TICLE - TItanium CLEaning

Additive Manufacture (AM) is being increasingly investigated within the orthopaedic industry for the production of optimised implant designs. The technology enables complex geometries to be generated which can also be better matched to the properties of bone. Such implants can minimise bone resorbtion and facilitate improved bone ingrowth, thus improving the survivorship of the joint replacement. To date, only one US company is known to have brought AM technology to market. One of the key hurdles to enable commercialisation of existing AM designs is cleaning. Post-manufacture cleaning is required to remove unsintered material/entrapped powder and manufacturing lubricants and it is ultimately of importance to ensure patient safety. Cleaning poses a significant challenge due to the complex, porous implant geometries created by AM. The objective of this project is to develop cleaning methods to enable commercialisation of existing device designs and custom implants.