Motion inside medical applications

Initial innovation in dental equipment, from a motor’s perspective, was focused on aiding manual work, and in 1868 the first pneumatic drill was developed. The first electric dental drill was patented in the U.S. just 7 years later; however, pneumatics would continue to dominate in dental handpieces for decades. The widespread adoption of pneumatics is understandable as harnessing the power of compressed air proved to be more reliable (and cost-effective) than electromechanical options at the time.

As electric motor technologies expanded, so did oral medicine. During their development, electric motors became more power dense, increasing torque and speed capability while continuing to decrease in size. As motors became more widely adopted in almost every application, the average price of motors went down. Soon, designers realized leveraging electric motors has a price-to-performance advantage compared to the de facto pneumatic standard. Electric motors are also quieter and eliminate the maintenance burden of ultra-clean compressed air systems. As a result, more powerful, reliable, and controllable motors began to replace their pneumatic predecessors. In the 1990s, Delta Line began providing solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) globally, guiding customers along the journey from DC motors to brushless motors and finally to stepper motors. The scalability of these new motors allowed oral healthcare equipment companies to expand into preventive and restorative care.

Expanding oral care

As society shifted from emergency oral care to preventative (and cosmetic) care, standardized, cost-effective treatment methods and equipment emerged. Intraoral and extraoral imaging became an important tool as technology became affordable. Part of equipment affordability is a motion platform that’s precise, reliable, and not overdesigned. The use of standard products for plug-and-play-ready systems doesn’t require prohibitively large minimum order quantities or long wait times.

Lab services move chairside

Innovation in oral care continues at blinding speed in several areas. Materials for treating teeth, roots, gums, and jaws improved by leaps and bounds during the past few decades. However, since they require custom machining, patients had to wait weeks for a central machining center to process their restorations. Inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns, bridges, abutments, and surgical guides were started at the first visit and required a second visit (or more) to complete.

Today, with equipment innovations, these items can be completed in the dentist’s office using an onsite milling machine. Configurable and customizable motors provide motion for many of the CAD/CAM milling machines in the market. For these systems, Delta Line supplies three motors with custom encoders and mechanical interfaces inside each machine. Two motors are dedicated to the dental burs (tools) and one is responsible for turning the restoration being machined.

Since these services are moving from a centralized lab to individual oral care offices, understanding the challenges that chairside care commands are crucial to the design. The main requirements of these applications are:

• Machine cost-effectiveness
• Minimal machine size and footprint
• Reliable machining precision

Future innovations

One of the most recent wave of innovation revolves around process connectivity. Equipment manufacturers are creating software that passes information between different pieces of equipment to make the patient’s time in the chair shorter and less frequent. Delta Line designs customized motors that bring to life 3D printers, intraoral and extraoral X-ray imaging equipment, instrumentation, endodontic equipment, regenerative solutions, and more.

Oral medicine has a long innovation runway; however, the demands of speed and end-cost remain. Learning from experience in industries such as robotics, healthcare, and consumer applications, product flexibility isn’t a preference, it’s a requirement. Addressing this is an expansive catalog of customizable products which includes stepper motors, DC brush motors, DC brushless motors, linear actuators, integrated motors, gearboxes, and more. Additionally, motor design engineers support an expanding range of motor design modifications, from small feature changes on catalog motors to new motors designed to custom specifications. Being an extension to a medical device manufacturer’s design team by providing technical and supply chain solutions helps them achieve goals to further integrate motion inside their applications. 

Delta Line
https://www.delta-line.com