Novel titanium foam for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Titanium foams fabricated by a new powder metallurgical process have bimodal pore distribution architecture (i.e., macropores and micropores), mimicking natural bone. The mechanical properties of the titanium foam with low relative densities of approximately 0.20–0.30 are close to those of human cancellous bone. Also, mechanical properties of the titanium foams with high relative densities of approximately 0.50–0.65 are close to those of human cortical bone. Furthermore, titanium foams exhibit good ability to form a bonelike apatite layer throughout the foams after pretreatment with a simple thermochemical process and then immersion in a simulated body fluid. The present study illustrates the feasibility of using the titanium foams as implant materials in bone tissue engineering applications, highlighting their excellent biomechanical properties and bioactivity.

Design of water debinding and dissolution stages of metal injection moulded porous Ti foam production

“…These micropores will act as microporous bridges connecting the macropores, and should thus lead to higher porosity and permeability. Although some argue that these micropores can be beneficial (e.g.in transporting body fluids and nutrients in biomedical applications [27]), the presence of such micropores can negatively impact the mechanical properties of foams by reducing the load bearing cross sectional area of the cell walls [28]. The true density was found to be equal to 4.5 g/cm 3 which is equivalent to the density of Ti and an indication that all pores present are open pores, whereas the foam density was equal to 2.005 g/cm 3 meaning that the volume percentage of porosity is equal to 55%.…”

Next-generation biomedical implants using additive manufacturing of complex, cellular and functional mesh arrays

“…These coatings have included the addition of metal beads to a solid implant surface by a sintering or diffusion bonding process, thermal spraying of porous metal surfaces, sintering of metal cellular or mesh arrays onto the surface and the sintering of metallic foams to implant device surfaces (Bobyn et al 1999;Wen et al 2002). Figure 1 illustrates a commercial cellular structure composed of tantalum, developed by Zimmer Holdings, Inc. as Trabecular Metal.…”

The effect of strain rate on the compressive deformation behavior of a sintered Ti6Al4V powder compact

“…There has recently been a great deal of interest centered around the processing [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and use [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] of porous Ti components for biomedical applications. This has been primarily driven by the fact that the porous surfaces can facilitate a higher degree of bone in-growth and body fluid transport through threedimensional interconnected arrays of pores, leading to improved implant fixation [23].…”