Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the viability of the cp-Ti obtained through the laser-directed energy deposition (LDED) technique as a material for dental prostheses through an evaluation of the microstructural, mechanical, and electrochemical properties. Additionally, the material resulting from LDED is also compared with the same alloy employed for milling in the dental restorative industry. The results obtained show that both materials have good overall performance for biomedical applications according to the ISO 22674 and ISO 10271 dentistry standards. Both materials have high corrosion resistance, typical of this alloy. However, commercially pure titanium grade 4 obtained by LDED present a higher mechanical performance than the ones resulting from the milling technique: 7% increment of ultimate tensile strength, 12.9% increment of elongation after fracture and 30% increment of toughness. This improved mechanical performance can be attributed to microstructure modification inherent to the LDED process.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved a lot in the last few decades
SEM images obtained from MILL and laser-directed energy deposition (LDED) samples revealed a clear difference in the microstructure
LDED samples show a structure of serrated colonies [31] (Figure 3(b1–b3)), composed of finer lamellar grains with no apparent intergranular segregation
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved a lot in the last few decades. Firstly, AM was intended for fabricating prototypes with much less effort and celerity. Its continuous evolution was obtained through significant advances in its constituent technologies such as improved reliable industrial laser sources, cheap high-performance computing hardware or evolution of metal powder manufacturing technologies [1]. These advances made AM a completely viable option for obtaining fully-functional final parts, efficiently creating complex components [2] and getting more and more competitive in large scale production. Laser-directed energy deposition (LDED, Figure 1) is an AM technique of the DED family where the energy employed comes from a laser source. LDED is characterized by a good metallurgical bonding between layers [7] and a reduced porosity [8]
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