Roland DG Announces Development of the Company's First Wet Milling Machine for Producing Custom Dental Prosthetics

Roland DG Corporation, a leading worldwide provider of dental milling technologies, today announced the development of a new wet milling dental machine, the DWX-4W, to be exhibited at key dental conferences worldwide beginning in February 2015.

The recent introduction of CAD/CAM software, CNC milling machines and new restorative materials has revolutionised the production of dental prostheses, including crowns, copings and bridges. One of the most popular restorative materials is lithium disilicate, glass ceramic which is gaining support from dental clinics and patients for its superior hardness and aesthetic qualities. Roland developed the DWX-4W milling machine especially to meet the demands of this growing market.

"By providing a device capable of wet milling a wide variety of materials with reliable precision," said Takuro Hosome, manager of medical business sales at Roland DG, "we plan to complement our existing portfolio of conventional dry milling machines which already receive great support from dental labs worldwide."

Roland DG has identified a market need that it intends to fill. "In the current market," Hosome said, "we are familiar with products that combine the functionality of dry milling and wet milling into a single machine. While these machines can process a variety of dental CAD/CAM materials, they require a changeover, however, when switching between wet and dry machining, which entails the disposal of milling residue, then cleaning the inside of the machine and drying out the processing area. Furthermore, the combination of two separate functions in one machine means both functions are compromised to some degree."

"Roland DG's multiple device solution," Hosome continued, "combines dry milling and wet milling with the advantage of being able to handle the simultaneous processing of different materials by both dry and wet milling without the inconvenience and delay of a changeover. Each machine specialises in its intended function, which delivers optimal functionality, and compared to a dual function machine, is more efficient. Furthermore," Hosome added, "having separate machines opens up the ability to add an additional unit to meet production demands. For example, if the ratio of work involving zirconia and glass-ceramic is 3:1, an optimal setup could be a combination of a single unit of the flagship DWX-50 5-axis dry milling machine and a DWX-4W, or three 4-axis DWX-4 dry milling machines and a DWX-4W. After that, it is a simple matter to change the setup according to any shift in the workload."