Great Lakes Dental Technologies president and CEO, James R. Kunkemoeller, says PostProcess RADOR Surface Finishing solution has not only improved the company’s efficiencies, but has allowed the team to produce a superior product while maintaining its valued workforce.

PostProcess Technologies Inc, a provider of automated and intelligent post-printing solutions for industrial 3D printing, has partnered with Great Lakes Dental Technologies, one of North America’s largest orthodontic laboratories, to unlock previously unachievable powder removal and surface finishing results for custom-printed dental products.

“The PostProcess RADOR Surface Finishing solution has not only improved our efficiencies but has allowed us to produce a superior product while maintaining our valued workforce, says James R. Kunkemoeller, president and chief executive officer of Great Lakes Dental Technologies. “Great Lakes’ forward-thinking mentality has always driven us to look for ways to improve business sustainability, competitiveness, and workforce retention.”

great-lakes-dental-application
Great Lakes Dental Application

As an early adopter of additive manufacturing and reseller for Stratasys and 3D Systems dental solutions, Great Lakes has implemented PolyJet, DLP, and SLS 3D print technologies in their own facilities. As most custom dental solutions are specifically fitted to an individual’s mouth, traditional mass production manufacturing techniques are virtually irrelevant in the product development process, according to the company. Without an automated post-printing solution, Great Lakes Dental reportedly struggled to surface finish and remove excess powder with the accuracy necessary to achieve the desired comfort and function.

Streamlining Great Lakes Dental’s workflow, the PostProcess RADOR Surface Finishing solution automates both their powder removal and surface finishing SLS post-print needs. The patent pending RADOR utilizes software intelligence, hardware, and advanced vibratory technology to dually remove powder from and burnish printed parts via suspended rotational force (SRF) technology.

“As a fellow early technology adopter hailing from Western New York, our business relationship with Great Lakes Dental has been a natural fit,” comments Nate Harris, vice president of sales, North America, PostProcess Technologies. “While dental in additive manufacturing scales into a projected $9 billion industry over the next decade, we look forward to helping more companies enable scalable post-printing for their business with our full-stack solutions.”