Determination of compressive strength of 3D polymeric lattice structure as template in powder metallurgy

Abstract

Powder metallurgy has been developed to fabricate metal foams from various materials including magnesium. One particular challenge on powder metallurgy is fabrication of highly-ordered and interconnected porous products. Pores interconnectivity is important in application of porous magnesium alloy for biodegradable orthopedic implants. Meanwhile, 3D polymeric printing technology offers capability to build precise and rapid lattice wireframe products in a simple and low-cost manner. Here, we design and validate the capability of 3D polymeric lattice as template in powder metallurgy for fabrication of magnesium-based biodegradable implants. Lattice structures were made of ABS, PLA, and PVA filaments. Lattice structures were cubical-shaped with uniform dimension and variations in pore size are included in the study. Both computational and experimental tests are performed to determine the compressive strength of the lattice structures. Uniaxial stress with uniform magnitude is applied to test the lattice structures. The resulting stress, strain, and deformation of the 3D polymeric lattice are observed. Variations in materials and pore size affect the stress, strain and deformation of the 3D polymeric lattice. Parameters can be further optimized to meet the requirement of the design and fabrication process in consideration of the tolerable stress, strain and deformation.