Ti Growth®

The first titanium sponge applicable to prostheses made with thermal spray technology

Ti-Growth® provides an outstanding, unique, new solution to spray a metallic trabecular structure onto your device. Ti-Growth® has been designed to actually allow bone ingrowth. It is the first titanium foam that can be sprayed. With open interconnected porosities up to 800 microns in diameter, it is proven to promote intimate osseointegration.

Ti growth® is the first titanium sponge applicable to prostheses made with thermal spray technology. It consists open and interconnected large side pores arranged in a titanium matrix. The pore and interconnection channel size range is between 100 and 800 microns.

Conventional cement-less endosseous prostheses are generally made of tittanium alloys and are supplied with a surface roughened by sandblasting, plasma spray coating, etching etc.. These surfaces, while biocompatible, allow bone apposition only.

State-of-the-art wide porous networks are created and applied to prostheses using complex post processes. In many cases these processes have a dramatic effect on bulk material performance or are difficult to apply to complex-shaped piecese.

The peculiarity of Ti-Growth is that while designed to bring about bone ingrowth thanks to its large size pores, it can also be easily and quickly applied to all prosthetic surfaces lying along a line of sight.  Ti growth® can be applied to both Titanium alloys and CoCr bulk materials.

COMPARATIVE SEM IMAGES OF STANDARD APS AND VPS TITANIUM COATINGS vs. Ti-Growth® COATING

The major difference between Ti-Growth® and conventional Plasma Spray coatings is its porosity, pore depth and pore size. Top view SEM analysis makes this clear.

TiAPS

Porosity 10-40%
Pore size: 20-50 μm

TiVPS

Porosity 30-60%.
Pore size: 50-100 μm

Ti-Growth®

Porosity 40-70%.
Pore size: 100-800 μm

MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE Ti-Growth® COATING SURFACE AND SECTION

At SEM analysis, Ti-Growth® appears highly porous, with large, deep pores.

FRACTURE SECTIONS

The two images below were obtained using a specific procedure: the substrate was eliminated and the free-standing coating was fractured in order to analyze the section structure. The substrate before its removal was on the top. Pores several hundreds of microns deep are visible.

Metallographic sections. Comparison of standards APS, VPS and Ti-Growth coatings 

Ti-Growth®

TiAPS

TiVPS

Phisical and mechanical properties

Ti-Growth® roughness, due to its large pores, is outside the measurable range when using classic methods (Sz ~500μm, indicative). 
Mechanical adhesion and debris release, measured under Taber abrasion test, are within FDA requested limits.

Biological properties

Ti-Growth was biologically tested showing excellent biocompatibility performance.

OSTEOBLAST CELLS ADHERING TO Ti-Growth® SURFACE:

THE PECULIAR BIOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF Ti-Growth® WAS CONFIRMED BY IN VIVO TEST RESULTS

Ti-Growth® was shown as being able to promote deep bone ingrowth, whereas convemntional small porte size Ti-Coatings permit bone ingrowth only.

X-ray image of specimen used in the animal study. Ti-Growth coating applied to top and bottom surfaces.