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Improving surface finish and wear resistance of additive manufactured

nickel-titanium by ultrasonic nano-crystal surface modification

Article  in  Journal of Materials Processing Technology · June 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2017.06.038

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 Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Materials Processing Tech.

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Improving surface finish and wear resistance of additive manufactured MARK

nickel-titanium by ultrasonic nano-crystal surface modification
Chi Maa, Mohsen Taheri Andanib,c, Haifeng Qind, Narges Shayesteh Moghaddamb,
Hamdy Ibrahimb, Ahmadreza Jahadakbarb, Amirhesam Amerinatanzib, Zhencheng Rena,
⁎
Hao Zhanga, Gary L. Dolld, Yalin Donga, Mohammad Elahiniab, Chang Yea,
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA
b
Dynamic and Smart Systems Laboratory, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
c
S.M Wu Manufacturing Research Center, College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
d
Timken Engineered Surfaces Laboratories, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys have great potential to be used as biomedical implants or devices due to their
Additive manufacturing unique functional properties (i.e., shape memory properties and superelastic behavior). The machining difficulty
NiTi associated with NiTi alloys is impeding their wide application. Additive manufacturing (AM), however, provides
Ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification an alternative method to manufacture NiTi structures. One major concern associated with NiTi devices fabri-
Surface finish
cated in this route is the potential for the release of toxic Ni ions due to the poor surface finish as well as high
Porosity
surface porosity. In this study, NiTi samples were produced using selective laser melting, the most common AM
Wear resistance
Corrosion resistance techniques. Then, an innovative surface processing technique, ultrasonic nano-crystal surface modification
(UNSM), was used to mitigate the potential for the Ni ions release. By simultaneous ultrasonic striking and
burnishing, UNSM can significantly improve surface finish and decrease surface porosity. In addition, UNSM
induces plastic strain which in turn hardens the surface layer. The synergistic effect of better surface finish, lower
subsurface porosity, and a hardened surface layer resulted in higher wear and corrosion resistance. It is therefore
expected that UNSM can be potentially used to treat biomedical devices.

1. Introduction characteristics (Andani et al., 2014b).

In recent years, nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys, also known as nitinol,
have attracted the attention of many researchers due to their two dis-
tinct features, i.e., superelasticity (SE) behavior and shape memory
(SM) effect (Bansiddhi et al., 2008). Both SE and SM behaviors are due
to a solid–solid phase transformation between austenite (higher tem-
perature and stronger phase) and martensite (lower temperatures and
softer phase). SE is the ability of a material to return to its original
shape after a large deformation (Up to 8% for NiTi) without any tem-
perature changes. On the other hand, SM NiTi requires subsequent
heating (more than the austenitic finish temperature) after applied
deformation in order to return the material to its memorized shape. SE
NiTi mostly is commonly used for biomedical applications (Andani
et al., 2014a), while SM NiTi is more attractive for the control com-
munity to be used as actuators (Elahinia and Ashrafiuon, 2002). NiTi
has also demonstrated other interesting features including biocompat-
ibility, low stiffness compared to other Ti-based alloys, and damping
Over the years, several conventional fabrication techniques (e.g.,
casting, powder metallurgy) have been implemented to produce su-
perelastic and shape memory NiTi. Although these methods have been
successful for producing simple geometries (e.g. wires, tubes, and bars),
the production of complex geometries using conventional techniques
was impossible to some extent. More importantly, the machining of
NiTi is a challenging task due to several associated problems such as
stress-induced martensitic transformation, spring back effects, work
hardening, and burr formation (Elahinia et al., 2012). Since the early
1990s, additive manufacturing (AM) has been introduced as a pro-
mising technique to overcome the challenges associated with conven-
tional techniques and to produce super-complex parts directly from
CAD file, layer by layer. AM techniques can be categorized into two
main groups (i) powder-bed based techniques including, selective laser
sintering (SLS) and selective laser melting (SLM); (ii) flow-based tech-
niques such as laser engineered net shaping (LENS) and direct metal
deposition (DMD). The high quality of parts produced by powder-bed

