The UK Based Dental Startup Trusts EnvisionTEC to Provide the Best Dental Models
3D Printed Dental Models, founded by brothers Louis and Liam Monte in June 2018 based in Sunderland, UK. The brothers identified a gap in the market and tailored their business model to capitalize on the growing requirement within dental for ‘additive manufacturing’, using 3D printers to create layered 3D models.
3D Printed Dental Models saw that although a lot of dentists, labs, and orthodontists were being pushed to switch to digital techniques, many did not have facilities in house, and there were few external businesses able to support them.
Why 3D Printing?
Additive manufacturing has reached a significant number of sectors and industries, subsequently offering important advantages in terms of productivity, costs, customization, and lead times. In the field of dentistry, technology creates solutions adapted to the needs of each patient.
3D Printed Dental Models saw that by investing in the correct 3D printers and technology it could fill the niche, and act as a third party in the production of these dental models and appliances.
Why EnvisionTEC?
Before landing-up on any 3D printer brand, the team had to ensure that their investment would build models with the highest accuracy, outperforming those produced via traditional methods and the desktop printers being commonly used within the industry.
To this aim, and being new to the 3D printing industry at the time, the brothers ensured that they had investigated all of their options before settling on the 3D printer and technology that fitted their needs.
They first encountered EnvisionTEC at FormNext 2017 where they were impressed with the print quality. There were also several other SLA and DLP 3D printers considered, including but the choice ultimately came down to Carbon and EnvisionTEC branded 3D printing machines.
“There were a number of areas in which we felt EnvisionTEC was superior to the competition, but the one most important to us was the quality and detail of the final product. We were also very impressed with the speed of the technology and the size of the build platform on the larger machines.” – Louis Monte, Director, 3D Printed Dental Models
After consideration, the brothers settled on an EnvisionTEC Vector 3SP with E-Model Peach material. The Vector uses patented technology to ensure superior surface quality and accuracy across a large build area. The price of the machine was very competitive compared to larger models from rivals and allowed for the high-speed production of a large number of models simultaneously.
“We opted for EnvisionTEC’s Vector 3SP because of the quality of prints, its price, and its size, which provides the ability to print a large number of dental models per print at high speed.” – Louis Monte, Director, 3D Printed Dental Models
The business got off to a swift start, with the team experiencing huge demand for its services. So much so that it had to both move to bigger premises and invest in a second Vector printer. The Vector 3SP printers are in constant use but have stayed reliable. The brothers and their team can rely on the printers to run jobs successfully time after time, even leaving them to run prints overnight, knowing that when they return they will be completed ready for customers.
The Future
Having worked closely with dentists and orthodontists across the UK, the brothers now have an even better understanding of the industry and gaps in the market. The aim is to fill these gaps and widen their manufacturing to include even more products. The investment in EnvisionTEC and its huge range of dental 3D printers and dental 3D printing materials ensures that they can, in the future easily move between applications and meet the needs of their customers.