The story behind DACOS
How one question, a magnet problem, and a calibrator that refused to work became ZeroDrift™ Transfer — and why the transfer step is no longer your problem.
Antonello Croce — Dental Technician · Inventor of ZeroDrift™ Transfer · Founder, DACOS
I started where you are.
I wanted exactly what you want: to remount models on the articulator without plaster. So I did what everybody does — a base, a disconnection system, a plate on the articulator. The standard approach. I thought I was building another plaster-free system. Maybe a better one. But still the same category.
The starting point
“How are you going to print this?”
One question from a friend stopped the project cold. The geometry I had designed forced supports and a 45-degree print angle — longer prints, compromised teeth, one more variable nobody controls. A dental model should print flat. So I stopped designing a base and spent months engineering the geometry around how a model should actually be printed. Hundreds of tests. Lab visits. Iteration after iteration.
Became ShieldBase™ Geometry
The technician should never have to think.
Magnets hold the model to the plate — but insert one with the wrong polarity and it repels. I refused to fix that with instructions. The user should never wonder which way a magnet goes. The answer arrived one evening at home, from outside the lab entirely. The tool that came out of it guarantees correct orientation every single time — no thinking, no mistakes.
Became DockingMatrix™ + GlueJet™
Three millimeters of chaos.
The calibrator — the part that guarantees your articulator reads zero — was drifting three millimeters on the incisal pin. Industrial materials, nylon, tighter tolerances: nothing was consistent, and the manufacturer said 0.3 mm was the best possible. The fix went against every instinct I had as a product designer: delete the calibrator from the box. Ship the STL file instead. You print it — on your printer, with your resin, in your environment. Your machine’s tolerance stops fighting the system and becomes part of it.
Became TrueZero™ Calibration
I didn’t have four good components. I had a protocol. Geometry. Magnets. Calibration. CAD libraries. Remove any one and it doesn’t work. That protocol is ZeroDrift™ Transfer.
Every epiphany became a pillar. Together they make the transfer repeatable.
GlueJet™ — magnet placement in real use.
8 Magnets. 33 Valid Patterns. Zero Interference.
ShieldBase™ Geometry
3D-print optimized seating geometry that protects the reference zone and avoids bulky bases.
DockingMatrix™ Configuration
8 magnets on the plate, 4 per model, multiple patterns to avoid implant analog interference.
TrueZero™ Calibration
Calibrate the articulator first, so you remove articulator error from the equation.
Dedicated CAD Libraries
Exocad, 3Shape, Blender for Dental and more, the protocol lives inside your workflow.
The precision chain
What we control. What we don’t.
Your chain
Scan quality
CAD design
Printer calibration
Resin behavior
Post-curing
Articulator stability
We can’t control your scanner, your printer, your resin, or your articulator. We engineered one thing to perfection: the moment your model meets the articulator. That step adds nothing. Measured system ceiling: ±0.02 mm. Whatever precision gap exists in your workflow, it doesn’t come from the transfer. The transfer is never the weakest link.
PCT Patent Pending
International application covering the full system
Hague Design Protection
Granted without refusal
±0.02 mm
Measured system repeatability ceiling
20+ countries
Labs using DACOS Omni worldwide
DACOS Omni is designed and engineered by MetaDac FZE, Dubai, UAE.
BEYOND THE BENCH
I don't just sell the system. I teach the craft behind it.
For years, before DACOS, labs and universities invited me to teach digital workflows — from the Digital Dentistry Society stage to hands-on courses across eight countries. The obsession with precision that produced ZeroDrift™ started here.
DIGITAL DENTISTRY SOCIETY · VENICE
SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY DENTAL HOSPITAL · KOREA
CHAIRSIDE DEMONSTRATION · INDIA
DENTAL TECHNICIAN SCHOOL · ITALY
CAD TRAINING · MEXICO
DDS CONGRESS STAGE · VENICE
LECTURE · NETHERLANDS
LAB TRAINING · WISCONSIN, USA
HANDS-ON COURSE · INDIA
CONFERENCE STAGE · ITALY
DENTAL SYMPOSIUM · SEOUL
DIGITAL WORKFLOW COURSE · MEXICO
DIGITAL DENTISTRY PODCAST · DUBAI
ARTICULATOR WORKSHOP · ITALY
INVITED SPEAKERS · DDS VENICE
LIVE FILMED DEMONSTRATION
“Dubai, after hours — where the iterations happened.”
From the founder
No middleman. Ever.
DACOS is not a brand run by a distributor. When you buy Omni, there is no middleman between you and the person who designed it. If something in your workflow doesn’t return to zero, you talk to us — directly.
Antonello
Antonello Croce, Founder
Join professionals in over 20 countries.