⁎
Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: changye2002@gmail.com, cye@uakron.edu (C. Ye).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2017.06.038
Received 22 December 2016; Received in revised form 19 June 2017; Accepted 20 June 2017
Available online 21 June 2017
0924-0136/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
C. Ma et al.
based techniques makes them more favorable for creating nitinol de-
vices (Saedi et al., 2016).
One major concern with NiTi is the allergic reaction and genotoxi-
city in the human body due to the high concentration of Ni resulted
from the release of the Ni ions (Denkhaus and Salnikow, 2002). Another
reported challenge is the poor surface finish and porosity inside mate-
rial (Arruda et al., 1995), which affect the mechanical properties of AM
NiTi (e.g., yield strength, fatigue and wear resistance) (Edwards and
Ramulu, 2014). For instance, surface finish and porosity were found to
have a significant effect on the fatigue performance of AM parts
(Elahinia, 2015). Chan et al. (2013) prepared AM Ti64 samples using
both electron beam melting (EBM) and SLM techniques. Electrical
discharge machining (EDM) was used to machine the surface of partial
samples while the others were tested as-built for their fatigue perfor-
mance. It was found that the fatigue performance of the as-built group
was the worst. Although EDM improved the fatigue life of the AM parts,
the wrought material samples showed better fatigue performance,
which indicates that the microstructure inside the material plays an
important role in the fatigue performance. Wang et al. (2013) pointed
out that pores can serve as the crack initiation sites under cyclic
loading. Because pores are distributed in the near-surface region, re-
duction of pore density is critical to slow down crack initiation and
propagation speeds to enhance fatigue performance.
Many methods, including heat treatment (Vrancken et al., 2012),
hot isostatic pressing (Qiu et al., 2013), and infiltration (Maleksaeedi
et al., 2014) have been used to post-process AM metals. The heat
treatment can eliminate the tensile residual stresses, while hot isostatic
processing and infiltration can decrease the porosity. For example,
Vrancken et al. (2012) reported that heat treatment can improve the
fatigue resistance of AM Ti64 parts. Hot isostatic pressing and in-
filtration have been reported to decrease the porosity and thus increase
the mechanical performance of AM metals. However, none of these
methods can improve the surface finish, decrease the subsurface por-
osity and eliminate the tensile residual stresses of AM metals simulta-
neously.
Ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM) is a recently
developed surface processing technique that utilizes static load super-
imposed on dynamic load to strike the metal surface to induce plastic
strain. UNSM is a combination of ultrasonic peening and burnishing.
Compared with traditional ultrasonic peening, the process parameters
in a UNSM process can be precisely controlled. Compared with tradi-
tional burnishing, UNSM also utilizes ultrasonic strikes that can lead to
a deeper plastic affected depth. It has been reported that UNSM can
significantly improve component tensile strength, wear resistance
(Amanov et al., 2012) and fatigue resistance (Cao et al., 2010), stress
corrosion cracking resistance (Telang et al., 2015). The high frequency
(20 kHz) ultrasonic strikes can induce beneficial compressive residual
stresses while at the same time decrease surface porosity as a result of
the compression effect induced by the strikes. In addition, the static
load causes a burnishing effect that can improve surface finish as the
roughness peaks flow towards the valleys on the surface. It is thus ex-
pected that UNSM can improve surface finish, decrease surface porosity
and eliminate tensile residual stresses of AM metals simultaneously.
