Stratasys, Minneapolis, recently previewed a new soluble support material for its dental 3D printers. While the material, SUP 706, has been available since late 2015, it is only now compatible with dental 3D printers. It will be available in the coming months for the company’s Dental Selection line of 3D printers, and will be compatible with all dental materials that can be used on these machines.
The company first introduced SUP 706 in November 2015 as a new soluble support material for PolyJet triple-jetting 3D printers. Now with Biomed approval, SUP 706 enables dental labs or clinics to reduce support-removal time by 25% to 80%, according to the company, improving design freedom and productivity, while reducing the manpower required to clean 3D printed models.
For hands-free removal, SUP 706 can be dissolved in an alkaline water-based solution, as an additional alternative to manual removal via hand or water-jet. This makes the material ideal for complex dental parts with complex geometries, small crevices, or delicate features that could be potentially damaged with the other methods. It can also accelerate the support removal from a batch of small model parts. Soluble support removal is done at a cleaning station, which cleans parts effectively with minimal resources. The support removal process works well to clean difficult-to-reach places, and it can handle large quantities of parts in a single batch.
SUP 706 automates post-processing of 3D printed dental models with a two-step, soak-and-rinse process, which, according to the company, gives users the ability to maximize productivity while achieving a low cost-per-part.
SUP 706 will require a software update to be compatible with the PolyJet Objet260 or 500 Dental Selection systems.
