Influence of HIP Treatment on Mechanical Properties of Ti6Al4V Scaffolds Prepared by L-PBF Process

To improve biocompatibility and mechanical compatibility, post-treatment is necessary for porous scaffolds of bone tissue engineering. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is introduced into post-treatment of metal implants to enhance their mechanical properties by eliminating residual stress and pores. Additionally, oxide film formed on the material surface can be contributed to improve its biocompatibility. Ti6Al4V porous scaffolds fabricated by laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process is studied in this paper, their mechanical properties are measured by pressure test, and the macroscopic surface morphology and microstructure are observed by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). After HIP treatment, an oxide layer of 0.8 μm thickness forms on the surface of Ti6Al4V porous scaffolds and the microstructure of Ti6Al4V transforms from α’ phase to α + β dual-phase, as expected. However, the pressure test results of Ti6Al4V porous scaffolds show a definitely different variation trend of mechanical properties from solid parts, unexpectedly. Concerning Ti6Al4V porous scaffolds, the compression stiffness and critical stress improves clearly using HIP treatment, and the fracture morphology shows obvious brittle fracture. Both the strengthening and brittleness transition of Ti6Al4V porous scaffolds result from the formation of an oxide layer and an oxygen atom diffusion layer. The critical stress of Ti6Al4V porous scaffolds can be calculated by fully considering these two strengthening layers. To obtain a porous scaffold with specific mechanical properties, the effect of post-treatment should be considered during structural design.