Abstract
Wear and lubrication characteristics have been investigated in an artificial articular cartilage with low elastic modulus for joint prostheses. Wear tests were performed with a knee joint simulator. Polyvinyl formal was adopted as the artificial articular cartilage for the flat tibial component. The thickness of the polyvinyl formal was 5mm, and the mechanical property was adjusted through a new developing process in order to ensure that the micro-elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime was effective. The compliant bearing had a spherical surface with a radius of 30mm. The spherical bearing consisted of Co-Cr-Mo alloy, alumina ceramic, and zirconia ceramic. The results showed that no detectable wear debris was generated in joint simulation tests carried out over 0.6 million cycles. Although there still remain some problems to solve, the polyvinyl formal seems to be a very interesting and promising material, which meets the requirements of artificial articular cartilage.
