CA2190226A1 - Irradiation device for curing plastics - Google Patents

Irradiation device for curing plastics

Info

Publication number
CA2190226A1
CA2190226A1 CA002190226A CA2190226A CA2190226A1 CA 2190226 A1 CA2190226 A1 CA 2190226A1 CA 002190226 A CA002190226 A CA 002190226A CA 2190226 A CA2190226 A CA 2190226A CA 2190226 A1 CA2190226 A1 CA 2190226A1
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
irradiation device
irradiation
housing
laser diode
plastics
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
CA002190226A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Uwe Breuer
Dieter Schodel
Steffen Oppawsky
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Kulzer GmbH
Original Assignee
Heraeus Kulzer GmbH
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Family has litigation
First worldwide family litigation filed litigation Critical https://patents.darts-ip.com/?family=26021620&utm_source=google_patent&utm_medium=platform_link&utm_campaign=public_patent_search&patent=CA2190226(A1) "Global patent litigation dataset” by Darts-ip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Priority claimed from DE19619155A external-priority patent/DE19619155C2/en
Application filed by Heraeus Kulzer GmbH filed Critical Heraeus Kulzer GmbH
Publication of CA2190226A1 publication Critical patent/CA2190226A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61CDENTISTRY; APPARATUS OR METHODS FOR ORAL OR DENTAL HYGIENE
    • A61C19/00Dental auxiliary appliances
    • A61C19/003Apparatus for curing resins by radiation
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61CDENTISTRY; APPARATUS OR METHODS FOR ORAL OR DENTAL HYGIENE
    • A61C19/00Dental auxiliary appliances
    • A61C19/003Apparatus for curing resins by radiation
    • A61C19/004Hand-held apparatus, e.g. guns

Landscapes

  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (AREA)
  • Dentistry (AREA)
  • Epidemiology (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Public Health (AREA)
  • Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
  • Heating, Cooling, Or Curing Plastics Or The Like In General (AREA)
  • Dental Tools And Instruments Or Auxiliary Dental Instruments (AREA)
  • Photometry And Measurement Of Optical Pulse Characteristics (AREA)

Abstract

The invention relates to an irradiation device for curing plastics, said device having a housing on which is arranged a light outlet. In order to provide an irradiation device of simple structure and low intrinsic weight, the light outlet possesses at least one laser diode for emitting radiation in the wavelength range from approximately 320 nm to 550 nm.

Description

Irradiation Device for Curing Plastics The invention relates to an irradiation device for curing plastics, said device having a housing on which is arranged a light outlet, as well as to a method for operating the device.

5 Many such state-of-the-art irradiation devices are known. For example, DE
34 11 996 describes an irradiation device which is used to cure dental plastics. This device is designed as a hand-held unit, the housing of which contains a lamp, e.g. a-halogen lamp, as the light source. The housing further contains the electrical connections required to generate the light, 10 possibly a transformer to convert the mains voltage to the operating voltage required by the light source, as well as ventilation ducts, a fan and openings to dissipate the heat generated during operation of the irradiation device.
Inside the housing the light is fed into a fibre optical light guide which serves as the light outlet; the light generated by the light source emerges 15 from the end of this fibre optical light guide, which end is arranged outsidethe housing. The emerging light is used to cure plastics. The irradiation device known from DE 34 11 996 is a hand-held device which may be flexibly used to cure dental plastics; the curing process may take place both in the patient's mouth and, for example, on a work bench. In addition, 20 stationary irradiation devices are known whose housings contain an irradiation chamber. In such devices, the light outlet is arranged inside the housing and is directed into the irradiation chamber. Stationary devices also exist in which a fibre optical light guide, which is used as the light outlet, is arranged to emerge on the outside of the device. In this case, a handle is 25 arranged at the outer end of the fibre optical light guide, and the light guide is controlled by means of said handle. Such arrangements are used as hand-held devices in a manner similar to the arrangement described above, with the exception that, due to the limited length of the fibre optical light guide, their local operating range is restricted.

. - 3 All such devices have a very complex structure because not only must light be conducted over a distance of varying length, for example by means of a fibre optical light guide, but also the resulting heat must be dissipated in a suitable manner. Adequate heat removal requires that the housing be 5 sufficiently large in size, and also necessitates the installation of additional components such as fans.

