Optimal design and fabrication process of composite tibial hemi-knee joint

Composed of titanium alloy and porous bioceramics, individual design was conducted for tibial hemi-knee joint prosthesis with anatomical modeling technique, and finite element method (FEM) was adopted to optimize the joint structure. The optimal resin molds were taken shape in a rapid prototyping (RP) process and the composite tibial hemi-knee joint was custom-fabricated via centrifugal casting and powder sintering techniques. The results demonstrate that the presented optimal method enables to decrease the volume of titanium-alloy prosthesis by 51. 7% and the optimum model remains the maximum bioactivity under the individual matching and mechanical strength conditions to confirm the efficiency and precision of RP-based custom fabrication. The practical example verifies the remarkable ability of this artificial prosthesis to restore damaged joint and exhibits a wider clinical foreground.