Development of zirconia feedstock materials for 3d printing of dental applications
ANDREOULI C. 1, GARMPI E. 1, DIMITRIADIS K. 1, BACIU D. 1, KITSOU I. 2, ANGELOPOULOU P. 2, ROUSSI E. 2, GKOMOZA P. 2, KOLTSAKIDIS S. 3, TZETZIS D. 3, GALIATSATOS A. 4, TSETSEKOU A. 2
1 MIRTEC S.A., Schimatari, Greece; 2 School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece; 3 Digital Manufacturing and Materials Characterization Laboratory, School of Science and Technology, International Hellenic University, Thermi, Greece; 4 Lino3D, Athens, Greece
Dental restorations are often used to solve function and aesthetic problems of native teeth. Zirconia all-ceramic teeth are expected to be used worldwide in dentistry because of their good biocompatibility, inertness, mechanical properties and aesthetic characteristics.
The present study is driven by the market needs for fast production of custom made, high quality and precision dental elements and focuses on the novel approach of additive manufacturing using new zirconia materials.
Water-based zirconia pastes with various amounts of solids were developed using 3mol% yttria stabilized zirconia commercial powder as well as custom-made nano-zirconia powder developed in the lab. The effect of several organic additives on rheological properties of feedstock materials and their printing behavior, using different critical printing parameters, was investigated. A thorough study of the post printing crucial steps of sintering processes was also conducted for their optimization.
The microstructural features, the thermophysical and mechanical properties of the samples after the sintering process were evaluated using several characterization techniques.
The results demonstrate that water-based zirconia pastes can be successfully developed with adequate properties for dental restorations.
This research has been co-financed by European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: Τ2ΕΔΚ-04124, 3DENT).