Surface coating, texturing, and engraving of bioimplants

Abstract

Bioimplants have emerged as transformative tools in modern healthcare, revolutionizing the treatment of various medical conditions and significantly improving patients' quality of life. In the realm of orthopaedics, joint replacements, including hip and knee implants, cardiovascular bioimplants, and dental implants have set new standards for durability and biological functionality. These implants are prone to fail due to inadequate loading conditions, mismatch in biocompatibilities, faster degradation by cell tissues, excessive wear by mating bones, and low corrosion resistance in long period of times which need to be resolved before implanting into in human bodies. The bio-implants are mainly fabricated by metallic materials or ceramics such as titanium, magnesium, stainless steels, zirconium oxide and aluminium oxide which shows similar strength to natural body parts. The functionalities of these structural materials can be improved by surface modification such as surface coating, texturing, and engraving to increase the durability of bioimplants when it is service. The surface coating is performed with thin layer of materials having high bio-integration capabilities that leads to increase in biocompatibility and bio-functionality while maintaining the promising properties of structural materials. The surface of the bioimplants plays significant contribution towards the interaction of human body tissues with bioimplants hence the biocompatibility, cell adhesions and its interaction can be improved by surface texturing without changing its desired geometrical structures and its structural strength. The surface engraving is deployed on the bioimplant provide the information about the materials, surface treatment and the fabrication process of the bioimplant before installing into the human bodies. In this chapter focusses on methods and other important details of surface coating, texturing, and engraving of bioimplants. © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Abhilash P M, Kishor Kumar Gajrani and Xichun Luo.