Selective Laser Melting of Magnesium for Future Applications in Medicine

In recent years, researchers have focused on the development of degradable implants. Magnesium is considered to be a potential implant material for biodegradable orthopaedic applications because of its inherent beneficial properties including superior biocompatibility, biodegrability and proper mechanical properties. Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is a laser aided layer by layer technique which enables the quick fabrication of solid metallic parts virtually of any geometry, based on a computer design. This paper focuses on the SLM of pure magnesium powders using a Nd:YAG laser under different processing conditions. The results show that magnesium parts are successfully fabricated, which indicates opportunity for magnesium orthopaedic implants to be achieved through SLM technique.