Porcelain furnaces
Porcelain furnaces
Modern, 21st century porcelain furnaces are technically sophisticated, electronically-controlled devices with programmable cycles for firing dental porcelains. These include metal-ceramics for firing onto metal frameworks (classic precious or non-precious alloys, titanium) or all-ceramics such as zirconia or lithium disilicate. All-ceramic inlays or laminate veneers can be fired directly onto refractory model dies.
The principle unit of a porcelain furnace is its refractory firing chamber. Once the porcelain has been built up, the restorations can be placed onto mesh, cones, pins or firing pads for firing.
The heating coils are usually located in the upper housing of the furnace and arranged concentrically around the restoration. A motor-driven mechanism closes the firing chamber with the restoration inside, either by raising the firing platform or lowering the upper housing of the furnace. The firing cycle settings depend on the material being fired/procedures and run according to pre-set, standardised or custom programmes.
Many settings can be programmed precisely and independently of each other, for example times can be set to the split second (preheating/drying, heat-rate, hold-time, cooling) and firing temperatures for various materials such as opaquer, shoulder and dentine porcelains as well as glaze firings programmed accurately.
As the only way of preventing undesirable opacity in the porcelain is to evacuate the firing chamber during firing (vacuum phase), a built-in powerful vacuum pump is an essential part of a porcelain furnace.
Porcelain furnace
Combined firing/pressing furnaces are used for fabricating pressed-ceramic restorations (pressing procedure resembling casting which makes use of pressure and heat to liquefy ceramic blocks and force them into lost, refractory investment moulds) using special firing chambers and pressure plungers.
Whereas glass infiltration firing of presintered ceramic is possible in a porcelain furnace ("infiltration firing"), special high temperature sintering furnaces are required for the actual sintering process (such as for zirconia).
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Focus text of the month
Zircon Zircon
Compaction of highly pure zirconium dioxide powder and binding agents without heat treatment produces a press blank, known as a green compact or green body. Shrinkage of 25% at a later stage must be taken into account. A presintering process is then completed at approx. 1000°C, during which the binding agents are eliminated, shrinkage of approx. 5% occurs. This produces a partially sintered blank. In this partially sintered state the zirconium dioxide can be processed using many conventional dental CAD-CAM milling systems. Subsequent shrinkage of 20% at the (post) sinter firing stage must be factored into the calculation by respective enlarged manufacturing. |
All-zirconia bridgework and crowns
Zirconium dioxide free-end bridge
Lingual view of single-winged bridge