Wear tests in a hip joint simulator of different CoCrMo counterfaces on UHMWPE

The objective in this work was to study the effect of different material counterfaces on the Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) wear behavior. The materials used as counterfaces were based on CoCrMo: forged with hand polished and mass finished, CoCrMo coating applied on the forged CoCrMo alloy obtained by Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD). A hip joint simulator was designed and built for these studies. The worn surfaces were observed by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the hand polished CoCrMo alloy caused the higher UHMWPE wear of the acetabular cups. The CoCrMo coating caused the least UHMWPE wear, while the mass finished CoCrMo alloy caused an intermediate UHMWPE wear. It is shown that the wear rates obtained in this work are closer to clinical studies than to similar hip joints simulator studies.