Development of individual medical implants with specific mechanical properties manufactured by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

4 pages•Published: September 25, 2020

Abstract

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing process, which enables the generation of complex geometries such as lattice structures, using metallic powder. Lattice structures are being used increasingly in medical technology to adapt the stiffness of individualized implants which can lead to faster bone healing. Lattice structures are also used to adjust the contact surface between the bone and implant to adapt the osseointegrative behavior. The goal of this work is to create lattice structures with local adaption of the stiffness (modulus of elasticity) for individual vertebral body replacement implants and their automated design based on patient data.
To form the lattice structure a diamond cell type is used, which is common in medical technology. For the later adaptation of the bone stiffness, the stiffness of the lattice structure with different strut diameters are determined. The calculation of the stiffness is done by numerical simulations using Finite Element Methods (FEM). The simulations are validated with tensile and compression tests. Finally, the automated design of the implants is carried out with an in-house generated tool to adjust the strut diameters based on the bone density from patient data.
Parts of this work have been funded by the German ministry of education and research (BMBF) under grant number 13GW0116.

Keyphrases: Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Lattice structures, Patient Specific Implants

In: Ferdinando Rodriguez Y Baena and Fabio Tatti (editors). CAOS 2020. The 20th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, vol 4, pages 297--300

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/FwLh
	https://doi.org/10.29007/f8gt