Dental instruments add a touch of colour

The M2C service provides a cost-effective way of adding colour options to standard monochrome displays.

Anders Electronics' M2C (mono-to-colour) displays have been selected by Forum Engineering Technologies (Forum) for use in its Raypex 5 endodontic instruments.

Anders' M2C service provides a cost-effective way of adding colour options to standard monochrome displays.

The Raypex 5 electronic apex locator (EAL) is a device used for working length determination by dentists performing root canal treatment.

It provides the practitioner with a real-time view of the progress of an instrument down the root canal, helping to prevent under- or over-instrumentation and significantly increasing the treatment's effectiveness.

"A clear, bright, intuitive, yet cost-effective display is vital to the success of an instrument like the Raypex 5", says Forum's President and CEO Michael Yakoby.

"Working closely with Anders Electronics, we were able to use the M2C service to satisfy our goal of delivering a first-class user interface at low cost".

The Raypex 5, which is powered by three AAA-size NiMH rechargeable batteries, is equipped with a positive transflective film-compensated super-twisted nematic (FSTN) display with a viewing area of 107 x 62mm.

To facilitate viewing under the bright fluorescent lights typically found in dental clinics, it uses a blue background combined with an ultra-paper-white 3M polariser and integrated backlight using five white LEDs.

The Anders M2C service allows blue, green, yellow, red and black coloured layers to be attached to the glass of the display, allowing the Raypex 5 to provide highly intuitive guidance to the practitioner.

For instance, a red display segment lights when the target depth of root canal work has been reached or exceeded.

As well as the M2C-equipped Raypex 5, Forum and Anders are working on a number of other developments.

These include a lower-power EAL that uses reflective screen technology, and a high-end product, the Propex II, which uses a 3.5in transflective colour QVGA LPTS TFT module from TPO.

By supporting monochrome, M2C and full-colour solutions in transflective and reflective versions, Anders allows Forum to appeal to the widest possible number of users with a range of devices optimised for different market segments.

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