UNSM processing of AM metals has not been reported so far. It is thus
the goal of this work to study the effect of UNSM treatment on the
microstructure and properties of AM NiTi alloys. The effects of UNSM
on the surface finish, surface porosity, hardness, wear resistance and
corrosion resistance of AM NiTi will be studied.
2. Experiment
2.1. Materials
As-cast Ni50.8Ti49.2 (at%) ingots were purchased from Nitinol
Devices & Components, Inc. (Fremont, CA). Electrode induction melting
gas atomization (EIGA) by TLS Technique GmbH (Bitterfeld Germany)
434
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440
Fig. 1. NiTi powders prepared by electrode induction melting gas atomization.
was used to produce pre-alloyed NiTi powder. Medium-sized particles
ranging from d = 25 μm to d = 75 μm were used. The EIGA technique
can produce accurate spherical-shape powder particles with an accep-
table level of impurity content (Elahinia et al., 2016). Fig. 1 shows the
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the used NiTi powder.
An SLM system by Phenix/3D Systems of type PXM was used. The
machine was equipped with a 300 W Ytterbium fiber laser with
Gaussian (TEM00) beam profile, beam quality of M2 < 1.2, and a
beam diameter of approximately 80 μm. In the PXM machine, SLM
process was performed to produce superelastic nitinol samples. As it is
seen in Fig. 2, this procedure starts with the upward moving of piston to
provide the required amount of powder for depositing the first layer on
the building platform. Subsequently, the metal scraper and roller de-
posit the powder layer. Then, the laser selectively melts the layer ac-
cording to the geometrical information of the corresponding CAD layer
prepared by the machine control software. Finally, the building piston
moves downward to provide space for deposition of the next powder
layer. This process continues until the part production is completed.
To fabricate NiTi samples, an optimum set of processing parameters,
as presented in Table 1, were used. The optimized process parameters
were selected in a way that ensured the final SLM NiTi products are
fully dense and their functional behavior (SE and SM) are comparable
with the NiTi samples made by conventional techniques. More details
on optimization of processing parameters are available in our previous
works (Walker et al., 2014). The compositional contents and phase
transformation temperatures of fabricated NiTi samples were studied
and discussed in (Saedi et al., 2017) and (Haberland et al., 2014), re-
spectively. To study the effect of UNSM treatment on the electro-
chemical behavior and wear resistance of NiTi, cylindrical coupons
(height 2 mm) were fabricated in the vertical direction. Due to the
geometric limitation of a fixture in the wear testing, the diameter of
tested sample was 10 mm while the diameter of samples for electro-
chemical behavior test was 15 mm. The scanning strategy was con-
sidered to be xy-alternating hatching scheme (i.e., 0° and 90°).
2.2. UNSM experiment
A picture of the UNSM process unit and its schematic are illustrated
in Fig. 3. During the UNSM process, the tungsten carbide tip strikes the
sample surface at high frequency (20 kHz); at the same time, it scans
the surface following pre-designed paths to impose a burnishing effect.
Under the effects of static load and dynamic load, the tip is kept in
contact with the sample while inducing simultaneous ultrasonic striking
and burnishing on the sample surface. The process parameters in the
UNSM process include UNSM tip diameter, static load, ultrasonic vi-
bration amplitude, the distance between neighbor scans (interval),
scanning speed, and treatment cycles. While it is not the objective of
this study to optimize the UNSM process for 3D-printed metals, a
C. Ma et al. Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440

