title: Comparison of high-intensity sound and mechanical vibration for cleaning porous titanium cylinders fabricated using selective laser melting.
abstract: Orthopedic components, such as the acetabular cup in total hip joint replacement, can be fabricated using porous metals, such as titanium, and a number of processes, such as selective laser melting. The issue of how to effectively remove loose powder from the pores (residual powder) of such components has not been addressed in the literature. In this work, we investigated the feasibility of two processes, acoustic cleaning using high-intensity sound inside acoustic horns and mechanical vibration, to remove residual titanium powder from selective laser melting-fabricated cylinders. With acoustic cleaning, the amount of residual powder removed was not influenced by either the fundamental frequency of the horn used (75 vs. 230 Hz) or, for a given horn, the number of soundings (between 1 and 20). With mechanical vibration, the amount of residual powder removed was not influenced by the application time (10 vs. 20 s). Acoustic cleaning was found to be more reliable and effective in removal of residual powder than cleaning with mechanical vibration. It is concluded that acoustic cleaning using high-intensity sound has significant potential for use in the final preparation stages of porous metal orthopedic components. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 117-123, 2017.
authors.affiliation: Acoustics Research Unit, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GH, UK.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Seiffert
authors.affiliation: Acoustics Research Unit, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GH, UK.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hopkins
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GH, UK.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sutcliffe
mesh_terms: D005615:Freezing; D007834:Lasers; D016062:Porosity; D013016:Sound; D014025:Titanium; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: D014025:Titanium
keywords: acoustic cleaning; orthopedic components; powder removal; sonic cleaning; vibration