Development of a metallurgical Canadian platform for the processing of added-value materials and semi-finished products for the global medical industry

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The present proposal is aimed to develop a metallurgical Canadian platform for the processing of added-value materials and semi-finished products for the Global medical industry. The focus is addressed over ß-Ti alloys to fabricate semi-finished medical products. Cardiovascular applications are mainly targeted. Titanium alloys for medical products and healthcare goods represents a valuable alternative for their low weight, high mechanical properties and uncontested biocompatibility. A preliminary pattern of the mechanical properties will be obtained and successively optimised by laboratory experiences and simulations. In addition, cardiovascular devices need specific surface modification and high quality production standards, so that an integrated approach will be developed. The design, the optimization, as well as testing of semi-finished products will be addressed. This requires plenty of high technology, personnel and time. In this project, an exceptional and skilled team will be constituted by the complementary expertise of Laboratory for Biomaterials and Bioengineering at Université Laval and Centre de Métallurgie du Québec, in Trois-Rivières. The first will bring more than 15 years of academic and industrial expertise in the field of biomaterials for medical devices while the second will inject in this project the thorough scientific and technological environment required for the production of ß-Ti alloys, as base material, and semi-finished products, with a genuine technological-transfer-oriented approach. Four highly complementary and trustable companies will provide direct expertise from their core business, but also materials, technology, services and knowledge feedbacks related to factual production processes. This deep level of exchange will benefit toward the education of high quality personnel, by exposing them to a high technology environment and the chance of developing intellectual properties and be part of the (already envisaged) next development of this project. This project, if successful, presents the potential for Canada to become one of the rare world-supplier for new advanced materials and semi-finished products for the next generation of cardiovascular devices.