The paper presents a new construction of hip-joint simulator. The SBT-01.2 simulator is designed for conducting tribological testing of hip endoprostheses based on ISO 14242-1, which specifies the requirements for the range of motion and load characteristics of the friction pair (femoral head vs. acetabular cup) during one test cycle. The construction of the simulator is based on the anatomical structure of the human hip joint. The prosthesis acetabulum is mounted in the upper part of the mounting head while maintaining the inclination angle relative to the axis of the socket to the direction of the loading force. The head of the prosthesis is mounted on a pin embedded in the bottom, movable base. After placing a special sleeve on the lower base, liquid lubricant is applied on the head-cup tribological system. The employed software enables continuous control, online visualization, and data recording. During testing, parameters such as lubricant temperature, instantaneous loading force, friction torque, and the number of cycles are recorded.
The effect of acetabular cup position on wear of a large-diameter metal-on-metal prosthesis studied with a hip joint simulator
