Rapid prototyping based on laser cladding of cp-Ti

Abstract

Commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) and titanium alloys are successful metallic biomaterials for implants because of their biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, fatigue strength, and a relatively low elastic modulus to minimize “stress shielding” and osteopenia. Nowadays, titanium components are manufactured by conventional subtractive methods, which show a set of inconveniences: titanium has low machinability, loss of high cost material during machining, and the geometrical limitation for the shapes achieved by subtractive methods. Rapid Prototyping based on Laser Cladding is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique that can be applied to any material which can be melted. It can be found under different names and acronyms: Laser Consolidation (LC), Direct Laser Deposition (DLD), Laser Metal Deposition (LMD), Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENS), etc. Rapid Prototyping based on Laser Cladding can become a solution to manufacture advanced pure titanium components customized for the final user, with new geometries and/or with enhanced microstructures and mechanical properties for a better performance. In this research work, Laser Additive Manufacturing was employed to obtain simple parts made out of commercially pure titanium. Generated parts were analyzed by Optical Microscopy (OM), Optical Profilometry (OP), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) to study morphology, microstructure, and composition.Commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) and titanium alloys are successful metallic biomaterials for implants because of their biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, fatigue strength, and a relatively low elastic modulus to minimize “stress shielding” and osteopenia. Nowadays, titanium components are manufactured by conventional subtractive methods, which show a set of inconveniences: titanium has low machinability, loss of high cost material during machining, and the geometrical limitation for the shapes achieved by subtractive methods. Rapid Prototyping based on Laser Cladding is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique that can be applied to any material which can be melted. It can be found under different names and acronyms: Laser Consolidation (LC), Direct Laser Deposition (DLD), Laser Metal Deposition (LMD), Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENS), etc. Rapid Prototyping based on Laser Cladding can become a solution to manufacture advanced pure titanium components customized for the final user, with new ge...