Author(s)

Risheng Zhang, Jialin Yang^*, Zhiqun Wu, Xiaohui Tang, Wei Yu, Shaoxing Ma, Fang Ji

Institute of Machinery Manufacturing Technology, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, China.

Since former president Obama of America put forward the concept of 3D printing or additive manufacturing, it had been putting into use rapidly and getting acceptance widely. In particular, metal additive manufacturing machines had been successfully applied with pilot demonstration in industry. However, the present metal additive manufacturing machines cannot be directly used in medical fields such as dental restoration because of some different requirements between industry and medical fields. In this case, this paper is aimed for the development of laser fusion printing machine (LFP), also being called as selective laser melting (SLM), for ceramic teeth crown in dental restoration business. Through the reasonable design and development of key components such as machinery unit, optical unit, electrical controlling unit, and software unit, and the integration, debugging, and optimization of the entire system, the laser fusion printing apparatus for dental restoration has been successfully developed. Key technologies such as machine structure design, optical unit design, electrical controlling system design, system software and process software have been overcome, on the basis of which, a lot of process experiments of medical titanium alloy materials were deeply carried out. At last laser fusion printing technology of titanium alloy was mastered, and titanium dental crown by laser fusion printing with relative density up to 97.37% was realized. After post treatment with porcelain, it was found that the laser fusion printed porcelain teeth with titanium alloy has good metal-ceramic bonding strength, which is equivalent to the quality of traditional porcelain teeth, which showed that laser fusion printing can meet the requirements of dental restoration business and has a broad market outlook.

Laser Fusion Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Dental Restoration, Selective Laser Melting

Zhang, R.S., Yang, J.L., Wu, Z.Q., Tang, X.H., Yu, W., Ma, S.X. and Ji, F. (2018) Development of Laser Fusion Printing Machine for Ceramic Teeth Crown. Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 6, 465-481. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2018.64033.