Study on Wear Debris Characterization of Polycarbonate Urethane (PCU) as a Bearing of Artificial Hip Joint

As with all artificial joints, wear debris is of particular concern due to its effect on both implant life and the in vivo biological reactions that can occur. The purpose of the research is to study debris characterization of PCU. Wear particle is produced from testing the PCU material using a pin on disc wear tester within 50000 cycles. This study showed that the PCU wear debris gotten from the simulator had various different shapes, including laminar and spherical types. The morphology of worn surface and wear debris analysis showed that wear mechanism of PCU were fatigue wear. Thus we conclude that PCU is expected to be a lifetime implantation of artificial joint.