Abstract
Additive manufacturing is currently one of the promising methods for the fabrication of products of complex shapes. It is also used in medical applications, thanks to technological progress, which also enables the printing of metallic materials. However, the final products often have to undergo a final surface treatment. In this work, the influence of surface finishing on the corrosion behavior of the medical alloy Ti-6Al-4V prepared by the selective laser melting technique is studied. The samples were subjected to mechanical, chemical and electrochemical treatments. Corrosion behavior was investigated using DC and AC electrochemical techniques such as potentiodynamic and potentiostatic curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Furthermore, the influence of surface treatments on the possibility of localized corrosion attack was evaluated. The results showed that the surface treatments have a positive effect on the corrosion resistance and reduce the risk of crevice corrosion.
Highlights
The manufacturing of products of specific shapes, which cannot be achieved in any other way than 3D printing, known as additive manufacturing, is increasingly in demand
3D printing of titanium and its alloys is promising for medical applications [1,2,3,4]
The Ti-6Al-4V alloy has a less dense passive layer compared to commercially pure titanium Grade 2, but is still sufficiently corrosion resistant and is more widely used for biomaterials due to its improved mechanical properties
Summary
The manufacturing of products of specific shapes, which cannot be achieved in any other way than 3D printing, known as additive manufacturing, is increasingly in demand. In contrast to the traditional method of metallic materials production (casting, forming and machining), the additive layer-by-layer technique results in a complex structure in almost final form. This makes the production of more complex components faster and cheaper. For this reason, 3D printing of titanium and its alloys is promising for medical applications [1,2,3,4]. The Ti-6Al-4V alloy has a less dense passive layer compared to commercially pure titanium Grade 2, but is still sufficiently corrosion resistant and is more widely used for biomaterials due to its improved mechanical properties. Due to its microstructure, which is largely made of needle-like α‘martensite, compared to an alloy produced by traditional technology, Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by selective laser melting (SLM) has a worse resistance to uneven corrosion attack in a solution containing 3.5 wt. %
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