Additive Manufacturing and Mechanical Properties of Functionally Graded Medical Ti–35Nb–7Zr–5Ta Porous Scaffolds

Functionally graded porous structure materials produced by additive manufacturing are promising for bone tissue engineering. Uniform and three kinds of gradient porous models (Radial, Axial, and Unidirectional) based on BCC unit were designed and built with selective laser melting. The research results show that: SLMed Uniform porous Ti–35Nb–7Zr–5Ta sample consists of a single β-Ti phase, and microstructure is composed of columnar crystal and cellular structure. The compression test shows that the radial gradient porous structure has higher yield strength (111 MPa), low elastic modulus (4.5 GPa), excellent plasticity, and energy absorption, which is more suitable for the construction of load-bearing orthopedic scaffold. (paper)