Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.3.
LENS™ deposited hip (femoral) implant with internal cavity. [Optomec Design
Company, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.]
There the two powder feeders along with the laser setup and the visual
monitor is drawn. The actual picture of the LENS equipment is shown in the
bottom part of the fi gure. The LENS™ process has been commercialized by the
company Optomec Inc., based in the United States, and has been demonstrated
to be a viable processing technology for fabrication of orthopedic implants, e.g.,
femoral hip implants. For example, a prototype hollow femoral implant made
from Ti - 6Al - 4V using LENS ™ is shown in Figure 9.3 .
One of the key strength of LENS™ processing is that by using a
powder-feeder system consisting of multiple hoppers, it is possible to process
compositionally-graded and consequently functionally-graded materials. Thus,
by controlling the deposition rates from individual hoppers, it is possible to design
compositionally graded materials as demonstrated in a number of previous
papers on laser - processed compositionally - graded titanium alloys [25 - 26] . From
the viewpoint of orthopedic implants, compositionally-graded alloys can be par-
ticularly benefi cial since they will enable the development of custom-designed
orthopedic implants with site-specifi c properties. Furthermore, engineering func-
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