Additive manufacturing of multi-functional biomaterials for bioimplants: a review

Abstract

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) has been emerged recently as a promising technique to manufacture biomaterials for bioimplants creating a high impact in the field of medical science and research. AM technologies facilitate fabrication of the micro- as well as macro- architectural framework of orthopaedic bioimplants both internally and externally with higher precision and flexibility. The topological as well as geometrical porous nature of metallic biomaterials by means of controlled AM processes for fabrication of bioimplants can be adapted with high precision, leading to the upgradation of mechanical properties for bone-mimicking with improved biodegradation features. The increasing demand for the application of multi-functional biomaterials to manufacture metallic bioimplant sas substitute of bonecon fronts the current additive manufacturing technologies. In this paper, recent technological advancement in the manufacturing of Ti-, Mg- and Fe-based biomaterials utilizing multi-material AM technologies is being reviewed for identifying the knowledge gaps and come up with the directions of further researches leading to the progress of multi-material based additive manufacturing technologies to fabricate metallic bioimplants by virtue of multi-functional biomaterials.