A new kind of titanium foam implant that resembles the inside of a bone could be integrated into the human skeleton and immediately bear loads.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing and Advanced Materials in Dresden have developed a titanium-based substance for a new generation of implants.
According to Dr Peter Quadbeck, the coordinator of the TiFoam research programme at Fraunhofer, the new porous material makes implants less stiff than conventional ones and promotes in-growth into surrounding bones.
Quadbeck said the titanium foam was developed through a powder-metallurgy-based moulding process that has been used for decades in the industrial production of ceramic filters for aluminium casting.
He explained that the process begins by coating polyurethane foams with a solution consisting of a binding medium and fine titanium powder. The polyurethane and binding agents are removed through vapourisation, and the resulting foam structure is ultimately sintered.
While there are titanium-based bone implants on the market, Quadbeck said they are often very expensive.
‘With our development we think it may be possible to manufacture such bone implant material with a much lower price,’ he said.

Quadbeck said implants made with TiFoam would be durable enough to sustain the forces of weight and motion. The implants would also have bone-like rigidity and this means that stress could be applied to them immediately after insertion.
While the TiFoam researchers concentrated on demonstrating the viability of titanium foam for replacement of defective vertebral bodies, the team claims that it is also suitable for repairing other severely stressed bones.
Apart from Fraunhofer’s role in the project, physicians from the medical centre at the Technical University of Dresden and several other companies were involved in developing the titanium foam.
Project partner Innotere stated that it would soon develop and manufacture TiFoam-based bone implants.
Very interesting stuff, would love to get ahold of samples to test. Recently working with Microindentation for compression measurements.
Application Note: http://www.nanovea.com/Application%20Notes/compressionmeasurement.pdf
Being a person with a number of replacement joints, I find this very interesting. This holds much promise for people with back problems in particular, which can only be an improvement or addition to what is being or done now
This isn’t anything terribly new, except the manufacturing technique may be unique. One of the problems this type of implant will face is accommodating “Wolff’s Law”….bone is not a 3-D homogenous material and is very much stronger in certain directions/planes than others, probably why they have first inserted in vertebrae – which is fairly uni-directional. It would be interesting to know how this matrix addresses this and other issues such as micro-motion leading to less successful integration than one might expect. If they have got the price right – that alone would make it great.
when are they going to approve this stuff some people really likes to be active and flexible instead of a stiff 8 screw implant in their back
I’m so terribly excited about this form if BONE metal compound. I as a person who suffers terribly with bone problem would welcome being a GUINEA PIG For them a my spine hip and knees elbows are all rubbish. Something that could make bone stronger or just be LOAD BEARING excites me. I pray this will be available soon as I need this DESPERATLY!!!