Direct inkjet printing of dental prostheses made of zirconia.
CAD/CAM milling systems provide a rapid and individual method for the manufacturing of zirconia dental restorations. However, the disadvantages of these systems include limited accuracy, possible introduction of microscopic cracks, and a waste of material due to the principle of the 'subtractive process'. The hypothesis of this study was that these issues can be overcome by a novel generative manufacturing technique, direct inkjet printing. A tailored zirconia-based ceramic suspension with 27 vol% solid content was synthesized. The suspension was printed on a conventional, but modified, drop-on-demand inkjet printer. A cleaning unit and a drying device allowed for the build-up of dense components of the size of a posterior crown. A characteristic strength of 763 MPa and a mean fracture toughness of 6.7 MPam(0.5) were determined on 3D-printed and subsequently sintered specimens. The novel technique has great potential to produce, cost-efficiently, all-ceramic dental restorations at high accuracy and with a minimum of materials consumption.
Ebert
J
J
Department of Ceramics and Refractory Materials, RWTH Aachen University, Mauerstrasse 5, 52064 Aachen, Germany.
Ozkol
E
E
Zeichner
A
A
Uibel
K
K
Weiss
O
O
Koops
U
U
Telle
R
R
Fischer
H
H
D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D003442:Crowns; D003776:Dental Porcelain; D017266:Dental Prosthesis; D017267:Dental Prosthesis Design; D006801:Humans; D011327:Printing / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015040:Zirconium
D003776:Dental Porcelain; D015040:Zirconium; C028541:zirconium oxide