Is Surface Metastability of Today’s Ceramic Bearings a Clinical Issue?

Recent studies on zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) evidenced that in vivo aged implants display a much higher monoclinic zirconia content than expected from in vitro simulations by autoclaving. At the moment, there is no agreement on the source of this discrepancy: Some research groups ascribe it to the effect of mechanical impact shocks, which are generally not implemented in standard in vitro aging or hip walking simulators. Others invoke the effect of metal transfer, which should trigger an autocatalytic reaction in the body fluid environment, accelerating the kinetics of tetragonal-to-monoclinic transformation in vivo. Extrapolations of the aging kinetics from high (autoclave) to in vivo temperature are also often disputed. Last, Raman spectroscopy is by far the preferred method to quantify the amount of monoclinically transformed zirconia. There are, however, many sources of errors that may negatively affect Raman results, meaning that the final interpretation might be flawed. In this work, we applied Raman spectroscopy to determine the monoclinic content in as-received and in vitro aged ZTA hip joint implants, and in one long-term retrieval study. We calculated the monoclinic content with the most used equations in the literature and compared it with the results of X-ray diffraction obtained on a similar probe depth. Our results show, contrary to many previous studies, that the long-term surface stability of ZTA ceramics is preserved. This suggests that the Raman technique does not offer consistent and unique results for the analysis of surface degradation. Moreover, we discuss here that tetragonal-to-monoclinic transformation is also necessary to limit contact damage and wear stripe extension. Thus, the surface metastability of zirconia-containing ceramics may be a non-issue.

Enhanced aging kinetics in Al-Mg-Si alloys by up-quenching

Precipitation-hardened aluminium alloys typically obtain their strength by forming second-phase particles, which, however, often have a negative effect on formability. To enable both lightweight construction and forming of complex parts such as body panels, high strength and formability are required simultaneously. Cluster hardening is a promising approach to achieve this. Here, we show that short thermal spikes, denoted as up-quenching, increase aging kinetics, which we attribute to the repeated process of vacancies being formed at high temperatures and retained when cooled to lower temperatures. Combined with further heat treatment, the up-quenching process promotes rapid and extensive cluster formation in Al-Mg-Si alloys, which in turn generates significant strengthening at industrially relevant heat treatment time scales. The high elongation values also observed are attributed to reduced solute depleted zones along grain boundaries.

Thermal Kinetics of SiCp Reinforced Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Composite

In the present work, the artificial aging kinetics of SiCp particles reinforced AA7075-SiCp composite fabricated by stir casting method was investigated. The aging behavior of AA7075-SiCp composite was investigated by Rockwell hardness tests and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Results show there are no changes in the sequences of formation and dissolution of precipitate. Reinforced particles are uniformly distributed throughout the matrix. The hardness profile shows increase in hardness with the comparison of AA7075 base alloy. In addition to SiCp in the matrix, precipitation kinetics has changed compared with base alloy since higher dislocations present in composite, hence requires lower activation energy to form ή precipitate and takes less time to reach the maximum hardness. In contrast, the addition of SiCp at low volume percent also showing accelerated aging phenomena in the composite during the aging process. High-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) micrograph of peak age (T6) condition divulges that enormous fine and plate-like ή (MgZn2) precipitates are uniformly distributed in the composite.

STRENGTHENING FEATURES AND AGING KINETICS OF HIGH-STRENGTH CAST ALUMINUM ALLOY AL4MS BASED ON Al–Si–Cu–Mg SYSTEM

Based on the conducted research, it has been found that quenching with hot isostatic pressure and step-by-step aging with consistently increasing temperatures of low-temperature aging (first stage) and high-temperature aging (second stage) provides high tensile strength for AL4MS copper silumin during cold box casting, increases the flow stress by 10%, and maintains high plasticity compared to the level of properties after single-stage aging.