Selective laser melting: lessons from medical devices industry and other applications

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline some key aspects such as material systems used, phenomenological and statistical process modeling, techniques applied to monitor the process and optimization approaches reported. All these need to be taken into account for the ongoing development of the SLM technique, particularly in health care applications. The outcomes from this review allow not only to summarize the main features of the process but also to collect a considerable amount of investigation effort so far achieved by the researcher community. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews four significant areas of the selective laser melting (SLM) process of metallic systems within the scope of medical devices as follows: established and novel materials used, process modeling, process tracking and quality evaluation, and finally, the attempts for optimizing some process features such as surface roughness, porosity and mechanical properties. All the consulted literature has been highly detailed and discussed to understand the current and existing research gaps. Findings With this review, there is a prevailing need for further investigation on copper alloys, particularly when conformal cooling, antibacterial and antiviral properties are sought after. Moreover, artificial intelligence techniques for modeling and optimizing the SLM process parameters are still at a poor application level in this field. Furthermore, plenty of research work needs to be done to improve the existent online monitoring techniques. Research limitations/implications This review is limited only to the materials, models, monitoring methods, and optimization approaches reported on the SLM process for metallic systems, particularly those found in the health care arena. Practical implications SLM is a widely used metal additive manufacturing process due to the possibility of elaborating complex and customized tridimensional parts or components. It is corroborated that SLM produces minimal amounts of waste and enables optimal designs that allow considerable environmental advantages and promotes sustainability. Social implications The key perspectives about the applications of novel materials in the field of medicine are proposed. Originality/value The investigations about SLM contain an increasing amount of knowledge, motivated by the growing interest of the scientific community in this relatively young manufacturing process. This study can be seen as a compilation of relevant researches and findings in the field of the metal printing process.

A novel optimization framework for minimizing the surface roughness while increasing the material processing rate in the SLM process of 316L stainless steel

“…In addition, an artificial neural network, especially the multilayer perceptron (MLP)-based topology, was also considered in this work because of the ability of this ML method to handle the intrinsic nonlinearities of the SLM process. The most basic structure, which is composed of an input layer, a hidden layer and one neuron in the output layer, has proven to be an effective tool for dealing with SLM features such as SR (La Fé-Perdomo et al , 2021, 2022). In addition, some representative hyperparameters, such as the number of hidden neurons and training algorithm, were appropriately selected through Bayesian optimization (BO) (Le-Hong et al , 2021).…”

Resilience of a Supply Chain-Based Economic Evaluation of Medical Devices From an Industry Perspective

“…La Fé-Perdomo et al (2021) discussed a myriad of material systems, phenomenological and statistical process models, monitoring strategies, and optimization approaches. Selective laser melting (SLM) development in the healthcare industry must also consider these concerns.…”

Development of a Prototype of a Protective UV-C Half-Face Mask with Implementation of Additive Technology

“…The authors also described the issue in great detail, to understand the existing research gaps. The publication [36] outlines some critical aspects for further development of the technique of selective laser sintering of metal powder, especially in medical applications, which needs consideration.…”

“…Some medical devices are, at this time, already produced using modern 3D printers with sintering metal powder (SLM) technology. The authors of [36] present experiences with developing medical devices…”