IMPROVEMENT OF FLEXURAL STRENGTH OF BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERIC INTERNAL FIXATION DEVICE BY SOLID STATE EXTRUSION

Solid-state extrusion technique was employed for the improvement of mechanical properties of polylactic acid (PLLA) widely used as biodegradable internal fixation devices currently. Cylindrical billets were machined out from the vacuum compression-molded PLLA to have various diameters, and solid-state extrusion of the billets was performed at various drawing rates and at the extrusion temperature of $130^{\circ}C$. Throughout the whole processes the decrease in molecular weight was significantly suppressed to be about $10\%$. Flexural modulus and strength of PLLA increased up to 8.3 GPa and 221 MPa, respectively. Studies on the orientation and crystallinity of extruded PLLA could reveal the effects of billet morphology, draw ratio, and drawing rate on the flexural strengths of PLLA.