Fabrication and optimisation of Ti-6Al-4V lattice-structured total shoulder implants using laser additive manufacturing.

Bittredge, Oliver; Hassanin, Hany; El-Sayed, Mahmoud Ahmed; Eldessouky, Hossam Mohamed; Alsaleh, Naser A.; Alrasheedi, Nashmi H.; Essa, Khamis; Ahmadein, Mahmoud

Abstract

This work aimed to study one of the most important challenges in orthopaedic implan-tations, known as stress shielding of total shoulder implants. This problem arises from the elastic modulus mismatch between the implant and the surrounding tissue, and can result in bone resorption and implant loosening. This objective was addressed by designing and optimising a cellular-based lattice-structured implant to control the stiffness of a humeral implant stem used in shoulder implant applications. This study used a topology lattice-optimisation tool to create different cellular designs that filled the original design of a shoulder implant, and were further analysed using finite element analysis (FEA). A laser powder bed fusion technique was used to fabricate the Ti-6Al-4V test samples, and the obtained material properties were fed to the FEA model. The optimised cellular design was further fabricated using powder bed fusion, and a compression test was carried out to validate the FEA model. The yield strength, elastic modulus, and surface area/volume ratio of the optimised lattice structure, with a strut diameter of 1 mm, length of 5 mm, and 100% lattice percentage in the design space of the implant model were found to be 200 MPa, 5 GPa, and 3.71 mm−1, respectively. The obtained properties indicated that the proposed cellular structure can be effectively applied in total shoulder-replacement surgeries. Ultimately, this approach should lead to improvements in patient mobility, as well as to reducing the need for revision surgeries due to implant loosening.

Citation

BITTREDGE, O., HASSANIN, H., EL-SAYED, M.A., ELDESSOUKY, H.M., ALSALEH, N.A., ALRASHEEDI, N.H., ESSA, K. and AHMADEIN, M. 2025. Fabrication and optimisation of Ti-6Al-4V lattice-structured total shoulder implants using laser additive manufacturing. Materials [online], 15(9), article number 3095. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15093095

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 21, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 25, 2022
• Publication Date: May 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 13, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 20, 2025
• Journal: Materials
• Electronic ISSN: 1996-1944
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: 3095
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15093095
• Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Laser powder bed fusion; Lattice optimisation; Young's modulus orthopaedic implants
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2702290