Atomisation of Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu (wt%) for additive manufacturing for biomedical applications

Abstract

The use of titanium alloys is growing fast as people have longer life expectancies and small, customised, biomedical implants, especially in dental applications, encourage the use of additive manufacturing (AM) to shape them. The Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu (wt%) alloy has been identified as a potential alloy for biomedical applications. Since laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) requires starting powders to be spherical and within a 10-100 μm size range, the Ti-6Ta-1.5Zr-0.2Ru-5Cu (wt%) powder was ultrasonically atomised and then analysed by a Malvern Mastersizer, XRD and SEM-EDX to ascertain that it met the requirements of L-PBF.