Dental Ceramics
Refractron Technologies Corp. is a leading OEM manufacturer of technical ceramics. Products include both controlled porosity and densely structured ceramics designed to meet requirements specified by our customers for durability, chemical, corrosion and wear resistance, toughness, and density.
The range of dense structural ceramics Refractron builds for the dental restoration market includes a class of materials based on transformation toughened zirconias (TZZ’s) is now available to the dental industry. Magnesia-partially stabilized zirconia (Mg-PSZ) and yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) both belong to the family of TTZ’s. They lend themselves to dental lab machining and grinding and therefore to CAD/CAM systems designed for dentistry. The excellent properties of TTZ’s are likely to expand the number of products from which ceramics can be made. Refractron produces dental grade compositions including fully sintered Mg-PSZ zirconia, Y-TZP zirconia, HIPed Y-TZP zirconia as well as a grade of “Bisque Fired” Y-TZP material. These materials offer: Excellent Biocompatibility, Ultra High Purity, Near-Zero Porosity, Fine Grained Microstructure, Good Surface Finish and High Fracture Toughness for dental restorations that include caps, crowns, bridges, inlays and onlays.
Our zirconia material has it roots in the biomedical ceramic component industry, dating back to 1990. We were the first US producers of USFDA registered zirconia (Mg-PSZ) femoral heads. Refractron Technology Corp. has an aggressive quality assurance program and adheres tightly to good manufacturing practice guidelines and have master files for both Mg-PSZ and Y-TZP.
This fully sintered, dense structural ceramic material is usually precision ground using conventional diamond cutters and wheels. Machines used for precision grinding include: surface grinders, CNC milling machines, jig grinders, center less grinders, CNC lathes, ID grinders, etc. The “bisque fired” materials can be machined or grind using smaller, lighter duty machines with more standard cutters and tooling.
Other types of dense, structural zirconia ceramic components produced by Refractron include: valve components, pump liners, plugs, sleeves, pistons, precision ceramic balls, spools, press tooling, extrusion tooling and wear plates. Other specialty products include a range of porous ceramic filters, diffusers and adsorbent filter/drier cores for refrigeration applications, dispersion parts, vacuum chucks, inkpads and gas probes.
We work closely with our customers to define their needs and the requirements of each specific dental ceramic application. Our engineering and sales team is great at attacking technical design and process problems, then customizing an innovative solution using our broad range of advanced technical ceramics. Contact us with your application requirements.