Wear-corrosion behavior of biocompatible austenitic stainless steels

The present work compares 316L and Rex734 stainless steels - currently used for biomedical applications - with the recently developed P558 alloy in terms of mechanical properties, corrosion and dry wear resistance as well as the combined wear-corrosion behavior. Pin-on-drum tests were conducted to determine the dry wear resistance of test materials. Wear-corrosion behavior was studied in slurry tests and pin-on-disk experiments in distilled water, Hank's artificial physiological solution, and 22% NaCl aqueous solution. Corrosion resistance was determined by potentiodynamic tests and critical crevice corrosion temperature measurements. Due to its combination of outstanding mechanical properties and excellent corrosion resistance, P558 performed much better than 316L in all tests. P558 also proved to be more resistant against dry wear, wear-corrosion, and crevice corrosion than Rex734. The resistance of P558 against pitting corrosion was found to be equal to the resistance of Rex734. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.