Recent metallic materials for biomedical applications
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RODUCTION
METALLIC biomaterials have the longest history among the various biomaterials. Stainless steel was first used successfully as an implant material in the surgical field, as shown in Figure 1.[1] This success was accomplished when aseptic surgery was established. Then, vitallium, a Co-based alloy, was put into practical use. Titanium is the newest metallic biomaterial among the three main metallic biomaterials (i.e., stainless steels and Co-based alloys), and these remain the most popular of the metallic alloys. Among the main metallic materials for biomedical applications stated previously, titanium and its alloys are getting much attention in both medical and dental fields because of excellent biocompatibility, light weight, excellent balance of mechanical properties, excellent corrosion resistance, etc. They are mainly used for implant devices replacing failed hard tissue, for example, artificial hip joints, artificial knee joints, bone plates, dental implants, etc. Titanium and its alloys are also used for dental products, such as crowns, bridges, and dentures, which are mainly produced by the precision casting method. Analyzing the pattern of osteogenisis is one of the convenient methods to judge the biocompatibility of the biomaterials. One of the examples of the results of analyzing the patterns of osteogenisis of the various biomaterials is shown in Table I.[2] According to Table I, titanium and its alloy show the best biocompatibility among the metallic biomaterials. From the point of view of allergy problems, titanium and its alloys are also advantageous for biomedical applications. Pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V (in mass pct, hereafter, chemical compositions of alloys will be expressed in mass pct without designation) are still the most widely used ones for biomedical applications among the titanium alloys. However, these alloys are basically developed as structural materials mainly for aerospace structures. Therefore, the development of titanium alloys targeted for biomedical applications is necessary. Titanium-based alloys are also expected to be used to fix soft tissue, such as blood vessels.[3] Co-based alloys are also used for such purpose. MITSUO NIINOMI, Professor, is with the Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi 4418580, Japan. Manuscript submitted April 17, 2001. METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A
The population ratio of the aged people of representative countries is rapidly growing, as shown in Figure 2, where the prediction of population ratio after the year 2000 is also included. The number of the aged people demanding replacement of failed tissue with metallic biomaterials is growing. The development of metallic materials for biomedical applications is very important. According to the background on the metallic biomaterials stated previously, the recent interesting development or topics of metallic biomaterials will be described in this article with special emphasis on the development of titanium alloys for biomedical applic
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