Evaluation of cast Ti–Fe–O–N alloys for dental applications

Good mechanical properties, biocompatibility and corrosion resistance make titanium an excellent material for biomedical applications. However, when better mechanical properties than those offered by commercially pure titanium (CPTi) are needed, Ti–6Al–4V is sometimes a good alternative. Some new titanium alloys, developed as industrial structural materials, aim at an intermediate range of strength between that of CP Ti and Ti–6Al–4V. Two of these alloys are Super-TIX800™ (Ti–1% Fe–0.35% O–0.01% N) and Super-TIX800N™ (Ti–1% Fe–0.3% O–0.04% N) (both produced by Nippon Steel Corp., Japan). Besides being stronger than CP Ti, the cost of manufacturing these alloys is reportedly lower than for Ti–6Al–4V since they do not contain any expensive elements. In addition, they are not composed of elements such as aluminum or vanadium, which have caused biocompatibility concerns in medical and dental appliances. To evaluate these alloys as candidates for dental use, it is helpful to compare them to CP Ti (ASTM Grade 2) and Ti–6Al–4V (ASTM Grade 5), which have already been employed in dentistry. We evaluated the tensile properties, mold filling capacity, corrosion characteristics and grindability of these industrial alloys prepared by investment casting. Compared to the strengths of cast CPTi, the yield strength and tensile strength of these cast alloys were more than 20% and approximately 30% higher, respectively. On the other hand, both of these properties were 30% lower than for Ti–6Al–4V. Better grindability and wear resistance were additional benefits of these new alloys for dental applications.