A successful clinical performance of dental and orthopaedic implants strongly depends on the fixation of the implant in the surrounding tissue. Bone ingrowth in and through porous coatings on the implant surface can substantially improve the implant fixation. By tailoring the surface morphology and controlling the porosity and pore size of the coating, osseointegration is promoted resulting in an optimal biological anchorage. A new powder metallurgical processing route for the production of porous titanium coatings on metallic substrates was developed. Using electrophoretic deposition of TiH_2 powders followed by a thermal treatment in vacuum, a porous titanium coating was applied on Ti or Ti6AI4V substrates. Coatings with thicknesses of 50-200 μrn, pore sizes between 10 - 50 μrn and an overall porosity of 35-55 % could be realized on dental implants as well as on complex orthopaedic components. The biological performance of the coatings was evaluated in vitro and in vivo.
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