The influence of manufacturing parameters on properties of Ti-6Al-4V products fabricated by selective laser melting, and their surface coating with bioactive polymer

Technological parameters included in energy density (ED) are the more powerful tools in selective laser melting (SLM) technology which can be used in the time of fabrication to regulate chemical, metallurgical, and mechanical properties of a product. The volumetric Energy Density (ED) depends on the energy input employed by the laser power, scanning speed, hatch spacing, and the layer thickness. Density, microstructure, surface morphology, dimension accuracy, strength and porosity including the number of pores, place of the pore, size of a pore shape of a pore, inclusions of pores of an SLM product depends on the processing parameters. As the powder material fusion process is done by track by track and layer by layer, the architecture of the microstructure in a product is oriented as the direction of building up too. The research has emphasized on metallurgical properties, tensile properties, and producing the non-porous products from Ti-6Al-4V alloy powder and surface modification using bioactive polymer for orthopedic application. The research has followed four steps to study the metallurgical properties and finding out the combinations of technological parameters in producing non-porous products. The purpose of the first step of the study was to examine the effects of ED on the product properties and to obtain an optimum ED as well as the optimal range of scanning speed. The second step of the study has focused on the influences of laser power. The third step of the study has investigated the effect of amounts of track overlapping and hatch spacing. Almost a zero-porosity product has been able to produce by following these three steps of the ongoing research. The fourth step has studied the metallurgical properties emphasizing on re-melting of every layer. High-density products have been found in the fourth step where a small amount of very small sized pores are present as a result of keyhole effect and gaseous bubble entrapment mainly. Four buildup orientations have been selected for each ED in the first step of the study to examine the tensile properties of the products. The best buildup orientation has been seen in longitudinally vertical tensile specimens considering tensile properties. The tensile properties have also been studied in the second and third step of the study with best build up orientation of the tensile specimens. The alterations of metallurgical and tensile properties have also been investigated after heat-treatment of the specific samples. Dimensional accuracies were also invigilated on the cubic, and tensile specimens over the studies and consequently, inaccuracies have been noticed. The fifth step of the study has observed the pore properties, adhesion properties, the compressive strength of gelatin coating manufactured using unidirectional freezing and the freeze-drying process of three different gelatin concentrations on four different surfaced Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrates. The results indicate that the coating properties depend on the substrate’s surface texture as well as the concentration of gelatin. Above 80% of porosity, interconnected and well-aligned pores of 75-200 μm have been obtained which is required to stimulate bone ingrowth histologically.Technological parameters included in energy density (ED) are the more powerful tools in selective laser melting (SLM) technology which can be used in the time of fabrication to regulate chemical, metallurgical, and mechanical properties of a product. The volumetric Energy Density (ED) depends on the energy input employed by the laser power, scanning speed, hatch spacing, and the layer thickness. Density, microstructure, surface morphology, dimension accuracy, strength and porosity including the number of pores, place of the pore, size of a pore shape of a pore, inclusions of pores of an SLM product depends on the processing parameters. As the powder material fusion process is done by track by track and layer by layer, the architecture of the microstructure in a product is oriented as the direction of building up too. The research has emphasized on metallurgical properties, tensile properties, and producing the non-porous products from Ti-6Al-4V alloy powder and surface modification using bioactive polymer for orthopedic application. The research has followed four steps to study the metallurgical properties and finding out the combinations of technological parameters in producing non-porous products. The purpose of the first step of the study was to examine the effects of ED on the product properties and to obtain an optimum ED as well as the optimal range of scanning speed. The second step of the study has focused on the influences of laser power. The third step of the study has investigated the effect of amounts of track overlapping and hatch spacing. Almost a zero-porosity product has been able to produce by following these three steps of the ongoing research. The fourth step has studied the metallurgical properties emphasizing on re-melting of every layer. High-density products have been found in the fourth step where a small amount of very small sized pores are present as a result of keyhole effect and gaseous bubble entrapment mainly. Four buildup orientations have been selected for each ED in the first step of the study to examine the tensile properties of the products. The best buildup orientation has been seen in longitudinally vertical tensile specimens considering tensile properties. The tensile properties have also been studied in the second and third step of the study with best build up orientation of the tensile specimens. The alterations of metallurgical and tensile properties have also been investigated after heat-treatment of the specific samples. Dimensional accuracies were also invigilated on the cubic, and tensile specimens over the studies and consequently, inaccuracies have been noticed. The fifth step of the study has observed the pore properties, adhesion properties, the compressive strength of gelatin coating manufactured using unidirectional freezing and the freeze-drying process of three different gelatin concentrations on four different surfaced Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrates. The results indicate that the coating properties depend on the substrate’s surface texture as well as the concentration of gelatin. Above 80% of porosity, interconnected and well-aligned pores of 75-200 μm have been obtained which is required to stimulate bone ingrowth histologically