Multi-Material Cellular Structures Produced By Selective Laser Melting: A Suitable Transition Between Niti And Ti6Al4V Alloys

摘要

This study investigates a multi-material design and fabrication strategy that allocates different biomaterials in a single component targeting a multi-functional hip implant. Selective Laser Melting technology was explored to fabricate NiTi-Ti6Al4V multi-material cellular structures targeting the development of a hip implant solution with a Ti6Al4V inner region and a NiTi outer region. This solution aims to reduce the high number of revision surgeries that is necessary, 10 to 15 after Total Hip Arthroplasty, due to the loss of fixation between implant and bone, and consequent implant failure. The cellular architecture allows the elastic modulus lowering and can be adjusted to achieve a suitable stiffness avoiding stress shielding phenomenon, while the NiTi shape memory effect in the outer region can be used to assure uniform contact pressure at the implant-bone interface. This work was focused on the SLM fabrication, processing parameters validation, morphological analyses, shear and nano-indentation testing.