Proceeding from the state of the art as embodied in known configurations, the purpose of the present invention is to provide an irradiation device, and a procedure for operating the said device, the latter being simple in design, 10 light in weight and at the same time capable of permitting optimum irradiation .

In the manner according to the invention, this task is solved by providing the light outlet with at least one laser diode to emit radiation in the wavelength range from about 320 nm to about 550 nm, and in particular 15 from about 400 nm to 500 nm. By this means, light-cured plastics may be c~red. The heat generated when laser diodes are used as the irradiation source is negligibly small so that the customary means used to dissipate heat are not required. In addition, the power can be supplied to the laser diode through a cable of almost any desired length, so that the components 20 needed to generate the electrical energy, which are of sufficiently well-known design, may be permanently installed at a suitable location. As a result, the irradiation device itself can be very small and easy to carry and ithas a very flexible range of use. For example, it is possible to lay out the power supply for such irradiation devices in a manner similar to that used 25 for the customary mains supply, in which power can be tapped off at various plug receptacles. Thus, in order to carry out irradiation at various places, all that is needed is a housing which can be designed as a very small handle section on which is arranged the light outlet carrying the laser diode at its outer end. The irradiation device may be designed as a hand-held 30 device or as a stationary unit. While in hand-held units the good handling properties and mobility are made possible by the small dimensions of the ~_ -- 4 units, a stationary device can be closely adapted to the size of the irradiation chamber. In addition, the advantage of such an arrangement is that the power requirement is much lower than in conventional units, because laser diodes, as described above, are much more efficient than 5 conventional light bulbs. Another consequence of this design is that the work can be performed with currents and voltages of lower strength, thus increasing the safety factor for the operator.

The irradiation device advantageously possesses a sensor or a similar arrangement to measure the intensity of the light emitted by the laser diode;
10 the sensor is connected to an indicator, e.g. an optical indicator, via an evaluation unit to evaluate and further process the intensity signal, so that the operator can be informed if the intensity of the radiation from the laser diode falls below a predetermined limit value.

The housing possesses preferably a handle with a switch to make the 1 5 device easier to use.

The underlying task of the invention, namely to find a procedure for operating the device of the type described above, is solved by supplying a pulsed operating current to the laser diode. This permits a much higher intensity to be achieved. A laser diode can be operated with a higher pulsed 20 cur!ent. The pulse frequency may be increased during operation so that stress build-up is avoided in the irradiated material. While the pulse frequency is being increased, or afterwards, the operating current of the laser diode can be increased to the maximum possible value. For the pulsed operation of the laser diode, it is possible to use the customary circuit 25 arrangements which are well-known to the expert in the field.

The purpose of the invention is furthermore to use the irradiation device according to the invention to cure dental plastics. Very small quantities of such plastics are used in a dentist's surgery or in a dental technician's workshop. These small amounts of plastic can be very advantageously Zl 90226 cured with the irradiation device according to the invention because the light beam of the laser diode is easy to guide. Because it is possible to design the housing and handle with very small dimensions, almost any desired point in the mouth of the patient can be irradiated.

5 According to the invention, the irradiation device may also be used to cure technical plastics, e.g plastics which are used by histologists or metallographers to embed specimens.

In the following, an embodiment of the invention is described in more detail on the basis of a drawing.

10 Fig. 1 shows a hand-held device according to the invention.

Fig. 2 shows a diagrammatic view of a stationary device according to the invention.

As depicted in Fig. 1, the irradiation device according to the invention possesses a housing 1 having a wire 2 for supplying electric power. The 15 housing 1 is designed as the housing of a non-stationary hand-held device.
It possesses a handle 3 on which is fitted a switch 4. The handle is substantially cylindrical in shape, and at one end of the cylinder is arranged a light outlet 5, at the outer end of which is arranged the laser diode 6. The light outlet 4 takes the form of a flexible rod which can be bent as required 20 at the irradiation site. The laser diode 6 emits beams of light in the wavelength range from about 320 to 550 nm, in particular 400 to 500 nm.
The irradiation energy influences the time needed to cure the plastic and may be appropriately regulated.

