Patent ID: 9434651
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: A61C,C04B

Claim Text:
1. A process for fabricating dental appliances of translucent zirconia; the process comprising the steps of: a) preparing a ceramic slurry comprising mixing binderless zirconia powder, water and a dispersant; b) attrition milling the ceramic slurry to a crystallite size in the range of about 5 nm to about 29 nm; c) slip casting the milled ceramic slurry in a vacuum-assisted mold; d) removing water from the milled ceramic slurry and consolidating the zirconia powder to form zirconia blanks by subjecting one end of the vacuum-assisted mold to an evacuating pressure in a range of −5 to −40 psi and subjecting another end of the vacuum-assisted mold to a positive pressure in a range of 1 to 30 psi; e) removing zirconia blanks formed in said slip casting step; f) allowing the zirconia blanks to dry; g) pre-sintering the dried zirconia blanks to form dried, pre-sintered zirconia blanks; h) shaping the dried, pre-sintered zirconia blanks into appliance-shaped blanks; and i) sintering the appliance-shaped blanks to net shape and size.