Optimal parameters of abrasive flow finishing for hip joint implants

Abstract

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most well-known orthopedic surgeries in the world which involves the substitution of the natural hip joint by prostheses. In this process, the surface roughness of the femoral head plays a pivotal role in the performance of hip joint implants. In this regard, the nano-finishing of the femoral head of the hip joint implants to achieve a uniform surface roughness with the lowest standard deviation is a major challenge in the conventional and advanced finishing processes. In the present study, the inverse replica fixture technique was used for automatic finishing in the abrasive flow finishing (AFF) process. For this aim, an experimental setup of the AFF process was designed and fabricated. After the tests, experimental data were modeled and optimized to achieve the minimum surface roughness in the ASTM F138 (SS 316L) femoral head of the hip joint through the use of response surface methodology (RSM). The results confirmed uniform surface roughness up to the range of 0.0203 µm with a minimum standard deviation of 0.00224 for the femoral head. Moreover, the spherical shape deviation of the femoral head was achieved in the range of 7 µm. The RSM results showed a 99.71% improvement in the femoral head surface roughness (0.0007) µm under the optimized condition involving the extrusion pressure of 9.10 MPa, the number of finishing cycles of 95, and SiC abrasive mesh number of 1000.