Abstract
Addition of vitamin E is effective not only to improve wear performance of UHMWPE but also to prevent delamination, a kind of fatigue damage often observed in UHMWPE knee components. In order to investigate the effects of vitamin E addition on the improvement of mechanical characteristics of UHMWPE in molecular level, bi-directional sliding fatigue tests were performed and changes in molecular structure was examined using Fourier Transform Infrared microscope.
