Abstract Porous titanium is proposed to be an effective orthopedic implant with a lower elastic modulus and supports osseointegration during implantation. To produce porous titanium, powder metallurgy (PM) assisted with a space-holder is used in this study. Pure titanium is used as the starting material, and salt (NaCl) is used as the space-holder. Argon-atmospheric sintering and arc plasma sintering (APS) methods are applied for the sintering process. NaCl content was varied from 0–40 wt%. The temperature sintering was at 1100 °C for the argon-atmospheric sintering, and the current process was at 75 A for the APS. The formation of pores, total porosity, pore distribution, phase formation, and mechanical properties were examined by the optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and compression testing. Titanium with the addition of 20 wt% of NaCl is shown to be a potential biomaterial for the orthopedic implant, having a porosity of 38–39%, the elastic modulus of 3.2–5 GPa, and the yield strength of 141–150 MPa (argon-atmospheric sintering and APS) which shown to be similar to the properties of cortical bone.

Abstract Objective: This research aims to observe the extent to which several surface treatment techniques increase the surface roughness of titanium alloy implants which was manufactured via electrical discharge machining (EDM). The effects of these techniques were also observed to decrease the Cu content on the implant surface. Materials and Methods: In this research, ultrasonic cleaning, rotary tumbler polishing, and brushing were employed as techniques to increase the roughness of a titanium implant which was manufactured via EDM, to the moderately rough category, and to reduce the contaminant element deposited on its surface. An MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay test was also used to observe the effect of these engineered specimens with respect to mesenchymal stem cells’ proliferation. Results and Discussion: The results show that ultrasonic cleaning and rotary tumbler polishing created a significant increase (90% and 67%, respectively) in the surface roughness. On the other hand, brushing was shown to be the best benchmark for reducing the contamination of Copper (Cu). Furthermore, rotary tumbler polishing and brushing can increase the percentage of living cells compared to the original surface EDM specimens. Conclusion: All micro-finishing methods that were employed are able to increase the surface roughness of Ti alloy based- implant to moderately rough category.