Dental Crowns by FDM Assisted Vapour Smoothing and Silicon Moulding

This study highlights the comparison of dental crowns prepared by fused deposition modelling (FDM) assisted chemical vapour smoothing (CVS) and silicon moulding (SM) process from roughness (Ra), accuracy (∆d) and hardness (SH) viewpoint. The functional prototypes as dental crowns have been prepared independently in two stages. In the first stage, effect of CVS, part density and orientation in FDM (with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) thermoplastic) as digital manufacturing tool on output parameters (Ra, ∆d and SH of dental crowns as functional prototype from assembly view point) have been investigated. In second stage, SM process has been used for making replicas of dental crowns (prepared in first stage). The process parameters selected for SM are: de-moulding time, hardener proportion in weight percentage and curing temperature. Further, ANOVA has been employed for both stages from multifactor optimization point of view. Further, optimized process parameters of stage one and stage two were counter verified and compared for third stage of investment casting (IC).