Modern Manufacturing automation such as CAD-CAM affects our every day lives from dentistry to the manufactured consumer products we use all the time. In the last few years computer aided design and manufacturing technology has touched dental offices throughout the world and even 3D Printing, robotics and others. If you have searched “CAD-CAM” lately on any search engine you will see it more and more where “Dental CAD-CAM” is appearing. If you searched “CAD-CAM Software” you will instantly see a different result. Let’s take a look at why this is.
What is Dental CAD-CAM?
This product courtesy of Digital Dental CADCAM shows the complete workstation and CNC machine that is customized to work within the dental office allows dental technicians to create what used to take weeks in minutes when it comes to dentures and crowns. In fact, CAD-CAM for dentistry is primarily used for dental restorations and allows the machine tool to remove material based on the CAD geometry input by the system. The material is generally ceramic or composite resin. This form of CAD-CAM allows the dental industry to perform restorations at a much lower cost and at the fraction of the time it took before automation to manually create them. This is the same subtractive manufacturing process that is used in CNC machining. Yet there is a much smaller percentage of CAD-CAM users in the dental industry than there is in the general part making and metalworking manufacturing sectors.
Do You Search CAD-CAM for CNC Metalworking?
If you were to search for CAD-CAM online you would see many Wiki type results along with some dental results scattered with manufacturing and metalworking CAD-CAM results. If you are a CNC business you may want to also try searching for CAD-CAM Software, CAM Software, CAM system and possible CAD-CAM Programming Software. These searches would give you more design and CNC metalworking software results. While the computer aided technology is very similar, machine shops will be looking for toolpath and CNC automation type results. This can be for 2.5 axis, 3, 4, 5 Axis and Mill Turn CAD-CAM. CNC machining operations can be optimized by using Dynamic Machining Strategies™ as well as High Speed Machining Toolpaths. CNC programming software also requires post processors that can be configured for specific machines controllers such as HAAS, FANUC, FADAL, HURCO, Mazak, Centroid and many others. Generally, CAD-CAM companies will provide post processors with their software and usually have a service in place to create custom posts.
In the end, Computer Aided Technology continues to open the door for faster, cost effective and more intelligent methods of producing manufactured parts for a very wide range of industries. To learn more about the latest development in CAD-CAM software you can download a Free CAD-CAM Trial Today! Click Here
Summary
Article Name
CAD-CAM for Dental or for CNC Manufacturing
Description
Computer aided design & manufacturing technology opens up innovation and automates the machining process. CAD-CAM has much to do with our every day lives from manufactured consumer products and not even dentistry. This article explains how CAD-CAM is shaping dentistry and the general manufacturing and CNC metalworking industries.
Author
Chris Corbell | BobCAD-CAM, Inc.