Tradewindj
Member
Full Member
- Messages
- 29
- Reaction score
- 8
Thelabguy is correct on handling PMF's. I would add... cleaning your copings with acetone in the ultra sonic. Makoto Yamamoto wrote the bible on pfm's and is a good reference for tech's.
NOW, here goes..
I do not like and will not bad mouth manufactures but I will give some insite concerning my experience early on with Argen copings. I managed a laboratory that was sold to a large corporate venture capital group. Before the sale, we milled and casted all our own work and only outsourced to one of our sister labs if we were over capacity, we had total control. The laboratory ran very well with the normal glitches we all can experience in a larger lab with many techs. After the sale, the business plan was to outsource all the FCZ, zirconia copings and metal copings/frameworks to Argen. The zirconia and FCZ were ok (with exception to design) but we had problems with the alloys. For example, I have a painful memory of a splinted six single unit anterior framework with some expensive precious alloy precision attachments on the distal of #6-#11. We were using Vita VM 13 and had no issues before the outsource. We handled the material according to the manufactures instructions to a tee. My head ceramist brought me the case full of cracks and bubbled porcelain. Thinking that the metal finisher and/or the opaquer did not handle the framework properly, we striped and refinished/opaqued it again. Next day, the ceramist brought the bridge to me with the same outcome. It looked to be both coefficient issue and alloy mishandling. We resubmitted the design to Argen for a new framework. When it arrived we cut off the precision attachments from the old framework and soldered to the new framework. Same outcome. I was forced to continue working with Argen for this framework instead of casting in-house. After the third attempt, I said screw it and had my techs do what they did well and waxed and casted the framework in-house. The results were perfect! Now, during this wonderful experience, I was on the phone with Argen technical because I smelled a coefficient problem. They kept telling us we were the problem. After a face to face meeting with Argen management they finally admitted one of there employees mixed the alloy formula wrong. Damn.. I was pissed!! All the time and money wasted when all they had to due was come clean and be truthful. I can understand mistakes but willfully hiding the truth... especially with a new business partner... FU. This happened in 2015. The Funny thing is how a company who dominates the dental alloy market had waxed and casted these frameworks in their alloy and took two weeks to figure the problem out. If the framework was an SLM, it would have been fine. I would think by now Argen has their quality control in place and it would not happen again.
NOW, here goes..
I do not like and will not bad mouth manufactures but I will give some insite concerning my experience early on with Argen copings. I managed a laboratory that was sold to a large corporate venture capital group. Before the sale, we milled and casted all our own work and only outsourced to one of our sister labs if we were over capacity, we had total control. The laboratory ran very well with the normal glitches we all can experience in a larger lab with many techs. After the sale, the business plan was to outsource all the FCZ, zirconia copings and metal copings/frameworks to Argen. The zirconia and FCZ were ok (with exception to design) but we had problems with the alloys. For example, I have a painful memory of a splinted six single unit anterior framework with some expensive precious alloy precision attachments on the distal of #6-#11. We were using Vita VM 13 and had no issues before the outsource. We handled the material according to the manufactures instructions to a tee. My head ceramist brought me the case full of cracks and bubbled porcelain. Thinking that the metal finisher and/or the opaquer did not handle the framework properly, we striped and refinished/opaqued it again. Next day, the ceramist brought the bridge to me with the same outcome. It looked to be both coefficient issue and alloy mishandling. We resubmitted the design to Argen for a new framework. When it arrived we cut off the precision attachments from the old framework and soldered to the new framework. Same outcome. I was forced to continue working with Argen for this framework instead of casting in-house. After the third attempt, I said screw it and had my techs do what they did well and waxed and casted the framework in-house. The results were perfect! Now, during this wonderful experience, I was on the phone with Argen technical because I smelled a coefficient problem. They kept telling us we were the problem. After a face to face meeting with Argen management they finally admitted one of there employees mixed the alloy formula wrong. Damn.. I was pissed!! All the time and money wasted when all they had to due was come clean and be truthful. I can understand mistakes but willfully hiding the truth... especially with a new business partner... FU. This happened in 2015. The Funny thing is how a company who dominates the dental alloy market had waxed and casted these frameworks in their alloy and took two weeks to figure the problem out. If the framework was an SLM, it would have been fine. I would think by now Argen has their quality control in place and it would not happen again.
