The first case of bone disease treatment by means of a calcium phosphate compounds dates from almost one century ago and some decades later, in the 1970’s, the first calcium phosphate based biomaterials were commercialized. Nowadays, calcium phosphate ceramics are extensively employed in biomedical applications involving bone defect repair.
In applications dealing with low loaded implants, like cranial defects restoration, calcium phosphate bioceramic implants fulfill the functional requirements of traditional metallic implants, but also avoid the necessity to be removed from the body. Due to their osseointegration properties, calcium phosphate bioceramics promote new bone growth and the implant integration in the body. However, ceramic materials processing is a delicate task, and a technique to produce bioactive ceramic implants tailored to the patient anatomical parameters is still required.
In this work the study of calcium phosphate bioceramics processing by rapid prototyping based on laser cladding was carried out. The obtained results were characterized in terms of geometry and composition by means of electron scanning microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction, X-Ray fluorescence, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. The relationships between the processing parameters and the obtained properties were studied, in addition to the bioactivity assessment of the produced parts.