Fig. 2. The sequence of operation of PXM SLM system from Phenix/3D Systems, adopted with permission (Elahinia et al., 2016).

Table 1 Table 2
Optimum SLM parameters to produce the NiTi parts. UNSM parameters.

Effective laser Layer Scanning Hatch Energy Input Static Tip Amplitude (μm) Interval (μm) Scanning Treatment
power (W) thickness (μm) velocity (m/s) distance (J/mm3) load diameter speed cycle
(μm) (kg) (mm) (mm/min)

250 30 1.25 120 55.5 3 2.4 20 10 2000 2

preliminary process optimization was done and the UNSM parameters
shown in Table 2 were selected in this study.
2.3. Surface morphology
Surface morphology was characterized by an inverted trinocular
optical microscope (ME1200TB) and a NewView 7300 surface profiler
(Zygo Corporation). Surface roughness was measured with 25X mag-
nification.
2.4. Subsurface porosity measurement
For subsurface porosity measurement, only half of the sample was
treated by UNSM. The sample was then grounded slightly with 800 grid
sandpapers to expose the pores. After that, an optical microscope
(ME1200TB) was used to observe the subsurface porosity.
2.5. In-depth hardness measurement
depth hardness measurement. Then the cross-section of the sample was
finally polished with 60 nm colloidal silica suspension. The in-depth
Vickers hardness was measured using a Wilson Tukon 1202 hardness
tester with a static load of 100 g and a dwell time of 10 s. Indentations
were conducted along the depth direction.
2.6. Corrosion resistance test
Potentiodynamic polarization tests were carried out in 3.5 wt.%
NaCl solution to investigate the corrosion resistance of the AM NiTi
before and after UNSM treatment. An electrochemical workstation
(VersaSTAT 4 from Princeton Applied Research Inc.) was used for the
tests. The electrical circuit was made of the samples (working elec-
trode), a platinum counter electrode and a saturated calomel (Ag/AgCl)
reference electrode. The scan rate was 1 mV/s and the sample was kept
in the solution for an hour to reach a stable open circuit before col-
lecting the Tafel curves.

The UNSM-treated sample was cut and mounted into epoxy for in-

Fig. 3. (a) UNSM process unit and (b) schematic diagram of UNSM pro-
cess.

