Manufacturing and Characterization of Tantalum Microplasma Coatings for Biomedical Application

Abstract

The paper presents new results on the application of microplasma spraying technology to manufacture biomedical tantalum coatings. Robotic microplasma spraying of Ta-wire onto implants of elbow joints made of Ti alloy was performed using new software for the robot arm, and the possibility of forming Ta coatings with a specified thickness and porosity was demonstrated. The parameters of MPS for obtaining Ta coatings with a thickness of up to <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$500\ \mu\mathrm{m}$</tex> and with a pore size of 20 to <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$200\ \mu\mathrm{m}$</tex> were established. It was found that the microhardness of the microplasma Ta coating is on average 2 times higher than that of the Ti alloy substrate. The results are of significance for researchers developing thermal spray technologies for biocompatible coatings manufacturing.