Tribological behaviour of DLC coatings compared to different materials used in hip joint prostheses

The goal of the study carried out in the laboratory was to quantify the wear and the friction of two materials used for the manufacturing of hip prostheses. Tests used had to obtain in a short time the tribological behaviour laws of the materials. Tests on a hip simulator have been excluded because their cost and their duration were too high for a program of preliminary development of new materials.

To amplify wear phenomena, dry friction tests were carried out for two configurations: ball-on-disc and pin-on-disc. The influence of the contact pressure at constant sliding velocity on the wear of materials has been clearly shown.

Results obtained with several different tested materials (stainless steel/UHMWPE, stainless steel+DLC coating/UHMWPE, stainless steel+DLC coating/stainless steel+DLC coating, titanium alloy+DLC coating/UHMWPE, titanium alloy+DLC coating/titanium alloy+DLC coating, zirconium dioxide/UHMWPE, alumina/UHMWPE, alumina/alumina) have shown the superiority of DLC coatings. Promising results obtained during this study are in the validation stage on a hip simulator.