Abstract
BackgroundAdditive manufacturing (AM) technology has helped to achieve several advances in the medical field, particularly as far as fabrication of implants is concerned. But the application of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) bone plate is quite limited due to the indeterminate mechanical property. The purposes of this study were to characterize the biomechanical properties of the polished DMLS reconstruction plate and to compare these with the properties of commonly applied implants and to find whether the mechanical performance of DMLS plate meets the requirements for clinical application.MethodsIn this study, we fabricated two groups of plates by DMLS and computer numerical control (CNC) techniques. After that, we polished all samples and investigated their roughness, components, hardness, static bending, and torsional performance. Moreover, cyclic bending tests and fractographic analysis were conducted. Statistical comparisons of the group by means of monotonic test data were made, and a qualitative comparison was performed to assess failures in fatigue.ResultsWe found no differences in surface roughness or components after polishing, but the DMLS plate hardness is 7.42% (p < 0.01) greater than that of the CNC plates. Compared with the CNC plates, the DMLS plate static bending and torsional performance were significantly greater. In a dynamic test, the DMLS plates survived 106, 106, 32,731, and 33,264 cycles under 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, and 1 kN cyclic loads, respectively, while the CNC plates survived 106, 106, 106, and 283,714 cycles.ConclusionsThese results indicate that the mechanical performances of the DMLS plate are stronger, and the strength under fatigue tests is sufficient. DMLS implant has great potential and may become a better choice for clinical use in the future. However, direct application of these AM instruments in the operating room requires further validation including animal and clinical experiment.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has helped to achieve several advances in the medical field, as far as fabrication of implants is concerned
Comparing the target size and polished plate size, we found that none of the differences between groups were significant (p > 0.05), implying that the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) manufacturing technique is able to provide adequate accuracy for bone plates used in clinical applications torque within 10° of rotation
The observed DMLS plate surfaces were relatively rough with an irregular texture compared with computer numerical control (CNC) plates before polishing
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has helped to achieve several advances in the medical field, as far as fabrication of implants is concerned. Reconstruction plates play an important role in the internal fixation system because they are malleable and can be contoured to fit in nearly every direction to accommodate mismatched appositional surfaces [1,2,3]. These characteristics accelerate the application of reconstruction plates in clavicular fractures and scapular and pelvic fixations. A full DMLS process occurs in an ultra-high-vacuum environment that may prevent defects caused by oxidation and DMLS has the advantage of fabricating components with a much lower residual stress which strongly influence fatigue life [6, 7] Such characteristics allow for the manufacturing of advantageous tailored implants
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