Articulators for Printed Models?

[Vincent Capone]

What's everyone using attachment wise for their printed models? (using exocad)

Right now we're just using support pins and having the model department mount them so they fit on our articulators like the Stratos. Is there by chance an STL attachment for the Stratos already? I like the idea of the iTero attachment for their articulator but those don't have an anterior stop and these support pins don't always print accurately or even gives the models "bounce"

What's everyone doing to prevent this?

 

[Shake N' Jake]

You can always adjust the diameter and shape of the support pin to make it less fickle. Increasing the diameter and adjusting the pin bulge height might help with the "bounce" you are experiencing.

 

[tuyere]

The articulator interfaces available in 3shape are pretty awful, and the designs are very crude in really basic ways that could be easily addressed- stuff like, I dunno, the stock vertex articulator misprints frequently because the socket is cantilevered out over the build plate without touching it, requiring the addition of supports there with less forgiving resins; adding a 'foot' to connect it would solve that issue completely. So I cooked up a custom articulator for our lab based on feedback from techs, and they're very happy with it.

The tabs are delicate and don't retain the ball well, so I split the socket so it can open up slightly then close to retain the ball under tension. The ball clicks in firmly and holds gently in whatever orientation you place it in before gluing. Also gave it a flat base and thicker sidewalls so it prints properly without supports. I also added our lab's logo to the upper surface, but I've blacked it out here.
Overall our techs are extremely positive about it, and we're going to dump the original Vertex interface shortly in favour of this for everything except weird cases that need the Vertex's slightly bigger range of motion.

And no, I can't share it here, sorry

We've added a second style that uses the stock vertex's "tab" approach for retaining the ball, except there are more tabs and they're extremely rugged. Sometimes techs ask for that for tricky cases because it has greater redundancy than the split socket- if one half of the socket breaks off you lose the locating ability of the interface entirely, while the tabbed style still functions without retaining the ball even if you smash all the tabs off.

 

[Thibaut]

Not sure I correctly understand what you're asking but I'll give you my personal preferences anyways.

I created my attachement for flat vertex on quadrant, added a lower ledge for quick and true positioning. The ones present in exocad are very old, do not incorporate friction variables like you would with a model analogue.
I modified the very heavy and overengineered itero when on full arch.
I add a support pin, legacy one, the new one has friction, I don't like it.
If the job is only on one side I cut half of the jaw to keep the other side as visualisation meshes.
Hope it helps

 

[MatPhil]

Itero attachments in Exocad are so flimsy they break off very easily when inserted and removed from the metal articulator. I have talked to Exocad and they dont have any plans to add good articuator library for ITERO. Does any one have good Itero articulator library that looks like the ones in 3Shape or similar, can you please share the librarcy? Really appreciate it.