Research Article Effect of Recasted Material Addition on the Quality of Metal-Ceramic Bond: A Macro-, Micro-, and Nanostudy Karolina Beer–Lech , 1 Krzysztof Palka, 2 Anna Skic , 1 Barbara Surowska, 2 and Krzysztof Golacki 1 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Faculty of Production Engineering, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Głe ˛boka Street 28, 20-612 Lublin, Poland 2 Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, Nadbystrzycka Street 36, 20-618 Lublin, Poland Correspondence should be addressed to Anna Skic; anna.skic@up.lublin.pl Received 15 December 2017; Revised 27 February 2018; Accepted 29 March 2018; Published 19 April 2018 Academic Editor: Patrice Berthod Copyright © 2018 Karolina Beer–Lech et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Using the recasted alloys in dental prosthetics could affect the quality of the metal-ceramic bond. However, scientists, alloys producers,andprosthetistsarestillofdifferentopinions.epurposeofthisstudywastoestimatetheinfluenceofrecastingofthe NiCrMo alloy on the metal-ceramic bond quality. e research was carried out on macro-, micro- and nanoscales using the three- point bending test procedure and hardness tests as well as atomic force microscopy and SEM analyses. e SEM analyses showed good integrity of the metal-ceramic bond. e τ b index of all test samples was greater than 45 MPa. e highest values were recorded for the samples made of 50% and 100% of a brand new material. SEM analysis made after the bending test confirmed goodmetal-ceramicbondandexhibitedadhesive-cohesivefracture.elargesthardnessofmetalplateswasfoundforthesamples containing 50% of the recycled material. Atomic force microscopy studies showed that the alloy containing 50% of the recycled material was characterized by the highest values of surface roughness parameters. 1. Introduction e metal-ceramic dentures are still widely used due to good combination of their durability—high strength of metal substructures and esthetics of porcelain. ey are also more economical than implants. Despite great popularity of precious metal alloys, the nonprecious Co-Cr and Ni-Cr ones are often used interchangeably because of their good mechanical properties and low costs. Despitequestioningtheuseofnickelalloysasbiomaterials, due to the potential harmful effects on human tissues, nickel- base alloys are still widely used to manufacture the sub- structures of ceramic crowns and bridges. ese alloys have larger elasticity modulus than the gold ones and thus thinner cross section of the alloy can be used to reduce destruction of the healthy tooth during crown manufacturing [1]. Moreover, the coefficient of thermal expansion of nickel alloys is compatible with that of thermal expansion of con- ventional ceramics that are used to produce dental veneers which provides a good metal-ceramic bond [2]. e final quality and reliability of partial dentures is influenced mainly by properties of denture and their design [3], the casting method [4, 5], and the use of already melted materials for casting its metal substructures [6]. e practice of using recasting materials is a very common way to reduce the cost of prosthetic components manufactured in dental labo- ratories. However, producer’s and researcher’s points of view are different in this case. Some manufacturers of dental alloys permit the use of once melted alloys but not less than the 50% addition of the brand new material. ey also require that the material must come from the same batch. Another group of manufacturers do not allow using remelted material (e.g., Heraeus Kulzer Co.) or do not provide any information on the use of dental alloys obtained from recycling. Hindawi Advances in Materials Science and Engineering Volume 2018, Article ID 3271950, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3271950