TAGRA 2025

Commercially pure titanium is often preferred in biomedical applications due to their high biocompatibility behaviour. However, the inadequate wear, fatigue and corrosion resistance of titanium limit their use as a biomaterial in the human body. The purpose of the present study was to investigate contact- and contact-free wear resistance and hardness of titanium for biomedical applications. In this study, five specimens of each test material were exposed to contact- and contact-free wear tests using a computer-controlled chewing simulator with a steatite ball as antagonist (100 N bite force loads, 1.0 Hz chewing frequency, 100.000 chewing cycles, 30° contact angle immersed in distil water. Initially surface hardness values of test materials in Vicker’s hardness (HV) were determined. The maximum wear depth and the volume loss of the worn surfaces were measured with a 3D profilometer. Additionally, SEM analysis was performed to examine surface wear tracks. The interactions between titanium test specimen and maximum depth of wear and volume loss were found to be significant through wear test process. According to in this study obtain data as the zirconium ratio in the titanium alloy content increased, the alloy showed higher wear resistance under wear test procedures. However, it has been observed that micro cracks occur on the wear surfaces direction of lateral movement mechanism. These micro cracks can be the continuation of cracks that occur subsurface of titanium test material. This can be suggested as an indication of fatigue wear.