Despite the fact that additive manufacturing (AM) techniques allow to manufacture complex porous parts with a controlled architecture, differences can occur between designed and as-produced morphological properties. Therefore this study aimed at optimizing the robustness and controllability of the production of porous Ti6Al4V structures using selective laser melting (SLM) by reducing the mismatch between designed and as-produced morphological and mechanical properties in two runs. In the first run, porous Ti6Al4V structures with different pore sizes were designed, manufactured by SLM, analyzed by microfocus X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT) image analysis and compared to the original design. The comparison was based on the following morphological parameters: pore size, strut thickness, porosity, surface area and structure volume. Integration of the mismatch between designed and measured properties into a second run enabled a decrease of the mismatch. For example, for the average pore size the mismatch decreased from 45% to 5%. The demonstrated protocol is furthermore applicable to other 3D structures, properties and production techniques, powder metallurgy, titanium alloys, porous materials, mechanical characterization, tomography.

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Additive manufacturing techniques can be used to produce micro‐porous structures with global morphological properties that are highly controlled through robust computer design. Despite these advantages, most of these techniques still hold several functional constraints, resulting from present technical device limits and consequently the inability to control surface morphology at a microscale level. In this study, a novel protocol for surface modification of 3D titanium alloy‐based open porous structures is developed, which applies a combination of chemical etching (CHE) and electrochemical polishing (ECP) using HF‐based solutions. This protocol achieves significant and controllable roughness reduction of additive manufactured 3D Ti6Al4V open porous structures. Chemical etching mainly removes the attached powder grains, while ECP further decreases the roughness. In this way the heterogeneity of the strut surface roughness throughout the full 3D structure is effectively removed.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a production method that enables the building of porous structures with a controlled geometry. However, there is a limited control over the final surface of the product. Hence, complementary surface engineering strategies are needed. In this work, design of experiments (DoE) was used to customize post AM surface treatment for 3D selective laser melted Ti6Al4V open porous structures for bone tissue engineering. A two-level three-factor full factorial design was employed to assess the individual and interactive effects of the surface treatment duration and the concentration of the chemical etching solution on the final surface roughness and beam thickness of the treated porous structures. It was observed that the concentration of the surface treatment solution was the most important factor influencing roughness reduction. The designed beam thickness decreased the effectiveness of the surface treatment. In this case study, the optimized processing conditions for AM production and the post-AM surface treatment were defined based on the DoE output and were validated experimentally. This allowed the production of customized 3D porous structures with controlled surface roughness and overall morphological properties, which can assist in more controlled evaluation of the effect of surface roughness on various functional properties.

Nano-CT is a fast and minimal invasive technique for the ex vivo analysis and understanding of ECR and is complementary with hard tissue histology. A combined approach of clinical and CBCT examination, with nano-CT and histological mapping measurements, can provide an ideal platform for future ECR imaging and exploration studies.