Delcam wins Queen’s Award for dental CADCAM

This is the third time Delcam have been recognised by the Queen's Award, having previously received the Queen's Awards in 2003, for the development of ArtCAM, and in 2004, for PowerINSPECT. Delcam's involvement in the dental area began several years ago when companies in the industry started to use the company's PowerMILL CAM system for the machining of restorations. The software gave immediate benefits, both in the time in which machining data could be generated, and in the speed and quality of the machining operations. However, this early experience showed that it was difficult for dental technicians, with no previous experience in CADCAM, to use the system. It was apparent that a dedicated piece of software was needed for the dental industry; one that retained the power of PowerMILL but that was easier to use and incorporated familiar terminology for the dental technician. Delcam developed DentMILL to meet this need, a highly-automated knowledge-based program, specifically designed to generate toolpaths to machine restorations. Following early success with DentMILL, Delcam began the introduction of the partner design program, DentCAD. Again the aim was to provide software that would be easy for dental technicians to use, regardless of their previous knowledge of computer-aided design. Continued development of the two programs means that they now offer levels of speed and accuracy that are impossible with traditional, manual methods. High-quality restorations can now be produced within hours that would previously have taken days, thereby giving a much faster service to patients.