Mechanical Surface Treatments of Ti-6Al-4V Miniplate Implant Manufactured by Electrical Discharge Machining (TECHNICAL NOTE)

Present work aims at multi-mechanical surface treatment of Ti-6Al-4V based-miniplate implant manufactured by electrical discharge machining (EDM) for biomedical use. Mechanical surface treatment consists of consequent use of ultrasonic cleaning, rotary tumbler polishing, and brushing. Surface layers are analyzed employing scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. All methods employed are capable of removing surface layer of transformed material created by EDM. These mechanical methods can provide the surface roughness of the miniplate in moderately rough category. Ultrasonic cleaning and rotary tumbler polishing took the significant increase of surface roughness with 90 and 67%, respectively. Furthermore, the brushing technique became the best benchmark for reducing the contamination of Cupper (Cu) on the surface of Ti-6Al-4V implants compared to ultrasonic cleaning and rotary tumbler polishing which hardly gave any impact and took the toxicity effect on both MTT Assay and direct toxicity tests.