Study of the pore formation on CoCrMo alloys by selective laser melting manufacturing process

Cobalt-base alloys are widely used in medical applications as is the hardest known biocompatible alloy along with a high wear and/or corrosion resistance. The manufacturing process used on these alloys strongly influences the features produced, therefore it should be carefully controlled to attain the desired quality. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a novel process proposed for the fabrication of biomedical implants with cobalt alloys. In this technique, density is the most important concern as it has a direct influence on the component performance. Due to its different energy inputs given by its processing parameters, it has the potential to control porosity through them. In this work, SLM experiments were carried out on a CoCrMo alloy to study the formation of pores. The analysis showed that the SLM technique enables the building of high dense samples up to 99%, resulting in a mean of porosity of 5.77% and a pore mean size of 0.759 mu m(2). (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.