Abstract
At present. about 0.3 million and more THRs (Total Hip Replacement) in a rear are being done worldwide. The increase in mechanical failure with the increase in THR, required more revisions. Revisions compensate mainly the wear of the artificial joint frictional surface and the loosening of the cup and stem. According to recent researches, loosening is mainly due to wear debris UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) from frictional surfaces . To overcome the wear problems associated with artificial joint materials , new surface structures with regular Patterns were designed and fabricated The lubrication Properties were examined to evaluate the wear of the frictional surfaces. The surface structure manifested a Pattern of "dents" with a 0.2-1.0 mm of diameter and 0.6-2.0 mm of Pitch. From the friction test of the SUS316L vs UHMWPE using the frictional tester, we found that the lubrication Performance was improved due to of drastically reduced amount of abrasion. There were optimum sizes for the diameter and the pitch of the Pattern. The results demonstrated that the lubrication properties could be improved by Patterning of the frictional surfaces. The surface Patterning was effective in preventing wear of the frictional surfaces, and the life of an artificial joint could be extended with such Patterning.