Titanium: The material of choice for medical devices?

Med-Tech Innovation News spoke to Anastasios Arima, CEO of IperionX, discusses the properties and future of titanium in medical devices.

Briefly outline to us why you feel titanium is becoming increasingly the material of choice for medical devices? 

Titanium stands out as the metal of choice for medical devices due to its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, high fatigue limit, and resistance to corrosion when compared to other metals such as stainless steel. In the medical field, its high biocompatibility and corrosion resistance are particularly crucial for long-term applications inside the human body. Titanium’s low electrical conductivity also makes it useful for prosthetic parts and implants. Despite its superior differentiating properties, titanium’s cost and historically unsustainable production techniques have limited its use to high-end applications. 

However, new cutting-edge titanium technologies create the potential for more affordable and environmentally friendly production alternatives. These new technologies are opening the door for titanium's expanded use, including in the medical and dental sectors. 

Utilising lower cost, American-made titanium to create stronger, longer-lasting medical and dental devices has the potential to lower prices and the availability of these important products. 

What can titanium be used for? 

Titanium metal and its alloys are preferred materials in hip and joint implants, spinal implants, and other implants due to its favourable differentiating factors, such as its high biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and allowance for flexible movement. Titanium can also be used for medical tools, including surgical implements and other lab equipment, which benefit from this durability.

Tell us about how you’ll produce titanium for medical devices and what alternatives there are to the Kroll process? 

The current industry standard Kroll process for producing titanium metal is costly and environmentally unsustainable due to its high energy consumption and use of harsh chemicals. 

IperionX’s proven, patentable technology can be used to create premium, lower carbon, sustainable titanium metal products. 

Their Hydrogen Assisted Metallothermic Reduction (HAMR) technology, which was created in collaboration with the University of Utah and the U.S. Department of Energy, uses hydrogen to destabilise the naturally occurring titanium-oxygen bonds, enabling titanium dioxide to be directly reduced by magnesium to produce high-quality titanium metal powders. Another advantage of the HAMR process over the incumbent Kroll method is that it is currently the only technique in existence that can employ 100% recycled scrap titanium metal as a feedstock. 

The HAMR process can be used to produce spherical titanium powder for use in additive manufacturing and 3D printing. In the medical sector, 3D printing technologies are used to produce personalised implants, prostheses, and other life-saving devices and equipment. By enabling the faster, lower-waste, and lower-cost fabrication of complicated medical devices that are exact anatomical matches for patients, this innovative manufacturing technique has revolutionised the medical industry. Due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, biocompatibility with the human body, and capacity to be shaped into intricate designs, titanium enhances the advantages of 3D printing in medical applications. 

How does this fit with a company’s sustainability strategy? 

Sustainability has become increasingly critical for organisations to remain relevant and competitive in today’s world. Not only does sustainability often help cut costs by reducing energy consumption and waste, but consumers are also more likely to support leading sustainable business operations. 

Give us some insight as to the properties of IperionX? 

To aid in the transition to a circular, lower-carbon, resource-efficient, and socially inclusive green economy, IperionX aims to be a leading creator of U.S.-based sustainable critical mineral and critical material supply chains, starting with titanium. 

For businesses all over the world to better incorporate titanium scrap recycling and raw materials into a cleaner, resource-efficient, circular system, we need to establish a self-sustaining global titanium supply chain. This will allow titanium products to have longer-lasting lifetimes, increase their reusability, and enable businesses to meet and go even further beyond compliance criteria and lower carbon footprints by bringing titanium to the forefront of the industry.