This study characterizes the mechanical behavior of Ti‐6Al‐4V lattice structures manufactured using laser powder bed fusion (PBF‐LB/M) for application in endoprostheses. Additive manufacturing enables creating customized orthopedic implants with complex geometries that combine mechanical stability with biological integration. The choice of biocompatible Ti‐6Al‐4V, together with the incorporation of lattice structures, offers improved mechanical performance, corrosion resistance, and bone ingrowth. A critical step toward the clinical adoption of such additively manufactured lattice structures is their thorough mechanical characterization, the central focus of this work. To this end, three test methods are employed to assess macroscopic mechanical response and damage tolerance: uniaxial compression, fourpoint bending and crack propagation tests. The results show that the mechanical properties depend on the lattice topology and surface finish. In particular, TPMS‐based architectures (Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces) exhibit superior fatigue crack propagation behavior, which is attributed to a more homogeneous stress distribution. In static testing, the SplitP TPMS (SPP) and Honeycomb (HCG) structures achieve the best balance of high stiffness (up to 27 GPa) and compressive strength (up to 249 MPa). These experimentally validated data form a crucial basis for subsequent artificial intelligence (AI)‐based structural optimization to maximize the long‐term mechanical reliability of implants under physiological loads.
Burkart et al. (Wed,) studied this question.