High specific strength, low density and excellent corrosion resistance are three of the outstanding properties associated with titanium. Because of these properties, titanium has found a wide range of application.
Because of their low density and high absorbance of kinetic energy cellular structures are increasingly finding application. Up to now especially foaming of complex devices shows the limitations of conventional foaming processes.
Rapid manufacturing is used to build up individual objects for special applications. Because of the unique therapeutic demands individual patients, prostheses optimized to the requirements of the patient should be used to replace arthritic human joints.
For a long survivability of the implants, it has been suggested that they be adapted macroscopically to the elasticity of human bone. To enable the manufacture of such prostheses, three innovative technologies have to be combined. In a laser cladding process a massive titanium structure will be built up to create a scaffold which is filled with titanium foam induced by laser beam. To foam the titanium by laser beam a foaming agent has to be added to the titanium powder. With the combination of laser cladding and laser-induced foaming in a rapid prototyping process, the goal of this work is to allow the rapid manufacturing of individual prostheses with adapted elasticity.