Agradecimentos: Authors wish to thank to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (CNPq/MCTI) program Ciência Sem Fronteira (400613/2013-1) and the Project 201560E004 funded by CSIC for supporting this research. X-ray...

Agradecimentos: Authors wish to thank to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (CNPq/MCTI) program Ciência Sem Fronteira (400613/2013-1) and the Project 201560E004 funded by CSIC for supporting this research. X-ray tomography was done by Ms Cristina Paradela at the MNCN-CSIC

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) technique allows the manufacturing a wide variety of medical devices for any type of prosthetic surgery (HIP, dental, cranial, maxillofacial) as well as for internal fixation devices (K-Wires or Steinmann Pins). There are a large number of research studies on...

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) technique allows the manufacturing a wide variety of medical devices for any type of prosthetic surgery (HIP, dental, cranial, maxillofacial) as well as for internal fixation devices (K-Wires or Steinmann Pins). There are a large number of research studies on DMLS, including microstructural characterization, mechanical properties and those based on production quality assurance but the influence of porosity in the corrosion behavior of these materials not been sufficiently considered. In the present paper, surgical pins of Ti6Al4V have been produced by DMLS. After testing in a phosphate buffered saline solution, the surface of the titanium alloy appeared locally covered by a voluminous white oxide. This unexpected behavior was presumably due to the existence of internal defects in the pins as result of the manufacturing process. The importance of these defects—that might act as crevice nucleation sites- has been revealed by electrochemical techniques and confirmed by computed tomography

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ

400613/2013-1; 201560E004

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