A brace of announcements for Massachusetts-based Formlabs today, as the company doubles down on its developments in the dental sector by spinning out an entirely new business division catering exclusively to dental industry professionals.

From today, Formlabs Dental exists to provide a complete ecosystem tailored to orthodontic professionals. Consisting itself of industry professionals, the new unit offers a dental service plan, educating new users and aiding adoption of the company’s machines in labs.

New hardware drops today too in the Form 3B. A variant of the Form 3 (which we found to be rather excellent), the new printer sports a clinical white color scheme and is said to deliver “crisp and consistent dental parts.”

At launch the Form 3B is ready to run a plethora of dental materials, an area the company has some 50 materials scientists working on to develop new materials and profiles, verified by its unit of dental professionals. Four new hues of denture resin were added today.

Max Lobovsky, CEO and Founder of co-Formlabs, said: “Our new Form 3B printer is uniquely tailored to seamlessly digitize, streamline and expedite workflow so dentists and technicians can focus on providing patients with the outcomes they expect and deserve.” He continues “having printed 13 million dental parts on the Form 2 and, with the launch of Form 3B, aim to expand that reach even further.”

Wrapping up the announcement is a double whammy of materials news with Formlabs’ acquisition of Spectra, a photopolymer materials provider and the largest provider of Formlabs’ own resin material, and that the Form 3B will benefit from the new Materials Partner Program.

The Material Partner Program will essentially open the new printer up to third party material compatibility, with the aim being to verify non-Formlabs materials to a similar standard for continued reliable printing. Presumably, this is key for adoption of the Form 3B, if a sizable number of dental practices are locked in to, or have favored materials for their needs.

Source: Formlabs