Employing the TOPSIS selection method to assess the use of Ti-6Al-4V ELI processed by additive manufacturing in hip implants

The processing of medical components of Ti-6Al-4V ELI typically includes forging and machining. Recently there has been a growing interest in additive manufacturing since this technology allows the production of customized components with high dimensional precision and minimum material loss. However, there are problems associated with additive manufacturing, such as the need to employ finishing methods and mainly the reduction of fatigue performance by internal defects and high surface roughness. This work aimed to evaluate the likelihood of using the Ti-6Al-4V ELI alloy processed by additive manufacturing in hip implants. A material selection method based on the weighting of characteristics was used considering solely aspects of mechanical properties. Hence, in a mechanical performance scenario, some processes involving additive manufacturing were found to be feasible for application in hip implants, for instance Directed Energy Deposition (DED) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM), both followed by machining.