Bio-infinitum launches onto US market

Stoneglass Industries has succeeded in licensing its Australian-developed Bio-infinitum CAD/CAM milling system into the US market in a partnership with Whip Mix Corporation. The Kentucky-based company will market the milling technology under the Verus System brand name through its newly established Laboratory Services division. The license grants exclusively for the North American market.

"It's very gratifying to see the product we developed in Australia based on the experiences of Australian dental technicians being launched onto the world stage," said Georges Sara, the system's inventor and managing director of Stoneglass Industries. "The partnership we've formed with Whip Mix will also ensure that this technology will remain in Australian hands and any profits will be returned to Australia where research and development of the system will continue to be based."

Mr Sara said that his son, Lewis, had travelled to Whip Mix's facilities to supervise the set-up of the new milling centre and that it was now fully operational.

"It is very heartening to see how far dental technology has come in only the past few years," Mr Sara said. "I had been a fan of Zirconia and a fan of CAD/CAM systems since they were first applied in the dental arena. I could see how Zirconia would solve a lot of the problems technicians faced with metal ceramic restorations; CAD/CAM systems then offered the ability to rapidly and accurately apply the material to not only the traditional aspects of dental technology but a whole range of new areas, most notably in relation to implants."

Mr Sara said that at the launch of the Glacier System, now renamed to Bio-Infinitum, in 2006 at Telstra Stadium in Sydney, one attendee at the event said that while the accomplishment of developing a home grown CAD/CAM system was a great achievement, real success would rely on exporting the technology worldwide.

"I was probably a bit taken aback by the remark at the time, but since that day we have worked in parallel to both develop the capabilities of the system and to find partners to work with worldwide. To have launched in 2006 and be manufacturing in the US in late 2007 is a great first step."

Mr Sara said that at the time of the launch, the system was operating from premises behind his dental laboratory in the Sydney suburb of Burwood and was producing crown copings and 3-unit bridges in Zirconia.

Today, the system is operating from new dedicated premises at Olympic Park in Homebush and can deliver crown copings, full anatomical crowns, a variety of styles of bridge up to a full arch and a complete range of implant abutments milled in zirconia, titanium or plastic.

"With the opening of our second milling location in the US, we've ramped up our research and development to ensure we remain on the leading edge of CAD/CAM development," he said. "We're now manufacturing in Plastic and Titanium which has sparked tremendous interest.

"We're also about to launch the BiiB, the Bio-infinitum implant Bridge for 31 implant platforms, again in a choice of 3 materials as well as more new products.

"We're about to kick off our 2008 education program for both Technicians and Dentists with training provided by both local and overseas presenters.

"Above all however, we have a growing base of loyal customers in Australia that continue to support the system we developed to make all our lives easier and that in itself is very high praise indeed."