Dental Mold Build Platforms for Reliable Aligner Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aligner manufacturing systems face challenges in reliably tracking and marking orthodontic aligners, particularly when producing multiple aligners for multiple patients in an automated process, leading to issues with ensuring proper packaging and distribution to the correct patients.
Innovation Solution
An aligner fabrication system that combines design data with individual build platforms, each with a unique identification entity, allowing for end-to-end tracking and identification of dental molds and aligners, eliminating the need for placing identifying information on fragile mold materials by linking data to the build platform and transferring it to the aligner during the manufacturing process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If identifying information is attached directly to dental molds, then tracking and identification can be performed, but the identifying information is vulnerable to damage due to the fragile nature of mold materials
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces build platforms as intermediary carriers that hold the dental molds during fabrication. The identification entities are attached to these robust build platforms rather than directly to the fragile molds. This intermediary structure protects the identifying information from damage while maintaining reliable tracking capability throughout the manufacturing process.
2Productivity
If multiple aligners are produced in an automated process for multiple patients, then productivity increases, but tracking and ensuring proper distribution to correct patients becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the manufacturing system into separate build platforms, each dedicated to producing a specific patient's aligners. Each build platform has its own unique identification entity and is associated with specific patient data. This segmentation allows automated high-volume production while maintaining clear tracking of which aligners belong to which patient, preventing mix-ups despite the complexity of producing multiple patients' aligners simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where identification entities on build platforms are read and verified at various stages of the automated manufacturing process. This ensures that the correct patient-specific molds are being processed on the correct build platforms, maintaining accurate tracking throughout the production workflow and enabling verification before final packaging and distribution.
3Reliability
If identification information is placed on molds, then tracking is possible, but the fragile mold materials make the identifying information susceptible to damage and loss
Solution Approach 1:
The build platforms serve as durable intermediary carriers that replace the fragile molds as the substrate for identification entities. These platforms are specifically designed to be robust and reusable, providing a strong foundation for attaching identification markers that will not be damaged during the manufacturing process, thereby ensuring both reliable identification and durability.
Data Source
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AI summary
An aligner fabrication system (30) combines design data and material to form a plurality of dental molds (16) with which a plurality of aligners (60) is formed. The aligner fabrication system (30) includes a build assembly (10) that defines a build surface (14) on which the dental molds (16) are formed. The build assembly (10) is constructed of a plurality of individual build platforms (12) that are removably coupled together. Each individual build platform (12) is associated with an identification entity (20). The dental molds (16) are formed on the build surface (14). One dental mold (16) is formed on one individual build platform (12). The design data associated with the one dental mold (16) is linkable to the identification entity (20) on the one individual build platform (12).