Background: Titanium dental implants are today widely used with osseointegration mainly dependently on the implant surface properties. Different processing routes lead to different surface characteristics resulting, of course, in different in situ behaviors of the implants. Materials: The effect of different treatments, whether mechanical or chemical, on the surface morphology of titanium implants were investigated. To this aim, various experimental methods, including roughness analysis as well scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, were applied. Results: The results showed that, in contrast to the mechanical treatments, the chemical ones gave rise to a more irregular surface. SEM observations suggested that where commercial pure titanium was used, the chemical treatments provided implant surfaces without contaminations. In contrast, sandblasted implants could cause potential risks of surface contamination because of the presence of blasting particles remnants. Conclusions: The examined implant surfaces showed different roughness levels in relation to the superficial treatment applied. The acid-etched surfaces were characterized by the presence of deeper valleys and higher peaks than the sandblasted surfaces. For this reason, acid-etched surfaces can be more easily damaged by the stress produced by the peri-implant bone during surgical implant placement.

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Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an additive manufacturing technology where three-dimensional physical models are manufactured by layer-by-layer deposition. However, the layered surface built with FDM suffers from poor surface quality and dimensional accuracy even for basic part geometries. This proves to be unacceptable and not satisfactory for most general purposes with the consequence of a decreased value of the final product. Several methods for post-processing were proposed to achieve fine surface of manufactured components. In particular, for components manufactured with polylactic acid (PLA) the chemical post-processing with dimethyl ketone (acetone), named vapor smoothing process, seems to be very promising to significantly improve the surface roughness. Moreover, acetone has the main advantage to have a low cost, low toxicity and high diffusion rate. However, this polishing procedure may dissolve the outer surface of the parts affecting the structural reliability of the part. In this work, a novel device, consisting of a cylindrical chamber in Pyrex, is set-up for the vapor smoothing process with acetone. The system is designed to permit the injection of a gas containing acetone at different concentrations and at different operating conditions (temperature, contact time). The samples used for the test are truncheon design manufactured using different printer settings; each truncheon is built at inclination angles varying from 0° to 45° in step of 5°. The variation of the surface roughness was investigated using a confocal microscope Leica DCM3D, equipped with the software LeicaScan and LeicaMap.

In this study, the effects of surface treatment of a low-temperature atmospheric oxygen plasma on basalt/epoxy composites were investigated to improve the hydrophobility of the composite surface. After the plasma treatment, the unmodified and surface treated composite laminates have been experimentally characterized by performing contact angle measurements, low-velocity impact tests and indentation depth on the impacted laminates. Results have showed a dependence of such composite properties on the plasma coating deposition and on the treatment parameters outlining the need to optimize both the plasma power and exposition time to plasma in order to assess the efficiency of the plasma treatment and establish the optimal processing conditions.

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