Mechanical characteristics and bioactivity of porous Ni50-xTi50Cux (x=0, 5 and 10) prepared by P/M

The present research work investigates and analyses the effect of compaction pressure, sintering temperature and time on mechanical characteristics, namely compressive strength and Young's modulus of Ni50-xTi50Cux (x = 0, 5 and 10) alloys fabricated using powder metallurgy technology. The effect of process parameters on mechanical characteristics was evaluated using the Taguchi method and analysis of variance. Using the Taguchi approach, optimised values of process parameters were found for higher compressive strength and lower Young's modulus in each set of Ni50Ti50, Ni45Ti50Cu5 and Ni40Ti50Cu10 alloys. With the addition of copper in NiTi alloy, a little improvement in mechanical characteristics was observed, but bioactivity was decreased at 10%of Cu. Therefore, above 5% of Cu in NiTi alloy was not proved successful for biomedical applications.