Design and fabrication of porous Kirschner wires by additive manufacturing

G. Singh, U. Harikrishnan, K. Vinothkumar, S. Santhanakrishnan
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
India

Keywords: additive manufacturing, 3d printing, Medical application , health care, implants

Summary:

Kirschner wires are widely used in orthopedic and veterinary surgeries. These wires are made up of stainless steel (316LVM, 304V) and Nitinol. Fabrication of Kirschner wire (K-wires) is done by drawing operation. In the present work, an alternate route to fabricate K-wires has been discussed. Additive manufacturing technique has shown great promise in the resent year in medical industries. K-wires are conventionally fabricated as pure solid wires but in this work, these wire are porous with controlled porosity level and structure. Porous K-wires is fabricated by additive manufacturing in the present work. This work can be further used to develop porous implants itself with desired structure and strength.