Tribological performances of symmetrically micro-textured Ti-6Al-4V alloy for hip joint

This study investigates the tribological performances, i.e., reduction in coefficients of friction (COF), and surface wear of symmetrically micro-textured Ti-6Al-4V for the application of metal-on-metal hip joint. Symmetrical configurations of micro-textures, namely, micro-dimple with parallel (PD) and staggered (SD) arrangements, and micro grid (MG) of varying geometry and texture overlapping, were fabricated by ball-end micromilling and its bio-tribological performances were related to micro-texture configuration, geometry, overlapping, microhardness, and wettability. Micro grid with an intermediate pitch and highest depth shows the lowest COF, among others. For PD and SD, COF was almost independent of texture overlapping; whereas, it decreases for MG with overlapping of up to 51%. It was observed that the enhanced wetting and microhardness combinedly contribute to the reduction in COF.