Blank for a dental prosthetic item containing machining information, machining device therefor, and machining method therefor

• US 20070050072A1
• Filed: 08/30/2006
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sirona Dental Systems GmbH (Sirona Dental Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sirona Dental Systems GmbH (Sirona Dental Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Schwotzer, Axel
• Application Number:
  US11/512,343
• Publication Number:
  US 20070050072A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/116
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 13/0022 Blanks or green, unfinished dental restoration parts
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/50 for simulation or modelling of medical disorders

Abstract

A blank (10) for the production of a dental prosthetic item (22) by being machined is provided with information relevant to the machining operation by an information-containing memory (22) which is connected to the blank (10) and readable by radio signals. A machining device for the production of dental prosthetic items from the blank (10) includes a reading device (16) for obtaining information concerning the blank (10) by means of radio signals (23). A method of machining such a blank is disclosed.

Claims

1. A blank (10) for the production of a dental prosthetic item (21) by machining said blank (10), which blank (10) is provided with information relevant to said machining, wherein a readable memory (22) containing said information is connected to said blank (10) is provided, said memory (22) being designed and disposed on said blank (10) in such a manner that said information can be read via radio signals (23).

2. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein the information stored in said memory (22) can be modified by radio signals (23).

3. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein a stub (12) for attachment of said blank in a machining device (1) is provided and said memory (22) is attached to said stub (12).

4. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein a corpus (11) is provided, from which said dental prosthetic item (21) is carved, and said memory (22) is attached to said corpus (11).

5. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein a stub (12) for the attachment of said blank in said machining device (1) and a corpus (11), from which said dental prosthetic item (21) is carved, are provided, and said memory (22) is disposed in a connecting layer (8) provided between said corpus (11) and said stub (12).

6. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein a stub (12) for the attachment of said blank in said machining device (1) is provided and said memory (22) is incorporated in said stub (12), which stub (12) is at least partially permeably to radio signals.

7. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein said memory (22) is enclosed in a glass tube (9.2) or in a self-adhesive label (9.1).

8. A blank as defined in claim 1, wherein an information bit present in said memory (22) is a signal value of a sensor (25) disposed in the immediate vicinity of said memory (22), which signal value is capable of being queried via said memory (22) by means of a radio signal.

9. A machining device (1) for the production of dental prosthetic items from a blank (10), comprising a chuck (13) for accommodating said blank (10), information concerning said blank (10) being present on said blank (10), wherein a reading device (16) is provided for reading an information-containing memory (22) by means of radio signals (23).

10. A machining device (1) as defined in claim 9, wherein said reading device (16) additionally has a write function for the purpose of modifying information present in said memory (22) via radio signals.

11. A machining device (1) as defined in claim 9, wherein software for the production of said dental prosthetic item (21) is provided and said software is designed such that the information obtained via radio signals (23) is allowed for in the computation of said dental prosthetic item (21) to be fabricated and/or in the control of said machining device (1) and/or in any other type of processing of said dental prosthetic item (21) and/or in the use thereof for documentation purposes.

12. A machining device (1) as defined in claim 9, wherein said reading device (16) is disposed in relation to said chuck (13) such that the information concerning said blank (10) held in said chuck (13) provides the strongest radio signal in relation to blanks (10) not held in said chuck (13).

13. A machining device (1) as defined in claim 9, wherein the distance of said reading device (16) from said chuck (13) is smaller than the distance of said blank (10) to an external housing (1.1) of said machining device (1).

14. A machining device (1) as defined in claim 9, wherein the range of the reading device (16) is from 0.02 m to 0.2 m.

15. A method for recognizing one or more blanks in a machining device, wherein a memory (22) placed on said blank (10) is read via a radio signal (23.1) before or after the insertion of said blank into a chuck (13), in particular by writing thereon with a handheld read/write device (41).

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein said memory (22) is activated before reading.

17. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein said memory (22) is read by means of a reading device (16) on the machining device (1) via radio signal (23.1) and radio signal (23.2) emitted by said memory (22) is checked before machining is enabled.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein, following successful checking of said radio signal (23.2), information is read out from said memory (22) and the machining operation takes place while making allowances for said information.

19. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein checking of the radio signal (23.2) is carried out on the basis of the strength of said radio signal (23.2), and, in the case of more than one radio signal, use is made of that radio signal having the greatest signal intensity.

20. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein said memory (22) is activated when said blank (10) is inserted into said machining device (1).

21. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein said memory (22) is continuously read during machining.

22. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein said memory (22) is written to, following machining, such that said blank (10) is barred from further machining or that said memory (22) is destroyed by a machining tool (15).

23. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein said memory (22) is written to, following machining, such that its condition is known for future machining.