DEVELOPMENT OF DENSE AND CELLULAR SOLIDS IN CRCOMO ALLOY FOR ORTHOPAEDIC APPLICATIONS

Abstract SLS (Selective laser sintering) is a rapid prototyping technique used for the development of new biomaterials with application in implantology. In the present work, dense and cellular solids have been obtained by this technique. Firstly, the sintering direction for obtaining dense solids has been studied and porosity, microstructure and mechanical properties resulting of the different sintering orientations have been evaluated. The vertical orientation in the sintering process generates higher porosity that results in poor fatigue properties, so a HIP treatment is proposed in order to overcome the problem. A conventional HIP treatment results in a homogenization of the properties independently of the sintering orientation. Secondly, a porous (Cellular) structure was obtained with a pore size of about 0.5 mm and an elevated interconnectivity. The structural and mechanical properties have been obtained by means of scanning electron microscopy and compression testing, resulting in very similar results to that obtained in commercial metallic cellular materials.