Laser-produced porous structure

Abstract

The present invention disclosed a method of producing a three-dimensional porous tissue in-growth structure. The method includes the steps of depositing a first layer of metal powder and scanning the first layer of metal powder with a laser beam to form a portion of a plurality of predetermined unit cells. Depositing at least one additional layer of metal powder onto a previous layer and repeating the step of scanning a laser beam for at least one of the additional layers in order to continuing forming the predetermined unit cells. The method further includes continuing the depositing and scanning steps to form a medical implant.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a porous surface or structure and a method for forming the same, which uses a directed energy beam to selectively remelt a powder to produce a part. The energy beam may include a laser beam, and an electron beam or the like. In particular, this invention relates to a computer-aided laser apparatus, which sequentially remelts a plurality of powder layers to form unit cells to build the designed part in a layer-by-layer fashion. The present application is particularly directed toward a method of forming a porous and partially porous metallic structure. [0002] The field of free-form fabrication has seen many important recent advances in the fabrication of articles directly from computer controlled databases. These advances, many of which are in the field of rapid prototyping of articles such as prototype parts and mold dies, have greatly reduced the time and expense required to fabricate articles, particularly in contr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] The predetermined unit cells make take the shape of most regular or irregular structure. For example, the unit cells may be in the shape of a tetrahedron, dodecahedron or octahedron as well as other symmetrical structures. As mentioned, the unit cells may not have such uniformity and have an irregular shape. The unit cells may also be truncated, which includes eliminating some of the struts, which form a unit cell. Truncated unit cells located at the exterior surface of a built product provide a barbed effect to the product.

[0020] In another aspect of the present invention, a plurality of struts may intersect at an intersection point. Either prior to completion of after completion of the finished structure, various intersection points may be sintered. In one reason for sintering the intersection points is to eliminate any unmelted metal powder spots.

[0021] In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the laser beam may be adjusted to modify the length and / or cross-section of various struts. Additionally, at least some of the unit cells may be deformed so as to drape over the substrate. Laser beam compensation may also be employed. Some of the struts of the unit cells may overlap struts of other unit cells. This aspect also enables the adjusting of the porosity throughout the completed structure.

Problems solved by technology

However, while the field of rapid prototyping has focused on increasing density of such three-dimensional structures, the field has not focused its attention on reducing the density of three-dimensional structures.

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