Tailor-made design, fabrication and validation of SrO doped nanostructured ZTA ceramic Femoral head – Acetabular socket liner assembly

Abstract

An established commercial grade SrO doped ZTA composition has been considered to design, fabrication through uniaxial pressing followed by sintering and polishing, validation of dimension, 3D surface profile, 3D microstructure, and compressive load bearing capacity of femoral head – acetabular socket liner prototypes for the hip prosthesis. While design and dimensions are concerned, both the steel (HRC60) molds were designed and machined to achieve precious dimensions of femoral head (FH; OD – 30 ± 0.01 mm) and acetabular socket liner (ASL; ID – 30.15 ± 0.01 mm). A close variation in the range of ±0.01 mm was confirmed the precision geometry of polished FH and ASL with consideration of 22 points coordinate measuring method (CMM). 3D surface profile ensures the surface characteristics of Ra = 0.2 ± 0.01 μm and Rq = 0.5 ± 0.01 μm for outer surface of FH and an inner surface of ASL, respectively. Structure integrity and fabrication defects including cracks and pores free bulk structures were confirmed by Micro CT. The compressive load resistance known as burst strength for independent FH and FH-ASL assembly were measured 16.2 KN and 17.6 KN, respectively. The developed ceramic prototypes have an economic advantage and can be adopted as artificial hip prosthesis after extensive in-vitro and in-vivo analysis.