Our single-unit zirconia remake rate hit 4.7% last quarter, mostly from high occlusion and tight mesial contacts verified with 8 µm shimstock post-glaze. If you have a concise in-process checklist or control chart template (CAD design through pre‑sinter inspection) that helped lift first‑pass yield without adding cycle time, I’d appreciate a copy or outline.
30‑sec green‑state 12 µm shimstock check; CAD proximal relief +30 µm — remakes halved — ‘8 µm shimstock’ post‑glaze was too late.
I keep a single, calm script saved as an athenaOne quick text so we can grab those 8:15 a.m. releases without rushing: “I’m here to help right now — first, can I confirm two details, and are you in a private spot? I can hold.” If they aren’t private, I offer a 5‑minute callback and label the slot “priority hold” instead of “urgent within 48 hrs” to lower stress; curious if that wording fits your flow.
Quick example: we built a tiny CAD gate — “no red on proximals, cusp tips lifted 0.02” — and require a pre‑nest screenshot; a runner pastes those into a simple X‑bar sheet that flags when a mill or sinter frame starts creeping. It cut our high occlusion and mesial pinch without adding a minute, but if your cases skew full‑arch I’d dial the cusp lift back a hair.
We cut a 10 mm coupon from each new zirconia lot, measure actual shrink, and let CAM apply a lot‑specific scale — our high bites and snug mesials dropped fast… For a quick in‑process touch, a 10–15 sec green check with a single strip of PTFE tape between contacts tells us if we need a +20 µm nudge in CAD; “calibrate the blank, not the crown” is the mantra — boring but it works like a seatbelt. Caveat: recheck the coupon every about 10 blanks or after a furnace thermocouple swap because shade/lot drift is real.