ISE student was awarded the Third Prize at the 2021 International 3D Printing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

Mr Weijie Xie, a PhD student of the Department of Industrial and Systems received the Third Prize at the 2021 International 3D Printing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (I3IEC). The competition is co-organized by the University Alliance of the Silk Road (UASR), the National Innovation Institute of Additive Manufacturing (NIIAM, China), and the Université de Technologie de Belfort Montbéliard (UTBM, France).

Mr Xie’s award winning project is titled “Novel Bioresorbable Mg-based alloys for patient-specific implants using laser additive manufacturing”.

Project Description:

The currently used materials for bone plates and screws for bone fracture healing are Ti alloys and stainless steel, which require secondary surgery to remove the implant after bone recovery. However, such secondary removal surgery puts pressure on the body, causes pain, risk, inconvenience, hospitalization and additional costs and it adds to the problem of the shortage of hospital beds especially during COVID-19. A step change is in applying novel bioresorbable Mg alloys, which are designed to be fully degraded in the human body after bone recovery and therefore removing the need for secondary surgery.

The project has successfully applied laser additive manufacturing to fabricate high aspect-ratio Mg alloys parts. Such high aspect-ratio parts are difficult to additively manufacture due to the heat accumulation although they have a more similar shape to actual bone plates. The project has also applies a support structure to minimize the deformation, which is a major change from research to practical applications.