Does anyone use form 2 for printing crowns and bridges?
Is form 2 good enough considering low xy resolution compared to some DLP printers? Does it work well with 3rd party resins?
I love the printer but hesitant to buy just for low xy resolution and speed compared to DLP printers.
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Good question. There is a lot of confusion about what resolution means. Whe DLP may have 50 um pixels, they can only place surfaces on that 50 um grid. The result is layers in x and y. While we have a laser with a spot over 100 um, we have precision galvos and so can place surfaces essentially anywhere. The result is smooth precise surfaces that you’d need very small pixels to rival.
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Also, laser spot size or waist are not the same as effective size as the first is a laser definition and the second depends on the material’s response to the light. Meaning the beam size is independent of intensity (it is normalized by definition) while the cured voxel could be a lot bigger or smaller with varying light intensity.
I had also researched other printers before purchasing, including a couple of DLP printers, and found that the XY print size limits were significantly smaller than the Form 2. AutoCAD’s Ember printer, a DLP printer, has a 2.5" x 1.5" print area (64mmx40mm) at 50 microns (10-100 micron layers). The Solus has a 5.7" x 4.3" print area at 50 microns, but drops down to a tiny 1.8" x 1.1" at 25 microns.
I do mainly jewelry with my Form 2, so being able to print a whole batch at a time is awesome. And the quality I’m getting on my Form 2 is what I would have expected from a much more expensive printer.
Yes. Agreed.
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Not sure if it is as critical in jewelry, but dimensional accuracy for dentistry is a big thing that overshadows the resolution question. If the DLP projector is not perfectly located, moved, or you don’t fully calibrate, there are dimensional accuracy issues. This also holds true for the resins, as was mentioned above … exposure time influences spot size as well as other issues. It is also curious that the front-runner chair side scanner (CEREC) is one of the least accurate of all, yet its results pass the basic testing.
Right, the position increments of the Form2 laser is in the single digit microns, the only difference is that you can’t make any detail smaller than the laser spot which isn’t an issue since that would be too small anyways.
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Removable partial denture
Printed in FormLabs 2 I used clear resin
and casted in Gialloy PA
Non-Precious Cobalt Based Dental Casting Alloy for Partial Framework, Type 5
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Hey,
looks pretty good.
For what all purposes do you use form 2 in dentistry?
Thanks for the pictures. They look great.
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And again please tell us what software do you use for ortho , splints , etc.
PS: very goog job and thank you for all the information you share!!!
I use Exocad and 3Shape for dentistry
and Osirix and Blender for other reconstructions like brain , ears , face
and some times I use , meshmixer , meshlab , Rhinoceros
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Hi Neshke,
Impressed with your results in Clear Resin, we are using Formlabs Castable Resins with STL’s from Exocad. We are struggling to achieve ideal fit. Do you do any standard crown and bridge copings/full contour in Exocad? Would you be willing to briefly outline your curing/burnout process?
Many Thanks.
I used dental wings for Framework.
Print with clear resin as it’s the only one that don’t get deformation for such thin parts.
IThing is I have to give 0.1mm spacing at the model so it fits.
For clear resin my burnout process is 5°/min with 30 minute hold at 300, 400, 600 and 900°C.
I wish Formlabs comes out with a castable clear one day…
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To clarify, is it that you want a clear castable or that you want a stiff castable resin, with a modulus comparable to clear?
That’s great, thanks for getting back so fast.
We may have to experiment with Clear, we have castable and grey but have not achieved desirable results with either so far. Tried slow burnout but fit is still sketchy.
We also found that we need 0.1mm at margin for uncured prints to fit.
How are you curing your prints?
You mean post cure?
I use a nail cure box, and place the Framework in water like 2 minutes.
You could do it in the air but I found out it stays sticky.
Clear resin gives good results because it’s hard resin, so self supported.
I can’t get any good results with the castable, I always have distorsion somewhere in the Framework.
ih you have problem with casting clear resin
check your investment material
i press emax with my investment material
so it is very hard and less distortion
Hey did you always use formlabs for framework and is it give a good fitting ?