A Review of Laser Shock Peening in the Medical Sector (Part-II): Current State of Technology and New Applications
Xiaojun Shen and Pratik Shukla
This is a review paper on laser shock-based techniques and their applications, followed by the discussion on laser shock peening surface treatment deployable for biomedical applications, in particular titanium alloys used for orthopaedic implants. Although there are various benefits of titanium alloys, they cannot meet all of the clinical requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to apply surface modification on the titanium implants to promote the biological, physio-chemical and mechanical properties as discussed in the part one paper previously. Amongst these techniques, laser shock peening was considered as a promising technique to improve mechanical and biological properties for implants, maintaining their strength for a significant period of time. Therefore, basic LSP theory is introduced at the beginning followed by laser shock-based techniques including High Repetition Laser Shock Peening (HRLSP), Laser Shock Peening without Coating (LSPwC), Warm Laser Shock Peening (WLSP) and Cryogenic Laser Shock Peening (CLSP). Furthermore, its applications in aerospace, automotive and nuclear reactor are reviewed also. Finally, the potentiality of LSP in the medical sector by evaluating the performance of titanium, in terms of fatigue, corrosion, wear resistance and wettability, as well as biocompatibility.
Keywords: Biomaterials, titanium, implants, laser shock peening, wear