Fig. 3

SEM images of a 3D-printed and a conventional implant. a The 3D-printed porous structure had a regular shape with clearly identifiable pores; b partially molten particles (black circles) were visible on the struts; c the ‘stair-step’ effect due to the layer-over-layer manufacturing and (d) the texture lines were also found at higher magnification. Differently, conventional cups showed e less clearly identifiable pores and f beads of uniform distribution along all the backside surface