Physical And Mechanical Properties of Powder Injection Moulded 316l Stainless Steel Titanium-copper Alloy

316L-Ti-Cu alloy was developed with two variations of copper at 1 vol% and 3 vol% through powder injection moulding to investigate the influence of copper on the alloy. This alloy has not been researched before and is expected to serve as an alternative for implants that possess beneficial antibacterial effects from copper, which can mitigate infection-related issues that occur during orthopaedic surgery. Two sintering environments will be conducted which are under vacuum and under argon-5% hydrogen, to ascertain the optimal properties of the alloy. The main reason behind the different sintering atmospheres is to prevent the oxidation of copper, which easily forms under a small presence of oxygen, and it can affect the particle bonding during the sintering process, which subsequently affects the characteristics of the alloy. The maximum sintered density obtained was 89.9% from the 1 vol% Cu sample sintered under a vacuum atmosphere, indicating high porosity in all the samples. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis on the samples indicate that high amounts of pores were observed, along with the formation of oxides and carbides, which explains the low density and mechanical properties obtained. From the tensile test, the 1 vol% Cu sample sintered under vacuum yields the highest Young’s modulus at 35.2 GPa, whereas the lowest Young’s modulus of 11.01 GPa was obtained for 3 vol% Cu sintered under argon-hydrogen. All samples possess Young’ modulus which are similar to those of trabecular and cortical bone. With such properties shown and the antibacterial properties of copper added into the alloy, the potential of this alloy for orthopaedic implant applications is solidified. The future work of this research would be focusing on the optimisation of the properties of the alloy.