Innovative surface modification of Ti6Al4V alloy by electron beam technique for biomedical application

The low elastic modulus, high corrosion resistance and excellent biological response allow titanium alloys to be used for permanent orthopaedic devices. Furthermore, the design of specific multi scale surface topographies on titanium alloys can provide a fast osseointegration. This work highlights the use of electron beam as a promising technique to produce a designed surface topography and improve the tribological behaviour of Ti6Al4V alloy. The produced surface topography due to the transport of molten material is influenced by the deflection figure, the physical properties of the material and the energy input. The analysis of the surface roughness shows an increment of the area up to 26% and a canal shape in a range from 1.3μm up to 9μm depth and from 68.6μm up to 119.7μm width. The high solidification rate reached during the process affects the microstructure, provoking the formation of martensite and thus the improvement of hardness. In vitro studies with pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells performed for several cultivation times show the cells with a polygonal shape and built connections through elongated filopodia. A notable increase of cell spreading area on surface structure with a finer canal shape is found after 48h cultivation time. •EB structuring showed the potential to serve as a technique for controlling the surface topography.•The results illustrated the variety of this process, multi scale topographies on metallic materials can be produced.•The microstructure after EB structuring of Ti6Al4V consist in the melted zone of martensitic α’, as a result of rapid cooling.•MC 3T3-E1 cells demonstrated polygonal morphology after different cultivation times and an increase of cell spreading area.