In one embodiment, the present invention may be a method of forming a porous and/or dense article from metal powder ( 12 ), including adding to a mold a first feedstock comprising an agglomerated metal powder ( 12 ) and an agglomeration agent, forming said first feedstock into a green state dense article ( 22 ); and removing said agglomeration agent. Furthermore, the present invention may include a second feedstock including an agglomerated metal powder ( 12 ), a space filling material and an agglomeration agent which may be formed into a green state porous article ( 21 ). The present invention also includes a dense and/or porous article ( 22 and 21 ) manufactured by various methods, as well as methods for creating the dense and porous feedstocks. Moreover, the present invention may include an article which may be a medical implant.

Claims

13 · 1 independent · depth 4

13 granted claims

›1.independentA method of forming a brown state article, having at least a porous portion, from metal powder, comprising:nadding to a mold a first feedstock compris…+12

›2.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein said step of adding to said mold further comprises adding a second feedstock comprising an agglomerated metal powder an…d2+3

›6.↳ 1The method of claim 1, further comprising, after the step of forming said first feedstock into the porous portion, the steps of:nadding to said mold a…d2

›7.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein the step of forming comprises die compression, cold isostatic pressing, hot isostatic pressing, metal injection molding…d2

›8.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein said agglomerated metal powder comprises titanium, Ti-6Al-4V alloy, stainless steel or cobalt chrome.d2

›9.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein the agglomeration agent is polyethylene glycol.d2

›10.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein both the clusters and space filling material have a size of 250 μm or less.d2

›11.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein upon the step of forming the porous portion-, the clusters of the first feedstock create interconnected eggshell struct…d2

›12.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein the removing step includes leeching said agglomeration agent with a solvent and said space filling material with a solv…d2

›13.↳ 1The method of claim 1, wherein after the removing step, the method further comprises sintering the brown state article.d2

Classifications

6 codes

IPC · International Patent Classification

Section A — Human necessities

A61F2/30
A61F2/34
A61F2/36
A61F2/44
A61F2/38

Section B — Performing operations; transporting

B22F3/11

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8.0 y

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Jessee Roe

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Priority chain

2 priority documents

Priority

13 Nov 2006

earliest claimed

›Priority documents — 2

Type	Document	Date
provisional	US 60858607	13 Nov 2006
related publication	US 20100297462 A1	25 Nov 2010

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