435
C. Ma et al.
2.7. Wear resistance test
Considering that it is difficult to measure the wear volume on a
rough surface, all samples were polished with 800 grid sandpapers
before UNSM treatment for the wear resistance test. Wear tests were
then conducted on the untreated and UNSM-treated samples using a
high-frequency reciprocating rig (HFRR) system. The testing was car-
ried out with a static load of 100 g, a ball sliding distance of 500 μm and
a frequency of 20 Hz under dry contact condition. A Zygo NewView
7300 surface profiler was used to measure the worn volume as a
function of sliding cycles. Three sliding cycles were used: 6,000, 12,000
and 24,000. The average of four tests was reported for each data point.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Surface morphology
The surface finish of UNSM-treated samples depends on the initial
surface finish and the implemented UNSM parameters. Fig. 4a shows
the appearance of the AM NiTi samples before and after UNSM treat-
ment. The UNSM-treated sample is shinier compared with the non-
treated sample which implies that the UNSM treatment results in a
better surface finish. Fig. 4b and 4c show the optical images of the non-
treated sample. Fig. 4d and 4e show the optical images of the UNSM-
treated sample. It can be clearly observed that the non-treated sample
has a rougher surface with a Ra of 12.1 μm compared with a Ra of
9.0 μm for the UNSM-treated sample.
SEM observation has been conducted for more detailed observation.
As Fig. 5a shows, the untreated surface consists of many peaks and
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Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440
Fig. 4. (a) Appearance of the AM NiTi samples before and after UNSM
treatment; surface morphology of the AM NiTi samples before (b), (c) and
after (d), (e) UNSM treatment.
valleys, which is consistent with the optical microscopic observation.
The peaks and valleys are more clearly presented in Fig. 5b and a rough
surface is observed. In addition, there are a significant amount of par-
tially melted particles, especially at the bottom of the valley. From the
high magnification image (Fig. 5c), it can be observed that the re-
mained particles are partially melted and fused together to attach to the
surface. In Fig. 5d, it can be observed that the UNSM-treated sample has
much better surface finish without any high peaks. The majority of the
un-melted particles on the top surface are gone after the UNSM treat-
ment. A much better surface finish has been achieved after UNSM
treatment (Fig. 5e). Most partially melted particles are swept away
while a few partially melted particles are still stuck in the valley
(Fig. 5f) after the UNSM treatment. During the UNSM treatment, a
tungsten carbide tip strikes the surface at high frequency (20 kHz)
while at the same time scans over the surface. The simultaneous striking
and scanning sweep away the particles at the surface and removes the
roughness peaks by pushing them towards the valleys. This results in
the much better surface finish after the UNSM treatment. The similar
smoothening effect has been reported in UNSM-treated cast NiTi sam-
ples (Ye et al., 2016). In that study, the surface roughness of NiTi has
been decreased from 1 μm to 0.22 μm in Ra. In the literature, the
smoothening effect has been observed in burnishing, as well. Shiou and
Chen (2003) reported that burnishing can reduce the surface roughness
of PDS5 tool steel from 1 to 0.07 μm.
3.2. Subsurface porosity characterization
Subsurface porosity significantly compromises the mechanical in-
tegrity of AM metals (Thijs et al., 2010). To investigate the effect of
C. Ma et al.
Fig. 6. Porosity distribution on the untreated surface and UNSM-treated surface.
UNSM treatment on subsurface porosity, a half of a round sample was
processed using UNSM while keeping the other half as the control. After
UNSM treatment, the AM NiTi sample was polished to expose the pores
inside the material. Multiple images were then taken using an optical
microscope. Then, the images were merged and processed to reveal the
pores as the black regions as in Fig. 6. In Fig. 6, the left half circle is
untreated surface while the right half circle is the treated one. It can be
seen that there are much more black dots on the untreated surface
(Fig. 6 left), which represent pores formed during AM fabrication. The
areas of all the black dots were added and the ratio of the black dots
area of the untreated surface to that of the treated surface was found to
be 11:1, which represents a significant reduction of subsurface porosity.
The compression effect induced by the simultaneous ultrasonic striking
and burnishing during the UNSM treatment resulted in much lower
porosity in the treated side. It should be noted that a future study with
X-ray tomography is needed to reveal the in-depth distribution of the
pores before and after UNSM treatment.
3.3. In-depth hardness
UNSM can modify the microstructure of the surface layer to harden
the material. To characterize the strengthening effect, hardness was
measured on the cross-section of the UNSM-treated sample. Fig. 7
shows the in-depth hardness of the sample. It can be observed that the
