Manufacturing and Characterisation of Robot Assisted Microplasma Multilayer Coating of Titanium Implants : Biocompatible coatings for medical implants with improved density and crystallinity

摘要

This study focuses on the new technologies for production of medical implants using combined areas of robotics and microplasma coatings. This involves the robot assisted microplasma spraying of a multilayer surface structure on the biomedical implant. The robot motion design reassures a consistent and customized plasma coating operation. Based on the analytical models results, certain spraying modes were chosen to form the optimized composition and structure of the titanium/hydroxyapatite multilayer coatings. It is desirable that the titanium coated low layer offer a dense layer to provide the implant with suitable structural integrity and the titanium porous layer and hydroxyapatite top layer present a biocompatible layers which are suitable for implant and tissue integration. Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy, and X-ray diffraction have been used for analyzing the structure of coatings. The new robot assisted microplasma spraying technique resulted from our research provides a promising solution in the medical implant technology.