NEW POWDER/SOLID COMPOSITE EXHIBITING LOW YOUNG'S MODULUS AND ENERGY ABSORPTION FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS FABRICATED BY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

摘要

Almost all products of nature, including biological materials such as bone and plants, are hierarchically designed across different length scales. We propose a new concept for a hierarchical porous product, fabricated by a Ti-6Al-4V (mass%) alloy composed of necked powder and melted solid possessing controllable mechanical properties, utilizing electron beam melting (EBM) and subsequent heat treatment. The product exhibited a low Young's modulus of about 30 GPa and excellent fracture toughness, both of which are necessary for orthopedic applications such as bone replacement devices. We expect that new products composed of the solid and functionalized necked powder reported in this study will be beneficially utilized for biomedical and industrial applications. We report on the synthesis of a material combining a controllably low Young's modulus and excellent toughness as found in the related research works [1,2].