Analysis of tempering stresses in metal-ceramic disks.

Previous studies showed that residual compressive stresses induced by thermal tempering retarded the growth of surface cracks in bilayered porcelain disks. The objectives of the present study were: (1) to determine whether thermal tempering by air blasting reduces the length of cracks induced by microhardness indentation in metal-ceramic disks, and (2) to use visco-elastic finite element analyses to calculate transient and residual stresses in metal-ceramic disks. Ni-Cr-Be disks, 16 mm in diameter and 0.3 mm in thickness, were prepared with a 0.5-mm-thick layer of opaque porcelain and a 1.5-mm-thick layer of body porcelain. Metal-porcelain combinations were selected to provide a range of thermal contraction mismatch values. The disks were fired to the maturing temperature of body porcelain and then were subjected to three cooling procedures: (1) slow cooling in a furnace (SC), (2) cooling in air (FC), and (3) air tempering (T) by blasting the surface of the body porcelain with compressed air. The lengths of cracks induced in the surface of the body porcelain by a microhardness indenter were measured immediately after indentation at 20 points along diametral lines. The results of Tukey's multiple-contrast analyses indicated that the mean crack lengths of air-tempered specimens were significantly smaller (p < or = 0.05) than the crack lengths of the fast-cooled and slow-cooled groups. Except for one case, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean crack lengths between FC and SC specimens independent of thermal contraction mismatch. Residual tensile stresses were calculated for SC and FC specimens for all thermal contraction mismatch cases, with the largest values being associated with combinations containing the body porcelain with the smaller contraction coefficient. Calculations by use of the model confirmed that tempering induces large residual compressive stresses in the surface of body porcelain for all of the thermal contraction mismatch cases included in this study.