Additive manufacturing of porous coatings separate from substrate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12329629-B2
Application number	US-202217830071-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2022
Priority date	Jun 8, 2021
Publication date	Jun 17, 2025
Grant date	Jun 17, 2025

Abstract

An implant is produced by fabricating first and second layers. The first layer of repeated and truncated building units is fused together to define pores. The second layer of repeated and truncated building units are fused together to define pores and fused onto the first layer of truncated building units. The first and the second layers form at least part of a porous portion of the implant. The formed porous portion is attached onto a base portion of an implant. The truncated building units of each of the first and the second layers are in the form of spatially overlapping three-dimensional shapes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of producing an implant, the method comprising the steps of:
fabricating a first layer of repeated building units;
fabricating a second layer of repeated building units, each of the building units of the second layer intersecting at least one of the building units of the first layer at intersections between the first and the second layers, the first and the second layers together forming a porous section of the implant, at least some of the repeated building units of the first and the second layers define regular shapes, the building units of the first layer or the second layer include holeless beads, wherein at least some pores of the porous section are disposed between the holeless beads; and
attaching the formed porous section to a base section of an implant.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the building units of the first layer are bound together in a first repeating pattern, and the building units of the second layer are bound together in a second repeating pattern.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the building units in the first layer include a flat bottom surface and an indentation extending inwardly from the flat bottom surface.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the building units in the first layer include a flat bottom surface and a stud extending outwardly away from the flat bottom surface.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first layer fabricating step includes fabricating building units defining a flat bottom surface extending over the entirety of the first layer and thereby a flat bottom surface of the formed porous section upon formation of the formed porous section, and wherein the attaching step includes attaching the formed porous section to a flat surface of the base section of the implant.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising fabricating a third layer of building units bound together to form additional pores and bound onto the second layer such that the third layer becomes part of the porous section of the implant, wherein the building units in the second layer are different from the building units in the first layer and the building units in the third layer are different from the building units in the first layer and the building units in the second layer.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the building units in the third layer have a volume that is different than a volume of the building units in the first layer and the building units in the second layer have a volume that is between the volume of the building units in the first layer and the volume of the building units in the third layer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the implant is a patient-specific implant.

9. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the attaching step includes:
placing the porous section on a supporting region of a first mold component;
positioning a second mold component adjacent the first mold component such that a cavity in the form of the base section of the implant is formed between the first mold component and the second mold component;
while the porous section is placed on the supporting region, filling the cavity with a metal powder mixture; and
compacting the metal powder mixture to provide a solid base formed on the porous section such that the solid base and the porous section form at least a first portion of the implant.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the porous section comprises studs extending from at least one surface of the porous section, and including positioning the porous section and the second mold component such that the studs extend into the cavity and are over molded by the metal powder mixture upon filling the cavity.

11. The method of claim 9 , comprising:
finishing the first portion of the implant to a state wherein the porous section contains more voids per unit volume than the solid base.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the finishing step includes heating the first portion of the implant to remove a filler from the metal powder mixture.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the porous section remains in a green state until the finishing step.

14. The method of any claim 9 , wherein the supporting region is part of a convex portion of the first mold component.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the second mold component includes a concave portion, and boundaries of the cavity corresponding to exterior contours of the implant are defined at least partially by the convex portion of the first mold component and the concave portion of the second mold component.

16. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein each of the steps of fabricating the first layer and fabricating the second layer includes additively manufacturing the first layer and additively manufacturing the second layer, respectively, by binding metal particles with a binder to form a first green state component;
wherein the attaching step includes metal injection molding a metallic mixture material into a second green state component; and
sintering the first green state component and the second green state component to form a first sintered component and a second sintered component, respectively, joined together.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first sintered component contains more voids per unit volume than the second sintered component.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the second sintered component is solid.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the metal injection molding step of the attaching step includes injecting feedstock into a mold cavity containing the first green state component.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the building units of the first and the second layers defines a sphere except at the intersections.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the building units of the first layer or the second layer include planed beads joined to the holeless beads, and the planed beads are constructed in a repeating pattern and configured to facilitate attachment of the formed porous section to the base section of the implant.

Assignees

• Howmedica Osteonics Corp

Inventors

• Walsh Gearoid
• Mullen Lewis
• Scanlan John
• Klein Robert W

Classifications

• B22F10/20

  Direct sintering or melting · CPC title

• B22F10/14

  by jetting of binder onto a bed of metal powder · CPC title

• B22F3/12

  Both compacting and sintering (by forging B22F3/17) · CPC title

• B22F3/10

  Sintering only · CPC title

• B22F3/02

  Compacting only · CPC title