AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE MICROHARDNESS OF DENTAL AMALGAMS

치과용 아말감의 미세경도에 관한 실험적연구

The purpose of this study is to identify the phases of four different types, low-copper lathe cut (Type II, class 1) and spherical (Type II, class 2) amalgam alloys which are made by Caulk company and high copper Dispersalloy (Type II, class 3) made by Johnson & Johnson and Tytin (Type I, class 2) made by S.S. White and to determine the Vickers hardness number on the individual phase and four different types of dental amalgam. After each amalgam alloy and Hg measured exactly by the balance was triturated by the mechanical amalgamator (De Trey), the triturated mass was inserted into the cylindrical metal mold which was 4 mm in diameter and 12mm in height and was pressed by the Instron Universal Testing machine (Model 1125) at the speed of 1mm/minute with 143$kg/cm^2$ according to the A.D.A. Specification No. 1. The Specimen removed from the mold, mounted and stored in the room temperature for 7 days. The speciman was polished with the emery paper from #220 to #1200 and finally on the polishing cloth with 0.3 and 0.05 um $Al_2O_3$ powder suspended in water. And then each specimen was etched by Allan's method and washed with Sodium Bisulfinite for 30 seconds. Finally differentiation and metallography on each phase were obtained by using metallographical microscope (Versamet, Union) and microhardness was obtained by using microhardness tester (MVH-2, Torsee). The results were as follows: 1. In the low-copper amalgam, the ${\gamma}$, ${\gamma}_1$ and ${\gamma}_2$ phase were observed and in the high-copper amalgam, the ${\gamma}$, ${\gamma}_1$. ${\epsilon}$ and ${\eta}$ phases were observed but ${\gamma}_2$ phase was not observed. 2. Among the microhardness of each amalgam phase measured under pressing a vickers diamond indenter with 2.0gm load for 30 seconds, e phase has the highest V.H.N (314 ${\pm}$ 20), and in low-copper amalgam 12 phase has the lowest V.H.N. (29${\pm}$1) and ${\eta}$ phase which was observed in high-copper amalgam has 230${\pm}$13 V.H.N and this phase is considerd to contribute to strengthen the handness in amalgam. 3. The V.H.N. measured under pressing a Vickers diamond indenter with 300.0gm load for 30 seconds in low-copper amalgam was lower than that of high-copper amalgam.