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Southern Africa Materials Science Symposium 202510 September 2025CC-BY-4.0PDFID 1hlyf
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Thabo Nkosi, Lerato Dlamini and Pieter van der Merwe (2025) Laser powder-bed fusion of a locally sourced titanium alloy for orthopaedic implants. Southern Africa Materials Science Symposium 2025. https://quorumpress.org/papers/laser-powder-bed-fusion-1hlyf

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Published in Southern Africa Materials Science Symposium 2025. This article was peer reviewed before publication.

Southern Africa Materials Science Symposium 2025Paper No. 7JKQ3B
Karoo Institute of Advanced Materials
Full paper

Laser powder-bed fusion of a locally sourced titanium alloy for orthopaedic implants

Thabo Nkosi1*, Lerato Dlamini1, Pieter van der Merwe2

1 Karoo Institute of Advanced Materials, Johannesburg, South Africa
2 Meridian Materials Research Center, Cape Town, South Africa
* Corresponding author
Received 10 September 2025Published 10 September 2025CC-BY-4.0

Abstract

Additive manufacturing of titanium implants can shorten supply chains if local feedstock meets quality requirements. We processed a South African Ti-6Al-4V powder by laser powder-bed fusion and characterised density, microstructure, and fatigue life against imported feedstock. After hot isostatic pressing, local material reached 99.7 percent density and comparable high-cycle fatigue strength. We report the process window and residual-stress mitigation strategy used.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, Titanium alloys, Orthopaedic implants, Fatigue

Cite as: Thabo Nkosi, Lerato Dlamini, & Pieter van der Merwe (2025). Laser powder-bed fusion of a locally sourced titanium alloy for orthopaedic implants. Southern Africa Materials Science Symposium 2025. https://quorumpress.org/papers/laser-powder-bed-fusion-1hlyf

© 2025 Nkosi, Dlamini and Merwe. Open access under CC BY 4.0.

Introduction

Patient-specific titanium implants are well suited to additive manufacturing, but local adoption depends on qualifying regionally produced feedstock against demanding fatigue requirements.

Experimental

Local Ti-6Al-4V powder was processed by laser powder-bed fusion across a range of energy densities, then hot isostatically pressed. We measured density, microstructure, and high-cycle fatigue life.

Results

The optimised window produced 99.7 percent dense parts with fatigue strength comparable to imported feedstock after post-processing. Residual stress was controlled through scan-strategy and preheating.

References

[1] T. DebRoy et al., “Additive manufacturing of metallic components,” Progress in Materials Science, 2018.

Cite this paper

Thabo Nkosi, Lerato Dlamini, Pieter van der Merwe. Laser powder-bed fusion of a locally sourced titanium alloy for orthopaedic implants. Southern Africa Materials Science Symposium 2025, 2025. https://quorumpress.org/papers/laser-powder-bed-fusion-1hlyf

Publication ID: 1hlyf