Ceramic-Ceramic Wear Zirconia/Alumina Composites For The Application Of Total Hip Joint Implant

인공 고관절 골두용 세라믹 복합재료에 대한 세라믹-세라믹 접촉 마멸 특성 분석

Ceramic femoral heads in the total hip replacement have been developed to reduce the polyethylene liner wear, Alumina and zirconia (3Y-TZP) having the excellent tribological properties are coupled against acetabular cups of polyethylene and are used in clinical application worldwide. However, alumina has a risk of catastrophic failure, and zirconia has the low temperature degradation in spite of enhanced fracture toughness. Recently, novel zirconia/alumina composite is very attractive due to the low temperature degradation (LTD)-free character and high fracture toughness. In the present study, we focus on the wear of ceramic on ceramic, which are able to be used as femoral heads and acetabular cups. Therefore, LTD-free zirconia/alumina composites with three compositions are made in a form of disk and cylinder, and the wear of the composites is performed on pin-on-disk type wear tester. The wear is conducted with or without lubricant. All the composites fabricated with the different composition show the good wear resistance.