Atomisation of Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu (wt%) for additive manufacturing for biomedical applications
Description & AMAZEMET association
The Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu alloy has been identified as a promising candidate for biomedical implants, particularly for dental applications requiring small, customized designs. Using only 10 g of blended elemental powders, ultrasonic atomization was performed with AMAZEMET’s rePowder system, equipped with a molybdenum alloy sonotrode vibrating at 40 kHz in an inert argon atmosphere. The resulting spherical powder, meeting the 10–100 μm size range essential for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), demonstrated exceptional quality, verified through Malvern Mastersizer, XRD, and SEM-EDX analyses, highlighting its potential for advanced additive manufacturing in the biomedical field.
Authors
1*, 2, 3, 4, 3 and 1
1 School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering and DSI-NRF CoE in Strong Materials, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
2 School of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Industrial Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
3 AMAZEMET, Warsaw, Poland
4 Advanced Materials Division, Mintek, South Africa
* Corresponding author: 820850@students.wits.ac.za
Abstract
The use of titanium alloys is growing fast as people have longer life expectancies and small, customised, biomedical implants, especially in dental applications, encourage the use of additive manufacturing (AM) to shape them. The Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu (wt%) alloy has been identified as a potential alloy for biomedical applications. Since laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) requires starting powders to be spherical and within a 10-100 μm size range, the Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu (wt%) powder was ultrasonically atomised and then analysed by a Malvern Mastersizer, XRD and SEM-EDX to ascertain that it met the requirements of L-PBF.
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