Delcam Acquires Knowledge-Based Dental Machining System
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Delcam has broadened its range of specialist machining software with the acquisition of the rights to the DentMill program specifically developed to meet the machining needs of the dental industry. DentMill was developed by one of Delcam's Sales Partners and is already in use by a number of large dental companies around the world. DentMill is now available from Delcam's international network of subsidiaries and resellers.
Dentmill is a stand-alone program based on Delcam's PowerMILL CAM system, which provides a knowledge-based machining process for caps, bridges and implant bridges in ceramics and titanium. The software can accept geometry from dental design software or from dental 3D scanners in most point cloud and triangulated data formats.
The Dentmill process begins by splitting the model into the areas to be machined from above and from below the parting line. The user then specifies the positions for the pins to hold the part during machining. Software shading provides a warning if the pin positions will lead to any machining of undercuts. The positions can then be adjusted to eliminate the problem.
Once the correct orientation has been set, toolpaths can be generated automatically for the appropriate type of part and material. As with all PowerMILL programs, the results are fully checked to prevent gouges or collisions, and will run on virtually all CNC milling machines on the market, including specialist equipment for the dental industry.
"The use of CNC machining is growing rapidly in the dental industry," commented Delcam's Managing Director Hugh Humphreys. "Dentmill has already been proven to give excellent results in some large dental companies in Scandinavia and we are sure that the program will enjoy equal success with the dental industry in other regions."
