In the waxing area of the dental lab you often see many different types of liquids, solutions and separators. All of them are usually necessary for producing a high quality wax patterns, but many of them can cause adverse reactions with casting investments and lead to problems such as poor surface texture. Over the years of working with our investment, Z4, we have found that one major problem in many labs is that the wax patterns simply are not clean. They might look clean, but many times there are residues left behind that are not visible with the naked eye, or even under a microscope.

Our R&D has been working on a way to avoid this problem. The products currently on the market simply do not address the problem completely. While debubblizers are often used to "clean" the wax patterns there are many times they just don't cut it. Other products enhance the problem by leaving more residue on the pattern.

Finally after trying several formulations and different ways of applying the material we have developed our new ProLine Wax Prep Kit. It is a systematic approach that gives technicians the ability to ensure that their wax patterns are free of all residues and debris before investing. The kit comes with a special jar that acts as a "cleaning bath" for the wax patterns and allows the Wax Prep liquid to effectively perform its job as an emulsifier to remove the residues.

It basically works like this:

1. Fill the jar with liquid and then place your patterns in the cleaning basket.
2. Immerse the cleaning basket in the jar and close the lid.
3. Allow the patterns to soak for about 5 minutes, remove and rinse with water.

Once the patterns have been cleaned in the jar they can be treated with a debubblizer, such as HydroSmooth, to help fight surface tensions from the hydrophobic characteristics of the wax.

Another great use we have found for ProLine Wax Prep is with some of the wax and resin blended materials that today's 3D printing units are using. We have been testing with various brands and found that the liquid actually makes the surface smoother when the patterns are soaked for about 5 minutes. One important note to avoid any potential issues is that we do not recommend allowing the patterns to soak for longer than 7 or 8 minutes.

Not only will ProLine Wax Prep work with waxes and wax resin blends, it will also work with plastics, pattern resins and implant components. It will remove residues, dust, debris and other substances and give you a clean surface to invest.

You can order the ProLine Wax Prep starter kit to receive an 8 oz liquid, cleaning jar and a brush for when you need to lightly scrub away stubborn residues. Then you can simply order 8 oz or 32 oz refills as needed. Be sure to check out the products and feel free to drop us a line with any questions.

We continue to add to our library of product demonstration videos that show the features and benefits of our products. We currently have some great videos on Schick's equipment, including the NH Riveting Hammer, G1 Pinhole Drill, G2 Model Saw, G3 Die Trimmer and the S3 Master Milling Unit. We also have a great demo showing how easy our trigger mist sprayer is and just some of the benefits of our HydroSmooth Debubblizer & Surfactant. We'll be adding more videos soon covering our other products and we hope you find them helpful. We'll make sure to update you as soon as they are released.

Make sure to be on the lookout for this year's second issue of Vacalon's Resources catalog. It's packed with information about our products, including our new Insta-Peg and ProLine Soldering Investment. Plus, each issue delivers hints and tips that help you achieve the best results when using our products.

Can't want to wait for the snail mail to deliver your issue? Then just download our digital version and browse at your convenience. Click here to visit our Resources download page to get the most recent issue.

At Vacalon we always look for quick and easy ways to get information out to our customers. You want the details, you want them quick and you want them on your schedule. So we've created our new blog with that in mind.

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The Vacalon Team

We are pleased to announce we have released two exciting new products this month, Insta-Peg and ProLine Soldering Investment. Insta-Peg is a specially formulated custom refractory material that works perfect for ensuring restorations are securely stabilized during firing cycles. In addition, Insta-Peg can be used to create custom pegs, provide surface protection during high heat procedures and numerous other uses throughout the laboratory.

ProLine Soldering Investment is a precision soldering investment that is perfect for all soldering tasks. It is a fine grained, gypsum based material that is formulated for use with all types of alloys. It has superior slump resistance, so it stacks easily while still having a smooth consistency for easy investing. Be sure to check out all the details of these two great new products.