Mechanical and Wetting Properties of Ta2O5 and ZnO Coatings on Alloy Substrate of Cardiovascular Stents Manufactured by Casting and DMLS.

In the last years, additive manufacturing technologies have been developed, especially direct metal laser sintering, and used in the dental and medical implant domains. Cardiovascular stents have evolved from bioinert, bare metal cages to biomimetic devices that promote tissue regeneration or healing. In this paper, comparisons concerning mechanical properties between Co-Cr alloy and cast 304L stainless steel were realized using FEM analysis, necessary for manufacturing cardiovascular stents by DMLS technology using Co-Cr alloy. The purpose of this paper consists of the evaluation of the contact angle at the interface of the Co-Cr alloy manufactured by DMLS, respectively, cast stainless steel 304L, and thin film deposition realized by the e-gun method (Ta2O5 and ZnO). Scanning electronic microscopy SEM and EDX techniques were employed for morphological investigation of the sintered samples manufactured by the DMLS process. They were also used for semi-quantitative and qualitative chemical and metallographic analyses. The e-gun coating was used to obtain thin films with the nanometer order of Ta2O5 and ZnO with a protective role to improve the corrosion resistance, roughness, and antiseptic role.

Thin Films Deposition of Ta2O5 and ZnO by E-Gun Technology on Co-Cr Alloy Manufactured by Direct Metal Laser Sintering.

In recent years in the dental field, new types of materials and techniques for the manufacturing of dental crowns and analog implants have been developed to improve the quality of these products. The objective of this article was to perform the surface characterization and determine the properties of Co-Cr alloy samples fabricated by the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process and coated by e-gun technology with thin films of Ta2O5 and ZnO. Both oxides are frequently used for dental products, in pharmacology, cosmetics, and medicine, due to their good anticorrosive, antibacterial, and photo-catalytic properties. Following the deposition of thin oxide films on the Co-Cr samples fabricated by DMLS, a very fine roughness in the order of nanometers was obtained. Thin films deposition was realized to improve the hardness and the roughness of the Co-Cr parts fabricated by the DMLS process. Surface characterization was performed using SEM-EDS, AFM, and XRD. AFM was used to determine the roughness of the samples and the nanoindentation curves were determined to establish the hardness values and modulus of elasticity.