Design and 3D-printing of titanium bone implants: brief review of approach and clinical cases

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an alternative metal fabrication technology. The outstanding advantage of AM (3Dprinting, direct manufacturing), is the ability to form shapes that cannot be formed with any other traditional technology. 3D-printing began as a new method of prototyping in plastics. Nowadays, AM in metals allows to realize not only netshape geometry, but also high fatigue strength and corrosion resistant parts. This success of AM in metals enables new applications of the technology in important fields, such as production of medical implants. The 3D-printing of medical implants is an extremely rapidly developing application. The success of this development lies in the fact that patientspecific implants can promote patient recovery, as often it is the only alternative to amputation. The production of AM implants provides a relatively fast and effective solution for complex surgical cases. However, there are still numerous challenging open issues in medical 3D-printing. The goal of the current research review is to explain the whole technological and design chain of bio-medical bone implant production from the computed tomography that is performed by the surgeon, to conversion to a computer aided drawing file, to production of implants, including the necessary post-processing procedures and certification. The current work presents examples that were produced by joint work of Polygon Medical Engineering, Russia and by TechMed, the AM Center of Israel Institute of Metals. Polygon provided 3D-planning and 3Dmodelling specifically for the implants production. TechMed were in charge of the optimization of models and they manufactured the implants by Electron-Beam Melting (EBM Ò), using an Arcam EBM Ò A2X machine. Keywords Additive manufacturing Á Bio-medical implants Á Electron beam melting Á 3D-printing Á Ti-6Al-4V Á CAD design Á Computed tomography

Powder-bed additive manufacturing for aerospace application: Techniques, metallic and metal/ceramic composite materials and trends

“…One of the most popular Ti alloys is Ti-6Al-4V, finding its place both in aerospace [61] and medical applications [1,2]. Up to now it is the most popular material used in AM.…”

“…The powder-bed additive manufacturing (PB-AM) unifies several 3D-printing powder-based techniques: selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM), electron beam melting (EBM) and binder jetting printing (BJP). PB-AM is widely used in critical applications like biomedical implants [1,2], automotive [3], and aerospace [3,4].…”

Osteo-Compatibility of 3D Titanium Porous Coating Applied by Direct Energy Deposition (DED) for a Cementless Total Knee Arthroplasty Implant: In Vitro and In Vivo Study

“…One such method is the direct energy deposition (DED) technique which has significant advantages, in terms of manufacturing, mechanical strength, and biocompatibility. DED is a 3D metal printing technique that can be used to fabricate porous structures similar to that of human cancellous bone while maintaining the mechanical strength [9][10][11]. Another key advantage of the DED technique is the capability to fabricate an implant using two different materials by spraying the metal powder onto the base formed with different types of metal [10][11][12].…”

Near Net Shape Manufacture of Titanium Alloy Components from Powder and Wire: A Review of State-of-the-Art Process Routes

“…These processes differ to subtractive manufacturing methods, as components are built up gradually, layer upon layer, rather than by removing material from a billet or forging. Currently, metal AM of titanium alloys has seen significant use in the medical industry for the manufacture of implants [15,16]. In these applications, the capabilities of metal AM for manufacturing highly complex geometries and the flexibility of AM processes in manufacturing bespoke components for individual patients means that AM is much better suited than conventional manufacturing methods.…”