CHARACERIZATION ON WEAR ANALYSIS ON POLYMER MATERIALS IN BIO-IMPLANTS

Polymer materials are being developed for use as orthopaedic implant materials. Wear is an issue of increasing importance in orthopaedic implants. particulate debris generated by the wearing of biomaterials may be a causal factor leading to osteolysis and implant loosening. Therefore, numerical and experimental studies were completed to characterize the wear of Polymer materials in comparison to current orthopaedic implant materials. Wear Analysis of a composite material hip stem implanted in a femur. The Polymer implant exhibited 10-40% lower contact stresses in the distal region compared to a SS316L implant of identical design.. An identical series of experiments was run for comparison to a current orthopaedic implant material Two domains of motion were studied; a composite ring-on-HA disc large amplitude sliding wear test; and a composite pin-on-HA disc small amplitude fretting regimen. Nominal contact pressures during testing were Proper Loading and Speed for sliding and fretting tests, respectively. Fretting and sliding abrasive wear tests resulted in the composite material exhibiting a lower wear rate than the titanium-alloy. The magnitude of the difference was greatly dependent on the contact pressures, sliding amplitudes, and counter face material properties