Abstract: Apparatus for producing finished dental restorations at the dentist's chair side from 3D CAD data. These restorations may be manufactured from ceramics, metals and polymers via subtractive means i.e. milling and grinding. A polar compact mechanism has been employed with the implementation of an inverse kinematic transform in the machine control to allow Cartesian programming. The margin following tool path is very computationally intensive and requires many minutes of calculation time and numerical control programs in excess of 10 mb for a typical restoration. Conventionally this would require the user to wait several minutes before running the machine which would increase the wait time for both the patient and the doctor. This problem is solved by allowing the program to be generated in parallel with the machine in the process of actually cutting the restoration.

Abstract: Apparatus for producing finished dental restorations at the dentist's chair side from 3D CAD data. These restorations may be manufactured from ceramics, metals and polymers via subtractive means i.e. milling and grinding. A polar compact mechanism has been employed with the implementation of an inverse kinematic transform in the machine control to allow Cartesian programming. The margin following tool path is very computationally intensive and requires many minutes of calculation time and numerical control programs in excess of 10 mb for a typical restoration. Conventionally this would require the user to wait several minutes before running the machine which would increase the wait time for both the patient and the doctor. This problem is solved by allowing the program to be generated in parallel with the machine in the process of actually cutting the restoration.