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US 8,262,388 B2Granted
Local enforcement of accuracy in fabricated models
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsPatrick Colm Dunne, Eric B. Paley, Micah J. Rosenbloom, Michael Patrick Girard
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Abstract
The systems and methods disclosed herein employ a combination of digital three-dimensional modeling and rapid fabrication technologies to provide pre-indexed, pre-registered, and/or precut components for articulated dental models. Dental articulators and components of dental models as described herein use a positioning key to encode positional information for components of the dental model, and/or a reference grid on mounting surfaces to enforce local accuracy of fabricated parts against a fixed reference array.
Claims13
A device comprising;
- a dental articulator fabricated using a high accuracy injection molding process, the dental articulator including a surface with a fixed reference array;
- and
- a multi-part dental model including a number of components fabricated with a rapid fabrication facility from a digital model that includes a corresponding fixed reference array to the fixed reference array of the dental articulator, wherein the corresponding fixed reference array spans two or more of the number of components and wherein the rapid fabrication facility has a substantially lower accuracy than the high accuracy injection molding process, each one of the number of components including a positioning key structurally separate from the corresponding fixed reference array that mechanically encodes positional information for the component in the dental articulator and provides gross tactile feedback on a proper positioning and alignment in the dental articulator, wherein the corresponding fixed reference array includes a reference grid formed of a repeating geometry that enforces local accuracy of each one of the number of components against the fixed reference array in the dental articulator without uniquely positioning the dental model in the dental articulator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.