February 22, 2012 - The Sireix laboratory, located in South-West France, has been working in partnership with dental surgeons since 1970 to bring them the latest developments in the field of prosthetic treatments.

In 2007 Sireix added the SIRISCAN center to its laboratory that was then using only traditional methods. Its objectives were to stay on top of the latest technology, improve its production techniques and the quality of its products.

The SIRISCAN center is a set of systems using digital technology to design products using a 3D interface: a LAVA® machining center from 3M®, several dental CAD/scanner solutions and a rapid resin prototyping process.

Satisfied with its choice of digital equipment used in the production process, Sireix wanted to further develop its production center. Christophe Sireix explains: "Our clients encourage us to be inventive and to develop our production center. Now, with this new equipment in place, we need to develop new production strategies to complete the digital process."

Thanks to its expertise in machining and a growing demand from its customers for metal prostheses, Sireix decided to turn its attention to metal machining and to establish new partnerships.

Sireix's two-fold expertise (as a laboratory and machining center) allows the company to quickly assimilate its customer requirements and naturally leads to effective, innovative collaboration with its technical partners. Christophe explains: "We were looking for reliable, high quality technical partners rather than just simple suppliers and Sescoi was responsive to our needs. We were immediately interested in the company."

The choice of the right CAM solution is essential for machining. Sescoi and its WorkNC Dental CAM software were perfect for Sireix’s requirements: a highly experienced and responsive technical support team combined with user friendly, state-of-the-art software.

WorkNC Dental is a completely open application allowing users to import STL or native geometry formats originating from various scanners or dental CAD systems... The software includes standard, optimized machining routines to ensure the economic machining of the various materials used in dental work. WorkNC Dental features a full range of entirely automated, interactive processes. As the solution is fully customizable, Sireix gains the flexibility to develop its own dental reconstruction techniques.

WorkNC Dental can control any type of machine tool currently available on the dental market, one such machine is the DATRON®D5 5-axis machine selected by Sireix. " The Datron D5 machine complies with dental laboratory specifications in respect to both its size (dimensions/performance) and price" explained Christophe Sireix. The quality of restorations milled with this new machining center was an overriding factor in its selection. From Sireix’s own experience with LAVA® machines, combined with the high expectations of its customers, the machining solution had to be of peak standard. The Datron easy to use 5-axis High Speed Machining (HSM) machine features an automated part handling system and an innovative tool changer, occupying a small footprint. Highly efficient, yet cost effective due to its high productivity, the Datron D5 machine takes advantage of WorkNC Dental’s powerful 5-axis toolpaths to machine chrome cobalt and titanium.

After one month's use, the internal production requirements of the laboratory had been completely absorbed and Sireix experienced a 100% increase in job orders. As demand for abutment machining had been steadily growing, Sireix decided to implement the WorkNC Dental implant module. This new module significantly increased Sireix’s capacity for machining customized abutments due to its fully automated process based on an integrated CAM implant connection database (dimensions, real tolerances, etc).

Christophe Sireix concludes: "As WorkNC Dental is so easy to use it encourages us to dig deeper and further develop the applications. From natural teeth to implants, which we had thought only to be within the realm of large industrial machining shops, through to bars, abutments, implant screw-on bridges, attachments, models, etc….because of the wealth of possibilities open to us, we decided to invest in a new machine, a Willemin Macodel®408b, six months after purchasing the Datron® D5. This new machine will be up and running once installation is completed thanks to Sescoi's expert assistance and the work already carried out with the machine tool manufacturer.
It's reassuring that the whole team is attentive to our demands, we know that the return on our investments will be fast and that any problems we encounter will be immediately dealt with. This is very important because we are “informed users” rather than CAM specialists and we’ll need help programming machining routines.
I'd like to say a big thank you to the WorkNC Dental team. It's great to go to work every day wanting to produce new parts and to know that we are constantly making progress and pushing back the boundaries ever further. It's a stimulating challenge. As we say in our company, machining is fun."



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