Effect of heat treatment on cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy fabricated by selective laser melting

Cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) alloys have excellent corrosion resistance, biocompatibility and strength. As such, they have been widely used in dental applications, such as removable partial dentures, metal frames, customized abutments, crowns and bridges in the anterior and posterior regions. The capability of selective laser melting (SLM), a powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process, to produce customizable products have led to extensive research of using this process for applications in the biomedical field. Several works have been reported on the production of CoCrMo alloys using SLM for various implants. However, there is still limited information on the effect of post process heat treatment on SLM CoCrMo alloys. In this paper, ASTM F75 CoCrMo alloy is fabricated using SLM and underwent heat treatment originally designed for casted ASTM F75 CoCrMo alloy. The mechanical properties of heat treated SLM produced CoCrMo parts are reported and benchmarked against their casted counterparts.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)Published versio