Advanced Stellite alloys with improved metal-on-metal bearing for hip implants
By Hu, Peishan; Liu, Rong; Liu, Jie; McRae, Glenn; Yao, Matthew X. & Collier, Rachel
Published in Materials & Design
2014
Abstract
Stellite 21 is a low-carbon Co–Cr–Mo alloy that has been used for hip implants for decades. The Stellite 21 implants can fail when the femoral head and the acetabular cup loosen because of limited metal-on-metal bearing. Two modified Stellite 21 alloys with better bearing capacities are proposed as replacements in this study: Cr-modified Stellite 21 with additional 10 wt.% Cr, and N-modified Stellite 21 with addition of 0.5 wt.% CrN. The wear and corrosion resistances of these alloys were investigated in simulated conditions experienced by hip implants in human bodies. The experimental results show that the proposed alloys all exhibit better wear resistance than the conventional hip implant material, but only Cr-modified Stellite 21 displays better corrosion resistance, thus this alloy should be considered for use in future hip implants.