Laser Forming of Ti-6Al-7Nb Alloy Powder Compacts for Medical Devices

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys have been widely used for medical and aerospace applications because of their excellent attributes of light metal, high strength, high corrosion resistance and high biocompatibility. Especially, Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy has been developed as a more suitable biomaterial to replace Ti-6Al-4V alloy, because vanadium is toxic element to the biological body. However, it is not easy to fabricate the complex shaped and precise parts by the conventional methods due to their poor castability and machinability. In this study, laser forming technique has been applied to solve the above problems. The precise structure was obtained by optimizing the laser forming parameters. Using this technique, a honeycomb structure was fabricated　effective to grow the neighboring tissue and also encourage osseointegration. Finally, mouse osteoblasts were cultured on the formed structures, resulted in the effectiveness of the honeycomb structure for biocompatibility.