Corrosion and Wear Behavior of Additively Manufactured Metallic Parts in Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Today, parts made by additive manufacturing (AM) methods have found many applications in the medical industry, the main reasons for which are the ability to custom design and manufacture complex structures, their short production cycle, their ease of utilization, and on-site fabrication, leading to the fabrication of next-generation intricate patient-specific biomedical implants. These parts should fulfill numerous requirements, such as having acceptable mechanical strength, biocompatibility, satisfactory surface characteristics, and excellent corrosion and wear performance. It was known that AM techniques may lead to some uncertainties influencing part properties and causing significant evaluation conflicts in corrosion outcomes. Meanwhile, the corrosion and wear behavior of additively manufactured materials are not comprehensively discussed. In this regard, the present work is a review of the state-of-the-art knowledge dedicated to reviewing the actual scientific knowledge about the corrosion and wear response of additively manufactured biomedical components, elucidating the relevant mechanism and influential factors to enhance the performance of AM-manufactured implants specifically for the physiological human body fluids. Furthermore, there is a focus on the use of reinforced composites, surface engineering, and a preparation stage that can considerably affect the tribocorrosion behavior of AM-produced parts. The improvement of tribocorrosion performance can have a key role in the production of advanced AM implants and the present study can pave the way toward facile production of high-throughput AM biomedical parts that have very high resistance to corrosion and wear.