Microstructure, mechanical properties and in-vitro performance of superelastic nitinol stents produced by μ-LPBF.

Authors

Xuezhi Cao, Simin Li, Manuela Pacella, Lukas Masseling, Changqing Liu, Liguo Zhao

Published in

Biomaterials advances. Volume 188. Pages 215054. Jul 04, 2026. Epub Jul 04, 2026.

Abstract

Additive manufacturing enables the fabrication of patient-specific self-expanding Nitinol stents. However, the relationships among processing conditions, microstructural evolution, multi-scale mechanical behaviour, and in vitro deployment performance remain poorly understood. This study carried out microstructural, mechanical and functional assessments for personalised Nitinol stents produced by micro-laser powder bed fusion (μ-LPBF). The as-printed Nitinol exhibited a predominantly equiaxed microstructure with low porosity. The austenite finish temperature remained below body temperature, indicating stable austenitic behaviour under physiological conditions. Mechanical testing further revealed a measurable superelastic response with ~3% recoverable tensile strain. Electrochemical polishing transformed a particle-covered surface into a glossy finish for the as-printed stents, with the arithmetic mean roughness (Ra) being reduced to an average value of 1.89 ± 0.60 μm. The personalised μ-LPBF stents exhibited enhanced luminal restoration during in-vitro deployment, with local expansion exceeding that of the conventional design by up to 16.84%. These results demonstrate that the personalised μ-LPBF Nitinol stents achieve improved in-vitro luminal restoration compared with the conventional geometry.

PMID:
42456237
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Jul 2026.

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