Additive manufacturing and characterisation of biomedical materials

Abstract

At present, additively manufactured biomedical materials find extensive applications in a wide range of avenues ranging from orthopedics to urology. Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques based on layerwise deposition of materials allow for fabricating complex-shaped biomedical components with a high level of accuracy. In this context, the major challenge is to obtain robust and functional engineering components. This may be attributed to a large-scale microstructural inhomogeneity arising due to the aforementioned deposition methodology followed in the AM-based techniques. In addition, the other challenges include size limitations, quality inconsistency, scaling issues and high cost of manufacturing of final parts. This leads to a major limitation of AM-based biomedical components in terms of their mechanical biocompatibility with the adjoining bones and tissues. One of the ways to overcome the aforementioned challenges is to engineer the microstructure in these materials in order to optimise the parameters involved during AM-based fabrication techniques. The present chapter is aimed to provide an overview of the different AM-based techniques involved in the fabrication of commonly used biomaterials and the common characterisation techniques for establishing a systematic structure-property correlation in these materials. Moreover, the future outlooks and challenges associated with these materials have been addressed from the authors’ viewpoints at the end of the present chapter.