K3 Nickel-Titanium Files

Wide Radial Land

The benefit to the practitioner with K3 is an instrument with unparalleled debris removal.

3. Wide Radial Land
The best way to explain this is blade support. Most file designs derive their strength from the mass of the material encompassed in the core area/diameter of the instrument rather than the core and peripheral area near the blades (radial lands). Therefore a file should have adequate peripheral strength to resist torsional or rotary stresses.

Blade support is defined as the amount of material supporting the cutting blades of the instrument. This part of the file is also called the radial land. This design feature is critical to the instrument. The less blade support (the amount of metal behind the cutting edge) the less resistant the instrument is to torsional or rotary stresses. The Profile for example does not maximize peripheral mass.

Figure 11 - Variable Helical Flute Angle

Figure 12: Increased Radial Land Increased radial land of the K3 increases peripheral strength behind the cutting blade

Figure 13: Profile Radial Land Smaller radial land equals decreased strength for the Profile