Ceramic Dental Prosthesis Color Matching via Sintering Cycle Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for creating dental prostheses from ceramic materials are complex, costly, and time-consuming, especially when the desired tooth color falls between standard shades, requiring additional staining and glazing steps that complicate the sintering process.
Innovation Solution
A method using a sintering furnace and control unit to adjust the sintering cycle time at a defined temperature to precisely match the ceramic material's color to the patient's natural teeth, decoupling mechanical and visual properties, allowing for greater color variation without altering mechanical properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If additional staining and glazing steps are applied to match tooth color, then color matching precision is improved, but process complexity and manufacturing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the sintering process parameters (temperature, time, atmosphere) to directly control the color of the ceramic material during sintering. By adjusting these parameters, the ceramic achieves the desired tooth color without requiring subsequent staining or glazing steps, thereby resolving the contradiction between color matching precision and process complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the color matching function from the post-sintering processes (staining, glazing) and integrates it into the sintering process itself. This eliminates the need for separate color-imparting steps, reducing process complexity while maintaining color matching precision
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple sintering steps with staining and glazing are used, then color matching is improved, but production time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the color matching function with the sintering process by controlling sintering parameters (temperature, time, atmosphere). This combines what were previously separate operations (sintering and color treatment) into a single integrated process, reducing production time while maintaining color matching quality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs color adjustment during the sintering process itself rather than as a subsequent step. By preliminarily establishing the desired color characteristics during sintering through parameter control, the need for time-consuming post-processing steps is eliminated
3Ease of manufacture
If standard ceramic blocks are used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but color matching flexibility is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses parameter changes during sintering (temperature, time, atmosphere) to achieve a wide range of color variations from standard ceramic blocks. This maintains manufacturing simplicity while greatly expanding color matching flexibility, as the same base material can produce different colors through process parameter adjustment
4Manufacturing precision
If cycle time at sintering temperature is extended for color adjustment, then color matching precision is improved, but production efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent achieves color matching precision through optimized combinations of sintering parameters (temperature, time, atmosphere). By carefully selecting and balancing these parameters, the process achieves desired color accuracy without requiring excessively long cycle times, thus maintaining production efficiency
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 simplifies, cost-reduces, and accelerates the process of creating ceramic dental prostheses with colors precisely matched to natural teeth, enabling broader variation in lightness, translucency, and color shift without compromising mechanical properties, thus providing a visually identical appearance without additional color-imparting steps or materials.
Implementation Method 1
a sintering furnace for sintering the ceramic material and a control unit for controlling the sintering furnace are used for carrying out the following steps: receiving a desired nominal colour for the dental prosthesis by the control unit; determining a deviation between the nominal colour and actual colour of the sintered ceramic material by the control unit; defining a temperature-time cycle, suitable for compensation of the deviation, for sintering at a defined sintering temperature
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method and to a corresponding system for providing a dental prosthesis made from ceramic material having a colour matched to the patient comprising the following steps: (i) receiving a desired nominal colour for the dental prosthesis, determining a deviation between the nominal colour and actual colour of the sintered ceramic material by the control unit and defining a temperature time cycle having a cycle time suitable for compensation of the deviation, for sintering at a defined sintering temperature and creating a corresponding sintering program by the control unit; and (ii) adjusting the actual colour of the selected ceramic material to the nominal colour in the sintering furnace by the sintering program executed by the sintering furnace.