To address issues such as thermal stress concentration in metal bone implants produced via high-energy beam direct additive manufacturing, a method was proposed to fabricate porous titanium scaffolds. This approach combined Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) with a debinding–sintering process. Ti/ABS composite filaments with titanium volume fractions of 35%, 40%, and 45% were successfully developed via a single-screw extrusion process. Their feasibility in the FDM process was subsequently verified. The effects of different processing parameters on the forming quality and dimensional accuracy of the green bodies were investigated. After debinding and sintering the composite scaffolds prepared with optimized parameters, structurally intact porous titanium scaffolds were obtained. Microscopic characterization shows that the scaffold surface consists primarily of titanium, and the pore structure remains intact. Furthermore, compression tests were performed on three types of porous titanium scaffolds with different porosities. The results indicate that the combination of ABS/titanium alloy composite filaments, FDM technology, and debinding–sintering post-processing enables the high-quality and efficient production of porous titanium scaffolds. The elastic modulus of the resulting scaffolds ranges from 1.2 to 1.6 GPa, and the compressive strength is between 25.7 and 68.3 MPa. The elastic modulus matches that of human cancellous bone. Meanwhile, the compressive strength is significantly higher than that of cancellous bone and falls between the values for cancellous and cortical bone. These mechanical properties meet the requirements for human bone, providing a new approach for the manufacture of orthopedic implants.
Li et al. (Mon,) studied this question.