Enhancement of the fatigue performance of Ti-6Al-4V implant products.

Implants surgery, in particular hip implants, is fast becoming a routine, popular approach for curing diseases such as, osteoarthritis and rheumatic arthritis. However one potential problem with the insertion of a metal implant is that of the risk of fatigue failure. Numerous factors affect the propensity of a metal to fatigue, none more so than the physical and stress state of the surface. This research is focused on an assessment of the role of manufacturing processes on the fatigue performance of hip implants made from a Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The role of surface defects, surface residual stresses and material microstructural properties which influence fatigue performance were examined. Characterization of the implant material and of the processes involved in actual hip implant manufacturing were conducted. Rotating bend fatigue testing using hour glass shaped specimens was conducted to evaluate the fatigue performance at selected manufacturing stages. The surface roughness/defects and residual stresses were measured prior to conducting fatigue tests. A variation of fatigue limit, attributed to variations of surface roughness and surface residual stress was observed. The influence of parameters such as, stress ratio and mean stress effect, variation of fracture mechanics parameters (e.g. DeltaK[th]) and the limiting threshold conditions for different stages of cracks were investigated in the context of Kitagawa-Takahashi (K-T) type diagrams. Experimental data was used to develop models which were used to calculate, (i). fatigue life at respective stress amplitude and, (ii). the fatigue limit of components with known surface roughness/defect size and residual stress. To evaluate material crack growth properties a surface replication method was used. The output from both models showed good correlation with experimental data. Comprehensive fractography was conducted using optical, secondary electron, and infinite focus microscopy to support the results obtained from fatigue testing. Analysis was performed on in-vivo hip implant failure data covering the last 12 years. Fatigue failures occur in two locations on the implant stem, namely the cone area and the neck area. These two locations were investigated separately to identify the factors, such as; the category of implant most vulnerable to failure, service life, design features, fixation with the host bone, crack initiation features and propagation details. An attempt was made to compare in-vivo fatigue features with experimental fatigue results. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to investigate the surface residual stresses resulting from different manufacturing processes. The results were confirmed and software and hardware settings were calibrated in accordance with the results obtained from XRD analysis conducted at National Physical Laboratories (NPL), UK. Surface roughness measurements were also conducted using stylus type surface profilometer. The knowledge gained from this research can be used to understand the causes and modes of in-vivo fatigue failure of hip implants made of Ti-6Al-4V. Understanding the fatigue/mechanical properties of the implant material enables recommendations and optimization of good practice in manufacturing to eliminate in-vivo fatigue failures.