The irradiation device possesses a pilot LED which functions as an indicator 25 7 to signal the age-related drop in intensity of the radiation from the laserdiode 6 below a predetermined limit value. Customary, known arrangements . _ - 6 -may be used to measure and evaluate the intensity of the radiation emitted by the laser diode 6.

Instead of the arrangement depicted in the drawing, other arrangements or configurations of a housing with a handle section are conceivable. For 5 example, the entire housing 1 may be designed as a handle section 3, the said handle section 3 having the form of a thickened section of the light outlet 5.

Embodiments of the invention are also conceivable in which the light outlet comprises several laser diodes; for example, a stationary irradiation device 10 having an irradiation chamber arranged inside the housing 1 may possess a plurality of laser diodes 6 surrounding the irradiation chamber on several sides, so that a plastic part which needs to be cured can be uniformly irradiated from all sides. Figure 2 depicts such an irradiation device. Inside ahousing 1 is arranged a customary irradiation chamber 8 which is 15 surrounded by laser diodes 6. The laser diodes 6 may be arranged on a cage-like rack 9 around the mounting 10 for the part to be irradiated 1 1 (e.g. a dental component). In Figure 2, the indicator 7 is arranged on the housing 1 alongside operating elements which are not shown in the Figure.

The laser diodes 6 may be operated by a pulsed current. From the start of 20 the irradiation, the pulse frequency and the current are continuously increased. This increase in the intensity prevents the build-up of stresses in the material being irradiated (dental or technical plastics).

Claims (10)

1. An irradiation device used for curing plastics, said device having a housing on which is arranged a light outlet, characterized in that the light outlet (5) possesses at least one laser diode (6) for emitting radiation in the wavelength range from approximately 320 nm to 550 nm.
2. An irradiation device according to Claim 1, characterized in that the housing (1) possesses a handle (3) with a switch (4).
3. An irradiation device according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a sensor is provided to measure the intensity of the light emitted by the laser diode (6), said sensor being linked via an evaluation unit to an indicator(7) to indicate a drop in the light intensity of the laser diode (6) below a pre-determined limit value.
4. An irradiation device according to one of the Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it is designed as a hand-held device.
5. An irradiation device according to one of the Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it is designed as a stationary unit.
6. A procedure for operating a device according to one of the Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the operating current supplied to the laser dioodes (6) is pulsed.
7. A procedure according to Claim 6, characterized in that the pulse frequency is increased while the device is in operation.
8. A procedure according to Claim 7, characterized in that the strength of the operating current supplied to the laser diodes (6) is increased while or after the pulse frequency is raised.
9. The use of the irradiation device according to Claim 1 to cure dental plastics.
10. The use of the irradiation device according to Claim 1 to cure technical plastics.
CA002190226A 1995-12-22 1996-11-13 Irradiation device for curing plastics Abandoned CA2190226A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE19548330 1995-12-22
DE19548330.8 1996-05-11
DE19619155A DE19619155C2 (en) 1995-12-22 1996-05-11 Irradiation device for curing plastics, as well as processes and uses
DE19619155.6 1996-05-11

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2190226A1 true CA2190226A1 (en) 1997-06-23

Family

ID=26021620

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA002190226A Abandoned CA2190226A1 (en) 1995-12-22 1996-11-13 Irradiation device for curing plastics

Country Status (5)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0780104B1 (en)
JP (1) JPH09183134A (en)
AT (1) ATE210413T1 (en)
AU (1) AU7418696A (en)
CA (1) CA2190226A1 (en)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8469707B2 (en) 2007-05-11 2013-06-25 Kaltenbach & Voigt Gmbh Hand-held device for dispensing a pasty filling material
US8680494B2 (en) 2011-07-11 2014-03-25 Gc Corporation Polymerization apparatus for dental technology

