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Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Alloys for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Titanium alloys have been extensively used in medical field, especially for load-bearing implants due to their excellent properties such as high strength and great corrosion resistance. In addition to the well-known CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy, many beta type titanium alloys comprising of non-toxic and non-allergic elements have being developed for the next generation of bone implant materials. However, the hard machinery and high cost of materials removal arising from the conventional manufacturing processes are the two main obstacles of various potential applications of titanium alloys. As emerging advanced manufacturing technologies, additive manufacturing techniques are providing the ideal platform for the creation of these customized devices, where three dimensional complex parts could be realized by sequential production of two dimensional layers. Thus, additive manufacturing facilitates the manufacturing of parts with almost no geometric constraints and is economically feasible down to a batch size of one. This chapter mainly review the recent progress of the additive manufacturing (via selective laser melting and electron beam melting) of titanium alloys and their products, including the processing optimization, microstructure, mechanical properties and fatigue properties for different types of titanium alloys (CP-Ti, Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-24Nb-4Zr-8Sn) and their porous structures.

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Zhang, LC., Liu, Y. (2019). Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Alloys for Biomedical Applications. In: AlMangour, B. (eds) Additive Manufacturing of Emerging Materials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91713-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91713-9_5

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