Additive texturing of metallic implant surfaces for improved wetting and biotribological performance

The current study introduces a novel additive texturing method to fabricate samples with dimple and groove textures through the laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF) technique using stainless steel (SS 316L) powder. The topographical analysis shows that the additive textured samples are fabricated with periodic feature sizes less than 150 mm and within an error limit of 7%. Fine grains with an average size of 14.05 mm and 13.62 mm are formed in dimple and groove textured samples, respectively, leading to enhancement of microhardness up to 213%. XRD results show the formation of the face-centered cubic (FCC) austenitic phase only. Further, the wettability study indicates hydrophilic wetting behavior with contact angles in the ranges of 72.3 degrees-60.6 degrees for deionized (DI) water and 64.1 degrees-39.9 degrees for hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS). The bio-tribology test with hip-joint prosthesis condition is carried out, and the results indicate that the coefficient of friction (COF) value of 0.11 in a dry condition for groove textured, whereas for dimple textured it is 0.38 under lubricated condition. The details of the study are described in this manuscript.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study introduces a new additive texturing method to fabricate samples with dimple and groove textures using laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF) technique and stainless steel powder. The topographical analysis shows that the samples have periodic feature sizes less than 150 mm and within a 7% error limit. Fine grains are formed in the textured samples, leading to an enhancement of microhardness up to 213%. XRD results indicate the formation of the face-centered cubic austenitic phase only. The wettability study shows hydrophilic wetting behavior of the samples. The bio-tribology test demonstrates different coefficients of friction for dry and lubricated conditions.