Cold spray of agglomerated submicronic hydroxyapatite powders for biomedical applications

Abstract : Hydroxyapatite (HA) ceramic coatings are used for orthopaedic implants ti favour bone growth. The main conventional process is plasma spray of pure HA powder. A solid deposition process like cold spay could also be envisaged favourably in case of thermosensitive polymeric biomaterials, which would otherwise be degraded by plasma spay. In this work, two agglomerated hydroxyapatite powders, respectively with and whitout heat treatment after agglomeration, were cols sprayer for various spraying parameters.