Study on the possibility of silicon nitride—silicon nitride as a material for hip prostheses

Abstract

In order to study the possibility of silicon nitride-silicon nitride as a material for hip prostheses, the running-in property, the start-up and steady-state friction of silicon nitride against itself in distilled water before and after the running-in were investigated. The experimental results indicate that after the running-in the surfaces of silicon nitride can be polished to be ultra smooth, and the friction coefficient of silicon nitride against itself in water can become very small under some test conditions. From the tribological point of view, it seems that silicon nitride-silicon nitride is a very good material for the hip prostheses.