Additive manufacturing inert gas flow path strategies for multi-laser powder bed fusion systems and their impact on lattice structure mechanical responses.

Multi-laser Additive Manufacturing systems hold great potential to increase productivity. However, adding multiple energy sources to a powder bed fusion system requires careful selection of a laser scan and inert gas flow strategy to optimize component performance. In this work, we explore four different laser scan and argon flow strategies on the quasi-static compressive mechanical response of Body Centered Cubic lattices.

Nitinol Release of Nickel under Physiological Conditions: Effects of Surface Oxide, pH, Hydrogen Peroxide, and Sodium Hypochlorite.

Nitinol is a nickel-titanium alloy widely used in medical devices for its unique pseudoelastic and shape-memory properties. However, nitinol can release potentially hazardous amounts of nickel, depending on surface manufacturing yielding different oxide thicknesses and compositions. Furthermore, nitinol medical devices can be implanted throughout the body and exposed to extremes in pH and reactive oxygen species (ROS), but few tools exist for evaluating nickel release under such physiological conditions.

Nylon lattice design parameter effects on additively manufactured structural performance.

Lattice structures are used in a multitude of applications from medical to aerospace, and their adoption in these applications has been further enabled by additive manufacturing. Lattice performance is governed by a multitude of variables and estimating this performance may be needed during various phases of the design and validation process. Numerical modeling and constitutive relationships are common methodologies to assess performance, address risks, lower costs, and accelerate time to market for innovative and potentially life altering products.

A comparison of metal/metal and ceramic/metal taper-trunnion modular connections in explanted total hip replacements.

Corrosion and wear are commonly found at the taper-trunnion connection of modular total hip arthroplasty (THA) explanted devices. While metal/metal (M/M) modular taper-trunnion connections exhibit more wear/corrosion than ceramic/metal (C/M) modular taper-trunnion connections, damage is present in both, regardless of material. This study used a combination of assessment techniques including clinical data, visual scoring assessment, optical imaging, profilometry, and x-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS), to investigate wear mechanisms and damage features at the modular taper-trunnion connection of 10 M/M and 8 C/M explanted THAs.