Effect of rapid quenching and aging on tensile behavior of commercially pure (CP) titanium implant material

Abstract

Pure titanium and titanium alloys are widely used as implant materials in the medical and dental fields because of their superior bio-compatibility, corrosion resistance and specific strength compared with other metallic implant materials. Study of mechanical properties of these implant materials is very important during the course of their machining, fabrication and surface treatment operations. Titanium has good corrosion resistance due to the presence of an oxide layer on its surface which accounts for its superior biocompatibility. It has a poor wear resistance due to high coefficient of friction. An effective heat treatment which involves heating the material above the beta transus temperature (transformation temperature) will result in the formation of acicular martensite (α’). The formation of acicular martensite shows significant improvement in hardness and ultimate tensile strength of the implant material resulting in improved wear resistance. In this work, tensile behavior of commercially pure (cp) titanium implant material is studied when subjected to rapid quenching and aging procedure. The conditions under which the various mechanical properties change with respect to their crystallographic structures when subjected to the heat treatment process are discussed. Key words: Biomaterial, phase transformation, mechanical properties, ultimate tensile strength.