Manufacturing of Medical Implants by Combination of Selective Laser Melting and Laser Ablation

Abstract

The perfect fit of hip stem prostheses is supposed to have positive effects on their lifetime performance. Moreover, the ingrowth of tissue into the surface of the implant has to be assured to create a firm and load bearing contact. For the manufacturing of customized hip stem prostheses, the technology of Selective Laser Melting has shown promising results. Poor surface quality, however, makes it necessary to finish up the part by e.g., sand blasting or polishing. With the use of laser ablation for post-processing, reproducible and functionalized surface morphologies might be achievable. Hence, with the motive to produce customized hip stem prostheses, a combined process chain for both mentioned laser technologies is developed. It is examined what type of surface should be produced at which part of the process chain. The produced implants should contain the demanded final surface characteristics without any conventional post-processing. Slight advantages for the Selective Laser Melting regarding the accuracy for different geometrical structures of 400 μm depth were observed. However, an overall improvement of surface quality after the laser ablation process in terms of osseointegration could be achieved. A complete laser based production of customized hip stem implants is found to be with good prospects.