████

Concept Laser GmbH is an independent company that forms part of Hofmann Innovation Group GmbH from Lichtenfels (Germany). Since the company was founded in 2000, it has worked across different sectors as a driving innovator in the field of metal laser melting technology using the patented LaserCUSING® process.

The term LaserCUSING®, made up of the letter C from Concept Laser and the word FUSING (complete melting), describes the technology used: the fusion process generates components layer by layer using 3D CAD data.

The generative process allows complex component geometries to be produced without the use of any tools right through to complex structural geometries which are very difficult to produce, if they can be produced at all, using conventional techniques.

The LaserCUSING® process allows the fabrication of both mould inserts with close-contour cooling and direct components for the jewellery, medical, dental, automotive and aerospace sectors. Both prototypes and mass-produced parts are manufactured.

Standard machines and customer-specific machine concepts for the LaserCUSING® of metals are on offer. Full service as an option at Concept Laser means that customers can purchase machines for their own independent LaserCUSING® application, or access services and development expertise (prototypes and small batches) directly.

The laser processing machines from Concept Laser process powder materials from high-grade and tool steels, reactive aluminium or titanium alloys, nickel-based superalloys, cobalt-chromium alloys and in future will also process precious metals such as gold and silver.

LaserCUSING® opens up new perspectives in terms of quality, reproducibility, economic viability and speed for more efficient product development in sectors such as:

- Jewellery

- Medical and dental technology

- Aerospace industry

- Tool and mould making

- Automotive/motor racing

- Mechanical engineering

The machines make it possible to shorten development times and reduce development costs considerably. The key benefits of LaserCUSING® include greater freedom of geometry, coupled with much greater flexibility in terms of product development. Another central advantage of the process is the opportunity to produce components without the use of tools and the obviation of the machine programming associated with this.

The high quality standards, many years of experience and references of Concept Laser are synonymous with process-reliable and cost-effective solutions which demonstrate their efficiency in everyday production. Thanks to ongoing further development, the unit costs of the generative process are constantly being reduced.

In 2010, Hofmann Innovation Group GmbH generated sales of EUR 52 million with 470 employees.

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