Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This project aims at the deployment and characterization of an additive manufacturing (3D printing) process for the fabrication of customized dental titanium prostheses. Ever increasing needs for inexpensive and rapidly produced customized dental prostheses have prompted the development of novel additive manufacturing (AM) technologies to make a variety of prostheses with unprecedented quality that can selectively be controlled in the prostheses. Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a novel AM process that has been adapted for making complex-shaped titanium components. This technology can effectively be deployed to the fabrication of dental devices; however, the process has to be customized in a holistic way to open the venue for full certification of the AM process and the fabricated dental prostheses. The supporting company has invented novel titanium one-piece implant and abutment devices to ease the dental implant surgical operation and reduce the healing time. The proposed NSERC-CRD project will advance and customize the Waterloo AM technology for these prosthetic dental devices through the following seven key objectives: (i) Development of a through-process modeling framework for the AM process optimization, (ii) Design/Topology optimization for the targeted prosthetic structures, (iii) Development of engineered titanium powders and solid/liquid binders for the target application, (iv) AM process mapping and characterization for achieving optimum properties and production rate, (v) Development and optimization of post-processing sintering protocols, (vi) Thorough mechanical characterization of the fabricated prostheses, and (vii) Manufacturing of the customized prostheses for clinical tests performed by the supporting company. The proposed research will be the first-of-kind in Canada and would result in a Canadian AM technology for the fabrication of dental prostheses. The benefits of this project are pervasive and can be used in the dental and advanced manufacturing sectors.