Carbon has launched a flexible 3D printing resin for removable partial denture applications at this week's Lab Day Chicago event.
FRPD harnesses Carbon's proprietary dual-cure chemistry and promises to enhance the performance and reliability of dental appliances. It is the first Carbon dental resin to do so, with the technology previously utilised in sports equipment, footwear and cycling applications.
According to Carbon, FP3D was engineered to push the boundaries of durability, flexibility, and strength and designed to achieve properties similar to some traditionally produced, polymer-based flexible partial denture materials. It is expected to be available in late 2025, pending for FDA 510(k) clearance. The material is currently under review by the FDA.
FP3D is Carbon's answer to the limitations of single-cure resins, which have been known to fall short when it comes to demanding dental applications due to a lack of durability and retention. Carbon has thus embedded secondary het-activated chemistry within its FP3D resin, enabling the material to build strength and durability in a bake step without sacrificing viscosity and accuracy in the printing step.
The company says it results in 'robust engineering-grade parts through isotropic mechanical responses with high durability'.
Alongside the introduction of a new dental resin, Carbon has also released new software tools to help further automate and streamline dental lab workflows.
These include a 'no-code, user-friendly' automatic print preparation capability, which boasts features across nesting and queuing, and an AO Polishing Cassette Expansion that allows users to polish parts directly during printing thanks to advanced light-scattering technology. Enabling smoother and clearer parts right off the printer, this feature is now compatible with the M3 and M3 Max printers and has been validated on materials such as Dentsply's Lucitone Digital Print and Desktop Health's Flexcera Base.
