December 17, 2009 - Based in Barcelona, Catadent is a dental laboratory located at the heart of the booming Spanish market for dental prostheses. Catadent had been searching for the best system to rapidly manufacture high quality dental prostheses at a competitive cost to counter the growing low cost competition from overseas.

Pedro Ruiz, Dental Technician at Catadent said, “We needed a reliable and easy to use CAM system which would be flexible enough for us to manufacture each unique prosthesis from a solid block in a predictable way.” The company evaluated several systems and selected WorkNC Dental from Sescoi based on its in-built technology.

Pedro Ruiz continued, “Other systems we looked at relied heavily on the programmer’s skill, and had significant weaknesses in detecting cutter collisions. WorkNC Dental has intelligent machining strategies, powerful toolpath editing capabilities, and excellent simulation and collision avoidance technology, which is especially important for 5-axis machining. Some of the most expensive systems on the market have this type of capability, but their price is far too high for small and medium sized prosthesis manufacturers. WorkNC Dental gives us the functionality we need affordably, making it a very cost effective solution for us.”

Sescoi has drawn on its 20 years of experience in the CAM market in the development of WorkNC Dental. The software includes automated machining wizards, which greatly simplify the programming task required to generate collision free 3 and 5-axis toolpaths. Additionally, cutting methodology has been optimized to suit the types of materials used in prostheses such as zirconia, titanium and alumina, and the types of prosthesis required for example, copings and bridges.

Pedro Ruiz said, “The machining toolpaths are highly optimized and the machine runs very smoothly, which means less wear and tear, lower tool loads, and peace of mind for the operator.”

For Catadent, the smooth running of its manufacturing operations is crucial to its success, so ease of use and reliability are very important. Pedro Ruiz commented, “Once we had set-up WorkNC Dental for our way of operating there was no need for ongoing CAM management, as the system was then virtually automatic. This greatly increases productivity as programming times are very short and our staff are then free to carry out other tasks. Anyone who has experienced a poorly optimized CAM system will appreciate the importance of WorkNC Dental’s reliability.” Pedro Ruiz has been delighted by the pre and post sales service supplied by Sescoi from its Spanish offices. He said, “They quickly understood our requirements, offering us a solution that matched our needs exactly. Now that we have the software, we find the service and response first class. Sescoi’s technicians are always very helpful and knowledgeable. For us, this level of support and collaboration is an essential part of the service.”

The intelligence in the software has the capacity to surprise Catadent with its automatic problem solving capabilities. Pedro Ruiz said, “The biggest benefits of WorkNC Dental are precisely the things we take for granted, such as its highly optimized toolpaths and collision avoidance. When we are machining more complex shapes the ability of the software to produce a really ingenious cutterpath is extraordinary.” He concluded, “WorkNC Dental has become an essential resource for our company, every manufacturing project goes through it now.”

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