Development of porous powder printed high density polyethylene for personalized bone implants

In this study, three dimensional printing (3DP) coupled with heat treatment was investigated as a new technique for fabrication of bone implant. An influence of using different content of polyethylene (0.60–0.80 w/w) in the raw material formulation upon the microstructure, density, porosity, shrinkage and tensile properties of porous high density polyethylene structure was investigated. It was found that the relationship between structure and properties was strongly influenced by the interplay between polyethylene content and heat treatment steps. This heat treatment process could increase the properties of porous high density polyethylene significantly over the as-fabricated 3DP sample without destroying porous structure. Porous high density polyethylene bodies having a porosity ranging from 22.3–49.7% and pore diameters of 132.6–136.2 microns with tensile strength up to approximately 4 MPa which was comparable to commercial product could be successfully prepared in this study. Biocompatibility of selected formulation (0.70 w/w) indicated that the prepared structure was not toxic and could support the osteoblast cell proliferation.

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