hardness of the sample at the surface has been increased from 304 Hv
before treatment to 408 Hv after treatment, corresponding to a 34.2%
increase. The hardness gradually decreases with depth and at a depth of
around 125 μm returns to the original value. This is caused by the
depth-gradient nature of the UNSM process: the ultrasonic striking force
437
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440
Fig. 5. SEM images of untreated (a, b and c) and UNSM-treated (d, e and f)
at different magnifications.
Fig. 7. Hardness distribution from the cross-section of the sample before and after UNSM
treatment.
decreases with depth. Due to the gradient nature of the plastic strain
induced by UNSM, the hardness also assumes a gradient distribution.
Similar hardening behavior has been reported in UNSM-treated cast
NiTi by Ye et al. (2016). UNSM improve metal hardness through work-
hardening and grain refinement, as has been previously reported (Ye
et al., 2014). For AM NiTi, the decrease in porosity may also have
contributed to the hardness increase.
3.4. Corrosion behavior
The corrosion behavior of NiTi alloys is important in that it will
determine the release rate of toxic ions when used as biomedical de-
vices in vivo. Fig. 8a shows the Tafel curves of the untreated and UNSM-
treated AM NiTi samples. The corrosion current has been decreased
from 157 nA to 53.1 nA (Fig. 8b). That means the UNSM-treated sam-
ples have a 1/3 of corrosion rate of that of the untreated samples. It is
believed that the surface oxidation layer plays a significant role in the
corrosion resistance of NiTi (Trepanier et al., 1998). In the work of
Olumi et al. (2015), the corrosion behavior of NiTi alloys after shot
peening was studied. A nanocrystalline layer was formed on the surface
after shot peening. It was believed that the nanocrystalline surface layer
makes the oxidation passive film denser and more stable. The oxidation
layer, as a protective layer (Shukla et al., 2005), plays a significant
effect in corrosion improvement. If the oxide layers are denser, the
samples will have higher corrosion resistant. Furthermore, it is believed
that the composition change of the passive film has a considerable
impact on the electrochemical behavior of NiTi alloys. An increased
C. Ma et al.
composition of Ti element in the top oxidation layer is observed by EDX
in shot-peened NiTi (Olumi et al., 2015). As the Ti oxides are more
stable, the corrosion resistance can be enhanced. UNSM has also been
reported to generate nanocrystallization or even amorphization in NiTi
alloys (Ye et al., 2016). The grain refinement then would lead to thicker
oxidation layer (Zheng et al., 2012) and thus better corrosion resistance
which justifies the increase of the corrosion resistance after the UNSM
treatment in this work.
In addition to the surface oxidation layer, the surface finish may also
have played a role in the improved corrosion resistance. For metals with
rough surfaces, the dimples and peaks can form galvanic cells that can
accelerate the corrosion process. It has been reported that surface im-
perfections negatively affect the formation of passive layer and thus
lead to poor corrosion resistance (Es-Souni and Fischer-Brandies, 2002).
Trepanier et al. (1998) have also demonstrated that smoothness of the
oxidation layer played a more dominant role than its thickness in the
corrosion resistance of surface treated NiTi. A much better surface
finish has been observed in the UNSM-treated sample as shown in Fig. 4
and 5. Good surface finish and more uniform oxidation layer contribute
to the better corrosion resistance of the UNSM-treated AM NiTi sam-
ples.
3.5. Wear behavior
After implanted, the biomedical implants are subjected to constant
wear from other implants and/or bone. Thus, it is important for bio-
medical implants to have higher wear resistance to avoid the generation
of large amount of wear debris, which may cause inflammation and
eventually implant loosening. Fig. 9 compares typical wear scars for
438
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440
Fig. 8. (a) Potentiodynamic polarization curves of untreated and treated
AM NiTi samples, (b) self-corrosion currents, following placement in the
3.5 wt.% NaCl solution for an hour.
both the untreated and UNSM-treated AM NiTi samples. It can be ob-
served that the scars on the UNSM-treated samples are both narrower
compared with the untreated group. Fig. 10 shows the wear volume at
different dissipated energy for the untreated and the UNSM-treated AM
NiTi samples. It can be observed that overall the UNSM-treated samples
have lower wear volumes compared with the control samples especially
when the dissipated energy is lower than 20 J. The high variation of the
wear volumes could be caused by the high surface roughness of the
samples. In addition, after UNSM treatment, the wear volume is re-
duced from 92,137 μm3 to 64,011 μm3 at the 6000 cycles and decreased
from 259,890 to 186,393 μm3 at 24,000 cycles. After UNSM treatment,
much higher surface hardness has been observed (Fig. 7). Higher sur-
face hardness, together with lower surface porosity, leads to much
higher wear resistance.
4. Discussion
Poor surface finish and high subsurface porosity have been major
