Patent ID: 11899427
Assignee: LIGHTFORCE ORTHODONTICS, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  A  B | IPC A  B  G

Claim 12:
13. The method of claim 1, wherein:
the DLP machine comprises:
a vat with an at least partially transparent horizontal bottom, in which a photo-reactive slurry is contained;
a horizontal build platform adapted to be held at a settable height above the vat bottom;
an exposure unit comprising a light source adapted to be controlled for position-selective exposure of a surface on the build platform with an intensity pattern and a predetermined geometry; and
a control unit adapted for polymerizing, in successive exposure steps, layers of the photo-reactive slurry lying one above the other over the horizontal bottom and attached to the build platform;

wherein the method further comprises utilizing the DLP machine to directly produce the customized labial/lingual orthodontic bracket by layer manufacturing by:
controlling, by the control unit, the exposure unit so as to selectively expose the photo-reactive slurry in the vat with the intensity pattern and the predetermined geometry to form a respective polymerized layer of a green bracket;
adjusting, after each exposure for the respective polymerized layer of the green bracket, a relative position of the build platform to the vat bottom; and
building up the green bracket in successive layers to a desired form, based on the 3D CAD bracket structure model.