Laser processing of SiC-particle-reinforced coating on titanium

Functionally graded, hard and wear-resistant Co-Cr-Mo alloy was coated on Ti-6Al-4V alloy with a metallurgically sound interface using Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENS). The addition of the Co-Cr-Mo alloy onto the surface of Ti-6Al-4V alloy significantly increased the surface hardness without any intermetallic phases in the transition region. A 100% Co-Cr-Mo transition from Ti-6Al-4V was difficult to produce due to cracking. However, using optimized LENS processing parameters, crack-free coatings containing up to 86% Co-Cr-Mo were deposited on Ti-6Al-4V alloy with excellent reproducibility. Human osteoblast cells were cultured to test in vitro biocompatibility of the coatings. Based on in vitro biocompatibility, increasing the Co-Cr-Mo concentration in the coating reduced the live cell numbers after 14 days of culture on the coating compared with base Ti-6Al-4V alloy. However, coated samples always showed better bone cell proliferation than 100% Co-Cr-Mo alloy. Producing near net shape components with graded compositions using LENS could potentially be a viable route for manufacturing unitized structures for metal-on-metal prosthetic devices to minimize the wear-induced osteolysis and aseptic loosening that are significant problems in current implant design.