CATEGORY 82 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST PART. 02: Torqtech Red Band Ultra Mini Handpiece the Most Compact Size in the World! – In 2022, the Ultra Mini joined the portfolio of the Torqtech Red Band Handpiece series. Tanaka: At the same time as the Torqtech series was released in 2010, Morita also released the TwinPower Turbine Ultra series (Powerful Micro Head). The power of a turbine decreases if its head size is reduced, due to the smaller impeller. Morita introduced a new double impeller mechanism, which achieved strong power and constant torque and was highly evaluated by dentists. We also received many requests for a smaller head size for the red band handpiece. However, to realize this, there were unique difficulties that were not present when downsizing the turbine head. The downsizing of a turbine head is achieved by reducing the size of the impeller. In contrast, because a red band handpiece is driven by a motor, downsizing gears in the same manner would result in larger burdens on the gears and bearing, causing a problem with durability. Therefore, we needed to downsize the bearing without altering the gear system, while simultaneously increasing its durability. – There were unique difficulties that were not present when downsizing the turbine head.How did you improve the bearing? Tanaka: A common bearing has an inner ring and an outer ring, respectively on the inside and outside of a ring-shaped groove where the balls rotate, with an inner retainer that retains the balls at equal intervals. The retainer is the most crucial element of a bearing and is also the most vulnerable to damage. Whereas metal materials are commonly used for retainers, a metal retainer rapidly wears out through fast rotation. Therefore, we use a special resin material for the Ultra Mini. Whereas resins are inferior to metals in strength, their extreme lightweight is stronger than metals against wear through fast rotation. Common resins easily deteriorate at high temperature and are therefore extremely vulnerable to sterilization, and can be damaged through repeated autoclaving. To solve this problem, we use a special resin material featuring both heat and steam resistance for the retainer part of the Ultra Mini. – Did you also improve the structure, in addition to the material? Tanaka: There are two structures for bearings: deep groove bearings and angular bearings. A deep groove bearing has a ball placed on a deep groove, with the retainer holding the ball from one side and capping it with the outer ring. This is the structure used for conventional red Interview with the Developer of the Torqtech Red Band Handpiece Part 2: Torqtech Red Band 1:5 Ultra Mini Handpiece Hitoshi Tanaka Associate Engineer, Research and Development Group 1 J. MORITA MFG. CORP. Interview with the engineer behind the Torqtech Morita released the Torqtech Red Band Handpiece Ultra Mini in October 2022 in response to requests from many dentists. This product was finally developed despite many difficulties through the high technological skills and persistent creative efforts by engineers at J. MORITA MFG. CORP. 12 years after the first release of the Torqtech series. We interviewed Mr. Hitoshi Tanaka, one of the engineers at J. MORITA MFG. CORP., for his insight into the development of the Torqtech Red Band Handpiece in Part 1 and the Torqtech Red Band Handpiece Ultra Mini in Part 2. Double impeller system of the TwinPower Turbine COMPANY PROFILE
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