Abstract
Effective quality control of implants made using additive manufacturing is an important task for suppliers to comply fully with existing regulations and certifications. To study the influence of porosity on the mechanical behaviour of mandibular implants produced by additive manufacturing, preliminary tests with longitudinal flat samples were performed with 3D point bending tests. Ti6Al4V Extra Low Interstitial (ELI) specimens with artificial porosity were designed and subjected to typical loads during mastication. In this work, a finite element simulation was constructed to investigate the bending behaviour of samples, which was consistent with the experimental results. The work shows that even large artificial cavities (designed up to 0.42 mm) do not significantly affect the strength of additively manufactured 2.5 mm-thick Ti6Al4V ELI specimens under typical static loads of mandibular implants, in the considered loading conditions, and for samples subjected to appropriate surface finishing and annealing heat treatment.
Highlights
Each year millions of patients improve their quality of life through surgical procedures involving implanted medical devices
If the sample is to remain elastic under loading, the maximum value of the Von Mises stress from the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model needs to remain below the yield value
FEA analysis showed that, when a load of 1 kN was applied, the maximum Von Mises stress exceeded the point of yield stress for all the samples (Figure 4a) — that is, 800-880 MPa in annealed Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Ti6Al4V material [16] (Figure 4a)
Summary
Each year millions of patients improve their quality of life through surgical procedures involving implanted medical devices. The benefits of additive manufacturing (AM) in bone reconstruction using metal alloys are unquestionable in terms of customisation of implants and production time, with the main advantage being the patient-specific design capabilities. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the functional anatomy and biomechanics of the human mandible, Ti6Al4V ELI samples were designed and manufactured by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). Experiments and numerical simulations of samples with different sizes and placements of artificial pores were done. This approach is a promising method of determining a critical pore-size-to-failure tolerance for AM implants with some defects
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