Surface Roughness and Morphology Customization of Additive Manufactured Open Porous Ti6Al4V Structures

Abstract

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.

Mechanical Properties and In Vitro Behavior of Additively Manufactured and Functionally Graded Ti6Al4V Porous Scaffolds

“…We measured average surface roughness, R a , using a Mitutoyo Surftest SJ400 and found it to be around 10 µm. This is in agreement with the reported values of surface roughness of SLM printed lattice structures [47]. In addition, volume fraction was quantified using the gas pycnometry and densitometry ( Table 1).…”

An Overview of Densification, Microstructure and Mechanical Property of Additively Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V — Comparison among Selective Laser Melting, Electron Beam Melting, Laser Metal Deposition and Selective Laser Sintering, and with Conventional Powder

“…Figure 2 shows a schematic graph to present the working principle of the SLM [46]. Table 3 provides a summary about the key machine parameters and working conditions via a typical SLM machine, SLM 280 HL [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. …”

Influence of Build Orientation, Heat Treatment, and Laser Power on the Hardness of Ti6Al4V Manufactured Using the DMLS Process

“…Many authors in the research are focused on the effects of Ti6Al4V processing technology on its mechanical, fatigue properties, surface quality after machining, and so on [20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. In particular, the influence of the building direction in additive technologies is observed.…”