Characterisation of micro-lattices fabricated by selective laser melting

Abstract

β-titanium alloys have been touted as the new titanium alloys in biomedical applications due to its lower elastic modulus as compared to the titanium alloys of other phases. In particular, titanium-tantalum has been explored for such applications due to the high biocompatibility of both titanium and tantalum. The alloying and fabrication of titanium-tantalum using selective laser melting have been proven in previous study. In this study, the effect of SLM processing parameters on the porosity and compression behaviour of titanium-tantalum microlattice structures is investigated. The as-fabricated micro-lattices have elastic constants ranging from 1.36 ± 0.11 GPa to 6.82 ± 0.15 GPa and yield strength of between 31.93 ± 3.79 MPa and 426.84 ± 19.62 MPa. The range of mechanical properties exhibited by the lattice structures shows the versatility of SLM in producing titanium-tantalum lattice structures for orthopaedic applications.