Surface Modification of Ti6Al4V Open Porous Structures Produced by Additive Manufacturing

TLDR

Additive manufacturing can produce micro‑porous titanium alloy structures with highly controlled global morphology, yet functional constraints limit microscale surface morphology control. The study develops a novel protocol combining chemical etching and electrochemical polishing to modify the surface of 3D Ti6Al4V open porous structures. The protocol uses chemical etching to remove attached powder grains, followed by electrochemical polishing to further reduce surface roughness. The protocol achieves significant, controllable roughness reduction and effectively removes surface roughness heterogeneity across the entire 3D structure.

Abstract

Abstract Additive manufacturing techniques can be used to produce micro‐porous structures with global morphological properties that are highly controlled through robust computer design. Despite these advantages, most of these techniques still hold several functional constraints, resulting from present technical device limits and consequently the inability to control surface morphology at a microscale level. In this study, a novel protocol for surface modification of 3D titanium alloy‐based open porous structures is developed, which applies a combination of chemical etching (CHE) and electrochemical polishing (ECP) using HF‐based solutions. This protocol achieves significant and controllable roughness reduction of additive manufactured 3D Ti6Al4V open porous structures. Chemical etching mainly removes the attached powder grains, while ECP further decreases the roughness. In this way the heterogeneity of the strut surface roughness throughout the full 3D structure is effectively removed.