Tribological enhancement of biomedical stainless steel using duplex surface treatments

Abstract

Austenitic stainless steels are widely used in several industries, including the biomedical industry. The use of stainless steel is however mostly limited to non-functional implants and metal-on-polymer configurations, as preference for functional metal-on-metal prosthesis is always given to CoCrMo alloys. CoCrMo has several advantages over stainless steel, amongst which are an enhanced c01Tosion wear performance and higher resistance to localised corrosion. Nevertheless statistical research shows that metal-on-metal implant configurations are being outperformed by ceramic-on-ceramic implant configurations. Other issues which concern metal-on-metal configurations are aseptic loosening and chromium leaching.