Mechanical Properties of Electro-Discharge-Sintered Porous Titanium Implants

Porous surfaced Ti implant compacts were fabricated by electro-discharging-sintering (EDS) of atomized spherical Ti powders. Powders of $50-100{\mu}m$ in diameter were vibratarily settled into a quarts tube and subject to a high voltage and high density current pulse in Ar atmosphere. Single pulse of 0.7 to 2.0 kJ/0.7 gpowder, from 150, 300, and $450{\mu}F$ capacitors was applied in less than $400{\mu}sec$ to produce twelve different porous-surfaced Ti implant compacts. The solid core formed in the center of the compact shows similar microstructure of cp Ti which was annealed and quenched in water. Hardness value at the solid core was much higher than that at the particle interface and particles in the porous layer, which can be attributed to both heat treatment and work hardening effects induced by EDS. Compression tests were made to evaluate the mechanical properties of the EDS compacts. The compressive yield strength was in a range of 12 to 304MPa which significantly depends on input energy. Selected porous-surfaced Ti-6Al-4V dental implant compacts with a solid core have much higher compressive strengths compared to the human teeth and sintered Ti dental implants fabricated by conventional sintering process.

전기방전소결에 의해 제조된 다공성 Titanium 임플란트의 기계적 특성