Читать книгу Metal Additive Manufacturing - Ehsan Toyserkani - Страница 21

The medical industry was one of the early adopters of AM for the fabrication of not only metal parts, but also ceramics, polymers, and FGMs. Metal AM has been used to produce medical devices and tools, surgery guides and prototypes, implants, prosthetics, orthotics, dental implants, crowns, and bridges from biocompatible metals such as various titanium, tantalum, and nickel alloys. These are among the main families of metal AM materials with a somewhat well‐established process‐property record that can be leveraged by companies, clinics, and hospitals that will use AM in the future. The design freedom in the production of complex parts with internal pores and cavities facilitating the growth of cells and the production of patient‐specific parts based on the imaging of patients' anatomy are the main reasons that the medical and dental industry has shown such a high interest in AM. With personalized healthcare on the horizon, it is only expected that the scope of using AM in these sectors would increase. Due to the high precision required to produce medical parts, PBF processes are the dominant AM techniques in this sector. In addition, porosity and selective stiffness are of major importance to medical devices. Thus, BJ is playing an important role as it can produce implants with controlled porosity. Next‐generation customized porous implants aim to better integrate with the surrounding bone, as they improve body fluid/cell‐laden permeability. Functionally gradient porous implants/scaffolds are being designed based on interconnected triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS); see Chapter 10.

Figure 1.14 depicts multiple dental and orthopedic devices developed by multiple companies and centers as attributed in the figure caption. Behind all these medical devices, there is an incredible story that the authors suggest the reader look at the references provided in the caption too. In summary, metal AM (especially LPBF and E‐PBF) has been an instrumental tool for the realization of these patient‐tailored metal implants mainly made from titanium alloys.

Figure 1.14 (a) Dental crowns printed by LPBF

(Source: Courtesy of EOS [16]),

(b) joint implants printed by E‐LPF

(Source: Courtesy of Orthostream [17]),

(c) functionally gradient porous titanium load‐bearing hip implant printed by Renishaw's LPBF

(Source: Courtesy of Betatype [18]),

(d) customized ribs and sternum printed by E‐PBF

(Source: Courtesy of Anatomics and Lab22 [19]).