Overview

Instrument Overview

Category I: Materials Synthesis and Manufacture

Instruments used for simple chemical synthesis, ceramic sintering, heat treatment, press, monomer infiltration and polymerization.

  1. Wet chemistry: Glassware, vacuum desiccator, magnetic stirrer, hotplate, pH meter/ion analyzer, glassware, filter, refrigerator, microwave, thermal couple meter, thermometer, vacuum gauge, UV light source, desiccator, vacuum desiccator.
  2. Furnaces: 5× Dental ceramic vacuum furnace (up to 1200oC), 2× Thermolyne tube furnace (800-1700oC), 4× Vulcan box furnace (50-1100 oC), 2× Vita Zirconia furnace (1300- 1600oC), 2 Thermolyne regular furnace (100-1093 oC, one in X building), Zircar (500-1600oC)
  3. Ovens: Incubator (37oC), General oven (RT-160oC), burn out oven (200-500oC), 2× VWR vacuum oven.
  4. Isopress: 1× 50 ton, and 2× 12 ton hydraulic press units
  5. Resin infiltration: 0.4 Torr vacuum, ~200 mL infiltration volume
  6. Light curing unit: UV light curing, Blue light curing unit, pressurized curing pot

Category II: Materials Processing

Instruments used to process raw materials for research use via physical processes.

  1. Polishing machine: Buehler EcoMet 250/AutoMet 250; RedWing; Model trimmer
  2. Wear machine: motor driven 2- and 3-body brushing wear tester
  3. Fatigue machine: pneumatically driven, 8 single unit medium (×7.86), 2 large five unit assembly (× 21.84), 2 medium five unit assembly (×7.86) and 2 X-small five unit assembly (× 1.364).
  4. Sectioning machine: Buehler Isomet 5000 linear precision saw, 11-180 low speed saw, with diamond blade.
  5. Sonicator: 4× Ultrasonicator bath, 2× Ultrasonicator probe processor
  6. Bur cutting tester: home made by Pober.
  7. Dental material processer: Light curing unit, 8x, hand piece station, Allure Bleach light station, Oral plasma generator, denture pressurized curing oven
  8. CAD/CAM: Object scanner (Eos, Eos Blue, Omni, Blue light, Lava Chairside Oral scanner), Milling machine (Sorina inLab MC XL, inLab MC, CEREC MC XL, inLab, CEREC 3)
  9. Separation: bench-top centrifuge
  10. Mixer: motor mixer, Rotary mixer
  11. Thermocycling machine: lab-made
  12. Sandblaster machine: PrepStar, Renfer Basic sand blaster
  13. Ball milling machine: Jar miller

Category III: Physical properties analysis

Instruments used to test physical properties of materials and output data.

  1. Microstructure imaging: Field emission electron microscope (FESEM) with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), Optical microscope including stereomicroscope, metallurgical polarized microscope, phase contrast microscope (at X lab), bright field microscope.
  2. Mechanical tester: Universal Mechanical Testing Machine, Microhardness tester
  3. Color testing: Colorimeter, i5 Spectrophotometer, Digital shade guide (Vita Easyshade, Vita Easyshade Compact), Viewing booth, Gloss meter.
  4. Spectrometer: FTIR spectrometer, i5 spectrophotometer.
  5. Weight measurement: Balance, Scale.
  6. Dimension measurement: Micrometer, Caliper, Profilometer.
  7. Other physical properties tester: Radiometer, tachometer, multimeter (Volt-Ohm meter), digital camera.

Category IV: Tissue culture instruments

Instruments used to perform cell culture, cell biology and molecular biology assay.

  1. Cell culture essential equipment: Class IIA/B3 biological safety cabinet, autoclave, CO2 controlled incubator, liquid nitrogen dewer, water bath, -80° C freezer, -20° C freezer, 4° C refrigerator, tissue culture centrifuge, electronic cell counter.
  2. Bio Lab instrument: Water ultra-purification system, high speed centrifuge, low speed shaker, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, UV transilluminator, balance, pH meter, and stirrer.
  3. Microscopes: Tissue culture inverted microscope, reflected-light differential interference contrast microscope, bright light microscope.
  4. Molecular biology: Electrophoretic gel system, Bio-Rad power supply, electrophorectic systems, pressure blotter, slot-blot apparatus, PCR machine.

Category V: Machining Tools

Instruments used to cut, trim, or drill hard materials into desired geometry. Please note most machinery requires special training and students are not allowed to operate for safety reasons.

  1. Computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine, Compact 5 (EMCO Maier, Austria)
  2. Unimat lathe (EMCO Maier, Austria)
  3. Drill press, milling machine, band saw, biopsy saw, air abrasion units, casting machines,
  4. Gypsum trimmers, disc saw cutter.
  5. Soldering machine: Soldering station, Thermal couple welder.