Effects of scan line spacing on pore characteristics and mechanical properties of porous Ti6Al4V implants fabricated by selective laser melting

• We fabricated porous Ti6Al4V implants by adjusting scan line spacing in SLM process.
• The regular and rectangular pores with sizes between 250 μm and 450 μm were fabricated.
• The yield strength and E-modulus ranged in 467–862 MPa and 16–85 GPa, independently.
• The failure mechanism is the ASB due to the dense thin wall.

The use of porous structures is gaining popularity in biomedical implant manufacture fields due to its ability to promote increased osseointegration and cell proliferation. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a metal additive manufacturing (MAM) technique capable of producing the porous structure. Adjusting the parameter of scan line spacing is a simple and fast way to gain porous structures in SLM process. By using the medical alloy of Ti6Al4V, we systematically study the influence of the scan line spacing on pore characteristics and mechanical properties of porous implant for the first time. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) results show that the porous Ti6Al4V implants with interconnected pore sizes which ranges from 250 to 450 μm is appropriate for compact bone. The compression strength and modulus of the porous Ti6Al4V implants decrease with the increase of the scan line spacing, and two equations by fitting the data have been established to predict their compression properties. The compressive deformation of the porous Ti6Al4V implants presented an adiabatic shear band (ASB) fracture, which is similar to dense Ti6Al4V owing to the dense thin wall structures. The ability to create both high porosity and strong mechanical properties implants opens a new avenue for fabricating porous implants which is used for load-bearing bone defect repair and regeneration.

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