Abstract
Wear characterization of commercial hip joint prostheses is conducted by a HIP simulator. Bovine serum solution is used for lubricant, and the tests are conducted until 5,000,000 cycles. At first, the effect of testing conditions on the wear of hip joints is examined to determine the optimum condition of simulator tests. As the results, wear increases 1.3 times when the serum concentration changes from 7 to 25vol.%, while wear increases 1.5 times when duration of lubricant replacement changes from 500,000 to 250,000 cycles. Torque change analysis reveals that the increase in wear with decreasing duration of lubricant replacement is originated from increasing initial wear. By using the determined conditions, long-term simulator tests are conducted against six types of commercial hip joint prostheses. The difference in wear is clearly exhibited by the tests. These data must be useful for the reference data on developing new type of hip joint prostheses.
