OS08F116 A Primary Study on the Meshed Titanium Plate Structures for Reinforcement of Tricalcium Phosphate Bone Implants

Abstract

Tailor-made tricalcium phosphate bone implants used in clinical trial were fabricated using a 3D ink-jet printer. Because the Tailor-made tricalcium phosphate bone implants have very poor mechanical properties such as stiffness & fracture strength, reinforcement are needed for many implant cases under loading. On the other hand, the present titanium plates for implants have the problems like heavy, mismatch-elasticity with human bones and excessive-strength problems. A primary investigation on the meshed titanium plates for reinforcement of Tailor-made tricalcium phosphate bone implants was executed in this study. Three fundamental mesh patterns with different shapes (triangle, quadrangle and hexagon) and sizes were designed using 3-dimensional CAD tool from the light-weight and higher flexibility view points. Based on the designed mesh patterns, the specimens of the meshed titanium plates with different thickness were manufactured through the wire-cut discharge processing. The mechanical properties of the meshed titanium plates like density and the bending stiffness were experimentally evaluated through three-point bending tests. Experimental results showed that mechanical properties like density and bending stiffness of the obtained light-weight and flexible meshed titanium plates were close to the human bones. More detail studies on the other mechanical properties like tensile/compress, torsion and durability etc. are needed and should be executed in future study.