Dental Appliance Thermoforming with Pre-Cut Substrate
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional methods for forming dental appliances, such as retainers and aligners, are time-consuming and bottleneck-prone during mass production, despite efforts to automate the cutting process using CNC mills and laser cutting devices.
Innovation Solution
A system and method involving a control module to determine a toolpath for pre-cutting a substrate, a cutting module to create a pre-cut thermoforming substrate, and a forming module to apply a secondary substrate for thermoforming, allowing for efficient production of dental appliances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional sequential processing (forming then cutting) is used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but productivity is reduced due to time-consuming post-forming cutting and bottleneck effects during mass production
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting operation is performed preliminarily on the substrate before the thermoforming process. The system cuts the substrate into predetermined shapes or sizes in advance, then applies the pre-cut substrate to the dental model for forming. This preliminary action eliminates the need for time-consuming post-forming cutting operations, significantly improving productivity during mass production while maintaining manageable process complexity through automated sequencing.
2Ease of manufacture
If automated cutting with CNC mills or laser devices is implemented, then ease of manufacture is improved, but productivity remains limited due to sequential processing bottlenecks
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements automated cutting of substrates before thermoforming, allowing multiple pre-cut substrates to be prepared in advance. This preliminary automated cutting eliminates manual post-forming cutting operations and enables batch processing, significantly improving mass production throughput while maintaining ease of manufacture through automated cutting systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables continuous operation by preparing multiple pre-cut substrates in advance and applying them sequentially to dental models during thermoforming. This continuity eliminates idle time between operations and maintains steady-state production, improving mass production throughput while the automated cutting system ensures continuous substrate preparation.
3Device complexity
If post-forming cutting is used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but loss of time occurs due to bottleneck effects during mass production
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs cutting preliminarily on substrates before thermoforming, eliminating the need for time-consuming post-forming cutting operations. By preparing pre-cut substrates in advance, the system removes the production bottleneck associated with post-forming cutting, significantly reducing total production time while maintaining process simplicity through automated sequencing of operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the mass production of pre-cut substrates for thermoforming, reducing production time and overcoming bottlenecks by performing the cutting process before thermoforming, thus streamlining the manufacturing process.
Implementation Method 1
a cutting module, in communication with the control module, the cutting module configured to create the pre-cut thermoforming substrate based on the toolpath
Implementation Method 2
a forming module configured to: apply a secondary thermoforming substrate to the pre-cut thermoforming substrate received from the cutting module; and form a dental appliance from the pre-cut thermoforming substrate and the secondary thermoforming substrate
Data Source
AI summary
The invention is a system and method for forming a dental appliance. A control module may be configured to receive data concerning a dental model and determine a toolpath for creating a pre-cut substrate based on the data. A cutting module may be configured to create the pre-cut substrate based on the toolpath. A forming module may be configured to apply a second substrate to the pre-cut thermoforming substrate received from the cutting module and form a dental appliance from the pre-cut substrate and the secondary substrate. The method may include receiving data concerning a dental model, determining a toolpath for cutting a substrate into a pre-cut thermoforming substrate based on the data, pre-cutting a first substrate based on the toolpath to form a pre-cut substrate, applying a second substrate to the pre-cut substrate, and thermoforming a dental appliance from the pre-cut substrate and the second substrate.