Families Citing this family (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE19636266A1 (en) * 1996-09-06 1998-03-12 Kaltenbach & Voigt Method and device for curing photosensitive polymeric compositions
AU6452698A (en) * 1997-11-03 1999-05-24 Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company Hand-held intraoral curing apparatus
US6419483B1 (en) 2000-03-01 2002-07-16 3M Innovative Properties Company Method and apparatus for curling light-curable dental materials
JP2005506861A (en) 2001-10-17 2005-03-10 コールテン/ウェイルデント インコーポレイテッド Curing lamp device with electronic voice
US7134875B2 (en) * 2002-06-28 2006-11-14 3M Innovative Properties Company Processes for forming dental materials and device
US7401943B2 (en) 2005-06-07 2008-07-22 Fusion Uv Systems, Inc. Solid-state light sources for curing and surface modification

Family Cites Families (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3411996A1 (en) * 1984-03-31 1985-10-03 Kulzer & Co GmbH, 6393 Wehrheim Irradiation unit, such as a polymerisation apparatus preferably for curing dental plastics
DE3719561C2 (en) * 1986-06-12 1998-12-10 Morita Mfg Medical light irradiation handpiece
DE3644347A1 (en) * 1986-12-19 1988-06-30 Siemens Ag Method for operating a light-emitting diode
DE3910438A1 (en) * 1989-03-31 1990-10-04 Kulzer & Co Gmbh METHOD AND DEVICE FOR POLYMERIZING A BODY MADE OF DENTAL PLASTIC
JPH04359481A (en) * 1991-06-05 1992-12-11 Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd Semiconductor light-emitting element
EP0556461B1 (en) * 1992-02-19 1998-01-14 Sony Corporation Semiconductor laser
JPH0773140B2 (en) * 1993-02-09 1995-08-02 日本電気株式会社 Semiconductor laser
GB9309397D0 (en) * 1993-05-07 1993-06-23 Patel Bipin C M Laser treatment
US5420768A (en) * 1993-09-13 1995-05-30 Kennedy; John Portable led photocuring device
DE29511927U1 (en) 1995-07-24 1997-01-09 THERA Patent GmbH & Co. KG Gesellschaft für industrielle Schutzrechte, 82229 Seefeld Light curing unit

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8469707B2 (en) 2007-05-11 2013-06-25 Kaltenbach & Voigt Gmbh Hand-held device for dispensing a pasty filling material
US8680494B2 (en) 2011-07-11 2014-03-25 Gc Corporation Polymerization apparatus for dental technology

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AU7418696A (en) 1997-06-26
ATE210413T1 (en) 2001-12-15
EP0780104A2 (en) 1997-06-25
EP0780104B1 (en) 2001-12-12
JPH09183134A (en) 1997-07-15
EP0780104A3 (en) 1997-12-03

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
CA2190225A1 (en) Irradiation device
US5634711A (en) Portable light emitting apparatus with a semiconductor emitter array
DE19619155C2 (en) Irradiation device for curing plastics, as well as processes and uses
DE19721311C1 (en) Irradiation device for the polymerization of light-curing plastics
DE602004004183T2 (en) Light-generating device
EP1103232B1 (en) A dental handpiece for the photopolymerization compatible with the power supply of other handpieces
US6159005A (en) Photopolymerization apparatus
EP2042123B1 (en) Curing light instrument
EP0884025B1 (en) Dental handpiece with lighting means
US5975895A (en) Strobe light curing apparatus and method
US7726863B2 (en) Medical handle device and illumination apparatus
US7802910B2 (en) Light guide exposure device
EP1314402B1 (en) Optical system for a dental Handpiece for polymerization of photosetting compounds or resins
CA2190226A1 (en) Irradiation device for curing plastics
JP2000316874A (en) Dental instrument with illuminating mechanism
JPH0928719A (en) Photopolymerization device
WO2000013608A1 (en) Irradiation apparatus for light curing of composites, in particular for dental use
JPH08141001A (en) Optical irradiator
US20030015667A1 (en) Curing unit
WO2000067660A1 (en) Curing device and method
CN201123813Y (en) Mammary gland diagnostic apparatus transmission probe
JPS6141578B2 (en)
CA2266845A1 (en) Mains-operated device for curing by light a polymerizable dental material
WO1999037239A1 (en) Device for hardening composite materials used in the dental field
RU2090224C1 (en) Physiotherapeutical apparatus

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
EEER Examination request
FZDE Discontinued