Influence of the sandblasting on the subsurface microstructure of 316LVM stainless steel: Implications on the magnetic and mechanical properties

The austenitic stainless steel 316 Low Vacuum Melting is a material that is widely used in biomedical applications, particularly for bone substitution or repair. Sandblasting is commonly used as surface modification for biomaterials to obtain better mechanical fixation of the prosthesis. However the microstructural changes beneath the surface associated with this modification as well as other physical properties are not well known. In this work, the results for microstructural, magnetic and mechanical features of the sandblasted austenitic steels 316LVM subsurface are analyzed for the first time. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.