Tribological behaviour of AISI 316L stainless steel for biomedical applications

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the tribological behaviour of AISI 316L stainless steel for surgical implants (total hip prosthesis). The tribological behaviour is evaluated by wear tests, using tribometers ball on disc and sphere on plane. These tests consisted of measuring the weight loss and the friction coefficient of stainless steel (SS) AISI 316L. The oscillating friction and wear tests have been carried out in ambient air with an oscillating tribotester in accord with standards ISO 7148, ASTM G99-95a and ASTM G133-95 under different conditions of normal applied load (3, 6 and 10 N) and sliding speed (1, 15 and 25 mm s−1). A ball of 100Cr 6, 10 mm in diameter, is used as counter pairs. These tribological results are compared with those carried out with a tribometer type pin on disc under different conditions of normal load applied P (19·43, 28 and 44 N) and sliding speed (600 and 1020 rev min−1). The behaviour observed for both samples suggests that the wear and friction mechanism during the tests is the same, and to increase the resistance to wear and friction of biomedical SS AISI 316L alloy used in total hip prosthesis (femoral stems), surface coating and treatment are necessary.