concerns for AM metals. This is especially important for AM NiTi used
as biomedical implants, where low metal ion release in vivo is extremely
important. The release of certain metal ions (e.g., Ni ions) can be toxic
to the human body (Takamura et al., 1994). For biomedical implants,
the ion release rate is closely related to the corrosion resistance and the
wear resistance. High corrosion and wear resistance will lead to lower
ion release rates. The corrosion resistance is closely related to the sur-
face finish and the passive layer. On the other hand, the wear resistance
is dependent on the sample surface hardness and porosity.
In this study, three changes occurred in AM NiTi samples after
UNSM treatment: 1. surface roughness decreased; 2. subsurface
Fig. 9. Wear scars of untreated (a and b) samples and UNSM-treated (c
and d) samples at 6000 (a and c) and 24,000 (b and d) cycles.
C. Ma et al.
Fig. 10. Effect of UNSM on the wear behavior of the untreated and UNSM-treated AM
NiTi samples.
Fig. 11. Schematic of the UNSM processing showing its effect on surface finish, subsur-
face porosity and surface hardening.
porosity decreased; and 3. surface hardness increased. Fig. 11 shows a
schematic of how UNSM affects the microstructure of AM metals. Be-
fore UNSM treatment, the AM metals have high surface roughness and
high subsurface porosity. During UNSM treatment, the material in the
roughness spikes is either removed or pushed to the valleys by the ul-
trasonic striking and the burnishing effect. In addition, many un-melted
particles were swept away by the burnishing effect. This significantly
improves the surface finish. Simultaneously, the ultrasonic striking can
also affect the subsurface microstructure. The pores existed in the
subsurface of the AM metals were either shrunk in size or disappeared
due to the compacting effect induced by the ultrasonic striking
(Fig. 11). The ultrasonic striking and burnishing also induced plastic
strain that leads to the work-hardening and possibly nanocrystallization
of the metals, improving the surface hardness. As schematically shown
in Fig. 11, before the UNSM treatment, the AM NiTi has a poor surface
finish and high subsurface porosity; after UNSM treatment, the AM NiTi
has a better surface finish, low subsurface porosity, and a hardened
surface layer. The better surface finish, lower subsurface porosity, and
higher surface hardness work synergistically to improve the corrosion
and wear resistance of the AM metals, as has been observed in this
study. Higher corrosion and wear resistance is expected to result in a
lower Ni ion release into the human body during long-term application
in vivo.
Unlike other post-processing methods for AM metals, UNSM can
simultaneously improve surface finish and decrease subsurface por-
osity. These surface characteristics are extremely important for surface-
related properties, including corrosion, wear, and fatigue resistance. In
439
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 249 (2017) 433–440
addition, UNSM has been reported to induce beneficial compressive
residual stresses (Yasuoka et al., 2013), which is very important for a
component’s fatigue performance. Finally, UNSM does not introduce
new material like coating or deposition processes do. Even though
further cell culture study is needed to evaluate the effect of UNSM
treatment on the biocompatibility of AM metals, this study demon-
strated that UNSM is a very promising technique to treat AM metals for
biomedical implants.
5. Conclusion
In this study, the SLM technique was implemented to produce NiTi
structures. As a solution to decrease the level of Ni release, which is a
major problem associated with NiTi implants, an innovative surface
processing technique (i.e., UNSM) was used to treat AM NiTi samples.
After UNSM treatment, the surface roughness has been reduced from
12.1 to 9.0 μm and the subsurface porosity was reduced significantly
(the ratio of the porosity before and after treatment 11:1). The hardness
distribution on cross-section indicates the formation of a hardened layer
of 125 μm with a 34.2% enhancement in hardness after UNSM treat-
ment. Potentiodynamic polarization tests showed that the corrosion
resistance has been significantly improved as manifested by a much
lower corrosion current (from 157 to 53 nA). Wear resistance is also
enhanced (wear volume 92,137 μm3 before to 64,011 μm3 after treat-
ment at 6000 cycles) due to the formation of the hardened layer. It can
thus be concluded that UNSM is a promising technique that can be used
to improve the surface finish, decrease the surface porosity, improve the
corrosion resistance and increase the wear resistance of AM NiTi sam-
ples.
Acknowledgments
The authors (C. Ma, Z. Ren, H. Zhang, Y. Dong and C. Ye) are
grateful for the financial support of this research by the New Faculty
Startup Fund (grant numbers 207135 & 207137) and the Firestone
Fellowship, both provided by the College of Engineering at The
University of Akron. The group from UT would like to acknowledge the
financial support of as Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and
Startup Fund.
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