3D-Printed Truss Implants and the Science of Osseointegration

A solid titanium implant is biomechanically a mismatch: titanium is four to five times stiffer than cortical bone, and that gap causes stress shielding. Additive manufacturing solved it by making the implant hollow in the right places.

What a truss structure actually is

A truss implant replaces solid material with a repeating lattice of struts and nodes whose effective stiffness can be tuned by strut thickness and unit-cell size. The construct carries load at stiffness much closer to bone while preserving global strength — the classic application being acetabular augments and segmental-defect bridges.

Engineering bone ingrowth

• Pore size: ~300–600 µm, fully interconnected
• Porosity: 50–80%, graded where possible
• Surface: as-printed micro-roughness supports osteoblast attachment
• Load path: struts transfer force to host bone, reducing shielding

Manufacturing and verification

Truss implants are printed in Ti-6Al-4V with powder removal verified by CT before release. For major acetabular loss, tumour defects or failed revision hardware, a truss construct designed from the patient's CT is frequently the difference between a reconstructible hip and an unreconstructible one. Send the CT via our case form for a design proposal and quotation.