Exploratory investigations on the structure dependence of the wear resistance of polyethylene

Abstract

A relatively simple hemisphere-on-flat sliding wear tester was devised for screening samples of polyethylene prior to their trial in total joint simulators and ultimately in implanted total joint replacements. Testing was done in bovine serum and wear debris was recovered quantitatively by a method previously devised. The debris, wear surfaces and wear rates were all consistent with previous work, including simulators and clinical materials. It was found that the wear rate increases by a factor of more than 30 when the molecular weight is decreased from 2 × 10 6 to 5 × 10 5, that irradiation in doses typical of sterilization procedures improves wear resistance, as does reduction in fusion defect size in ultrahigh molecular weight material, and that chemical cross-linking improves wear resistance in high density polyethylene but still not to the level of the ultrahigh molecular weight material. In material with a molecular weight typical of total joint replacements, an exponential dependence of wear rate on load was found.