Nexa3D and BEGO have introduced a new dental 3D printer.
Dental 3D printing is picking up in terms of speed, scale, accuracy, productivity — and, importantly, competition.
Particularly around dental industry events, we more and more often see new 3D printers make their debuts. Carbon timed the release of a significant number of dental introductions at last month’s LMT, for example.
At this week’s International Dental Show (IDS) 2019 in Cologne, Nexa3D and BEGO chose to introduce a new speedy solution for dental labs.
The Varseo XL is a collaborative introduction, built with Nexa3D’s technology and marketed under the BEGO brand.
The Varseo XL is the latest addition to BEGO’s Varseo portfolio, which currently includes the S and XS platforms. They describe the Varseo platform as “a system developed with and for dental laboratories,” which hopefully means the features are oriented around what working dental labs actually use and want.
For its part, Nexa3D is a strong proponent of such collaborative enterprises, working as it does under the XponentialWorks umbrella. Close relationships are key to the company’s strategy, and through this BEGO relationship the new 3D printer gains direct access to the established dental 3D printing workflow.
The printer announcement is full of comparative numbers, though the direct comparisons are not named. In relation to “all comparable 3D printers on the market,” the claims are fairly notable: up to 6x the speed, 10x the volume, and 5x the print area, for a machine that can increase “dental lab productivity thirty-fold.”
That Nexa3D makes high-speed SLA 3D printers is not in question; the machines do produce quickly. I’ve watched them in action and held the impressively accurate results. So this new machine that talks a big game sounds promising.
The company’s proprietary Lubricant Sublayer Photo-curing (LSPc) combined with the relatively large build area on the Varseo XL combine to offer higher throughput for the busy dental lab. “Tens of parts” can be made in a single build, with cycle times reduced “from hours to minutes.”
The new 3D printer is designed for the creation of models, trays, permanent restorations, bridges, crowns, and surgical guides. It is compatible with BEGO’s full range of dental materials. The software and sensors allow for both predictive and prescriptive diagnostics, as well as continuous monitoring.
Commercialization is planned for the next 12 months. Pricing and full specs have not been announced. For reference, the Varseo XS has a build volume of 64 × 40 × 120 mm, while the Varseo S has dimensions of 110 × about 65 × 85 mm. Skipping over a M and L and moving right to XL, we can assume a notably larger build volume indeed.
Formlabs has struck a deal with a dental resin provider that could stealthily grow their business significantly.