Dental trimmer OXYDENT
The owner of a dental prosthetics workshop wanted to create his own dental trimmer—a device for trimming plaster models of dental prosthetics—as an import substitution. Despite the extremely low anticipated production volumes, he aimed to achieve a quality level comparable to German counterparts.
Project Story
FDM printing was chosen as the manufacturing method. Since more massive walls contribute to sound insulation, and strength and rigidity are crucial, we decided to make the walls hollow with internal supports, then fill the space with epoxy resin.
To achieve a high-quality exterior, the printed parts required post-processing in an acetone bath, followed by epoxy filling and painting.
This method imposes very specific and unusual constraints on the shape formation, which differ significantly from those of molded or milled plastic parts, and this influenced both the design and the construction.
To achieve a high-quality exterior, the printed parts required post-processing in an acetone bath, followed by epoxy filling and painting.
This method imposes very specific and unusual constraints on the shape formation, which differ significantly from those of molded or milled plastic parts, and this influenced both the design and the construction.
Production
The development of the casing was closely integrated with the production technology. We added lighting—a feature that is often missing in similar products but significantly enhances usability.
The casing is simple, concise, and as compact as possible. White was chosen as the primary color, as it is the least prone to showing dirt in this type of work—plaster dust tends to settle as a white powder on everything around. The control elements and standard feet are made in black.
The casing is simple, concise, and as compact as possible. White was chosen as the primary color, as it is the least prone to showing dirt in this type of work—plaster dust tends to settle as a white powder on everything around. The control elements and standard feet are made in black.
Industrial Design
The control board for the device was also developed by us from scratch. It had to meet extremely high reliability requirements, so it was intentionally designed to be simple, without a microcontroller. Instead of mechanical relays, triacs were used, which allowed us to eliminate wear-prone contacts.
The device's lighting—a feature not present in all similar products—was designed with an interesting approach: we deliberately used excessively powerful LEDs to reduce heating.
The device's lighting—a feature not present in all similar products—was designed with an interesting approach: we deliberately used excessively powerful LEDs to reduce heating.
Electronics Development
The most quality-sensitive parts had to be printed on a more expensive SLA printer. However, in this case, 3D printing allowed us to produce components that would typically be divided into several parts by other manufacturing methods as a single, unified piece.
For adjusting the angle of the table where the workpiece is placed, we developed an original mechanism based on a screw-nut transmission.
For adjusting the angle of the table where the workpiece is placed, we developed an original mechanism based on a screw-nut transmission.
Features
What's next?
The result of the project is a prototype that is planned to be used for presentation purposes to secure funding for mass production using injection molding.
