Abstract: Described is an artificial bone scaffold with an architecture resembling cortical bone, including microchannel-like structures resembling osteons. The scaffold enhances the ability of osteoblasts to secrete organized collagen and mineralize extracellular matrix within the osteon-like channels, thus promoting scaffold strength.

Abstract: A method of directly fabricating metal parts with surface features only requires first preparing a mold of the desired metal part. A powder blend is poured into the mold, which includes a base metal, a lower melting temperature alloy of the base metal, and a polymer binder. The mold containing the powder blend is heated until the polymer binder melts and adheres the metal particles to form a green part. The green part is removed from the mold and placed in a crucible, and loose ceramic powder is packed around the part to support it. The supported green part is then heated as needed to vaporize the binder and consolidate the part via liquid phase sintering. Once cool, the consolidated part can be machined to meet precise dimensional tolerances, if necessary.