Conference Agenda

Traditional practices for preheating refractory materials in dental laboratories often yield varying temperatures due to their artisanal construction. The thermal inaccuracy creates defects in the coating cylinders during the injection processes. To address this problem, an automated system is implemented here by proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control to optimize wax preheating and implement special functionality for working with resin. An assessment of the current oven structure was performed, highlighting the structural shortcomings and deficiencies in the thermal control system. To address it, an electronic system was established that comprises a type K thermocouple, a microcontroller, and actuators used for power control, controlled by a PID algorithm adjusted in MATLAB. Two operational modes were proposed, one with a steady thermal ramp up to 950°C for wax and another in two timed stages for resin. The actual conditions (testing in real laboratory conditions) were used to validate the system. Results showed that the thermal variability was reduced to ±0.5°C, and this increased the reproducibility of coating cylinders. The power consumption of the two mechanical processes was improved, with 18% better energy efficiency than the manual process, without surface cracks. Furthermore, the human-machine interface was integrated for immediate observation and data recording for later analysis. Automation increased the precision, reliability, and standardization in thermal processing. The current proposal serves as a model to facilitate optimal heat treatment in dental laboratories with high-quality standards.