Development and evaluation of an automated design and binder jetting process for individual finger joint implants

In the FingerKIt project, the Fraunhofer IAPT, IKTS, ITEM, IWM and MEVIS worked together to enable a continuous, automatable process chain in the manufacture of patient-specific finger joint implants for the first time, from design and production through to certification-compliant testing. The central technical objective of the project was to enable a new form of therapy for the relevant indications and to achieve remobilization of finger joints using individually adapted implants. This presentation describes the creation of an initial implant design and the subsequent training of an algorithm to automatically generate individual implant designs from imaging data. The process development for manufacturing the implants from Ti-6-4 using metal binder jetting (MBJ) is then presented. In particular, the influence of the powder pre-treatment on the print quality and the material properties of the green and sintered parts is examined. Osseointegration in vitro is evaluated using different TPMS structures integrated into the implant design.

Presentation language: GER