Laser Formed Porous Coatings for Improved Osteointegration

Increasing the rate of bone cell fixation and improving the performance of orthopedic and dental implants will serve to increase patient health and decrease medical costs by reducing the need for revision surgeries. Rate of fixation can be affected by device surface design and manufacturing methods. Device life can be extended by improving the method of fixation in bone tissues by increasing osteointegration. These two issues are being addressed through the development of a laser additive manufacturing technique that can fuse metal and ceramic powders on the implant surface at a resolution as low as 50 microns. In this research, a structured surface was deposited on a Ti-6Al-4V substrate with an Nd: YAG laser and finely screened Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-15Mo powder in an inert atmosphere. The surface, which currently has approximately 800ìm of resolution, shows a complete metallurgical bond with the substrate while maintaining a wrought microstructure in the bulk material for higher overall static and fatigue strength without blind pores. The structured coating surfaces were cleaned and treated for passivation and cultured with osteoblasts. Presumably due to the residual nanostructure of the laser coating, cell growth was shown to have prevalence in the coating surface over the bare Ti-6Al-4V substrate and bone tissue was seen growing in the coating surface after 3 weeks in vitro.