The demand is huge: in Germany alone, around eight million people need dentures every year; this number will continue to grow as life expectancy increases. Globally, the prospects are also "future-proof": increasing prosperity is accompanied by the desire for esthetic teeth in all economically growing regions of the world. As a result, the market for dentures is growing steadily and reliably.
A change is noticeable in the manufacture of dentures. The signs are pointing towards efficiency: what was long manual work in dental laboratories is now being automated. Dental laboratories, but above all dental practices themselves, are increasingly relying on CAD/CAM milling units to produce crowns, bridges and inlays from zirconium oxide blanks. In a digitized process, the dentition is scanned and the data record is transferred directly to a milling program. The dental prosthesis is then milled from the prefabricated blank - quickly, efficiently and with high quality.
The ceramic material zirconium oxide for dental restorations offers durability, aesthetics and biocompatibility. However, it is also very abrasive. For precision tools, this means that they are at risk of wearing out very quickly. Conventional milling cutters quickly reach their limits here, according to the coating specialist Cemecon from Würselen. Only diamond-coated tools guarantee reliable and economical machining. According to Cemecon, they are the only technically convincing application in this field.
A head start thanks to a strong partner
For tool manufacturers who already use diamond coatings for their tools for machining graphite, this opens up a major market opportunity in dental technology. This is because they can transfer their expertise in the manufacture of carbide cutters to dimensions of a few tenths of a millimeter.
The dental technology market can also be served with high-performance coatings. In terms of tool geometries, material stress and dimensioning, the requirements of graphite and zirconium oxide machining are comparable. For Cemecon partners, the step into this market is therefore comparatively small. The transfer of knowledge to the new sector is quick and easy to implement.
Proven in practice: Diamond coatings for the dental market
The example of the Taiwanese tool manufacturer IDI Precision Machinery Ltd. shows how worthwhile the step into the dental market can be. As one of the leading manufacturers of CAD/CAM milling tools for mold making and dental technology, it supplies the Asian market as well as the USA in particular. In the dental sector, the product range of the company from Taichung includes milling tools in diameters from 3 to 0.3 mm, each in adapted versions for the tool holders of the common milling unit suppliers.
In addition to dental prosthesis applications, the company offers milling tools that have been specially developed for machining graphite, zirconium dioxide, titanium, hardened steel and stainless steel. With grinding technology and process controls, the specialists from Taichung are able to realize tool profiles with tolerances of up to ±0.002 mm.
IDI relies entirely on Cemecon for the diamond coating of its tools. The Taiwanese manufacturer uses the service of the world's largest coating center in Würselen for all tools. Up to 80,000 tools are coated there every day using systems developed by the company itself. This enables IDI to achieve the desired coating quality. If the logistics are organized correctly, the transport routes that the tools travel from Taichung to Germany are also worthwhile. This is because the uniformity and homogeneity of the Cemecon coating on the tools ensures maximum milling quality with minimum tolerances, as the coating specialist explains. This is an important argument that IDI uses to convince its customers and their customers in turn - dentists and dental technicians with specialist knowledge and quality requirements. Thanks to tools with Cemecon diamond coatings, they can rely on dimensionally accurate cutting results with reliability and easy handling.
Cemecon even coats tools with a diameter of just 0.2 mm for specific applications - this is where the world market leader for diamond coatings can put its more than two decades of experience in the development of this technology to good use.
Doing big business with micro tools
Cemecon says it is proud to help customers succeed in new business areas. "The dental sector is far more than a niche market - it is a fast-growing technology driver that combines industrial thinking with medical requirements," summarizes Gerhard Hagedorn, Cemecon Product Manager, Diamond. "For tool manufacturers with experience in the mini and micro range for graphite processing, this offers the opportunity to transfer their expertise to another high-margin sales market - without having to reinvent the wheel." Cemecon is also happy to supply "newcomers" with the coating materials for machining the highly abrasive material.