i hate the short firing mentality, people need to fire Zi long time as it gets the best results we turn stuff around in 2-3 regularly you mill it during the day sinter over night i just dont get the whole quick firing thing we have dont the short sinter thing they dont look as good and you get cracks from time to time. i think many times when you short sinter you dont see the problems untill a couple of years later and then people blame the zi not the muppet making the stuff. dont even start me on cerec 10 min cylcles.
I won't say I always agree with it, but do understand where they are coming from. For a lot of labs, it's not about offering a shorter turn-around time, it's about being able to run more units thru the lab per day (without having to buy another furnace, due to space or money).
Also, there are differences between "Fast Sintering" and "Speed Sintering."
Most chairside milling doctors are wanting to do "Speed Sintering" in there offices. These programs are normally under an hour (sometimes as low as 15 minutes) and do give less esthetic results. Good for patients who want a same day turn-around, which is sometime important to them due to having to travel long distances for care and having to take time off from work. I have talked to patients who have to take whole day off to go to a dental appointment (due to locality). If these patients can get it done in one day it is much better for them, rather than having to take off another day for the insertion appointment. Very important for hourly wage workers, without much vacation or sick time. And who wants to take a vacation day for a dentist appointment. Vacation is for sitting on the beach drinking Margaritas!
"Fast Sintering" programs take a couple hours or more (2.5-4.5hr depending on material),and give very similar results to the longer programs with very little change to color or translucency that is perceivable to the human eye (usually). This allows the lab to run more units per day without an extra outlay of money for another furnace.
And truth be told, we actually find the strength numbers to be slightly higher on the "Fast Sintering" programs. Not really anything statistically significant, but still slightly higher.