Anodic Spark Deposition treatments to increase reliability of Ti6Al4V modular prostheses.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether an Anodic Spark Deposition treatment, which assures increased resistance of titanium alloys to fretting corrosion, improves the structural reliability of Ti6Al4V modular hip prostheses, thus preventing the recently noticed in vivo mechanical failures of these components due to fatigue events.

Methods: Three commercial treatments were tested in this work. Microhardness, roughness and fatigue resistance measurements were carried out to investigate the treatment performances.

Results: The experimental tests showed that the implant responded differently based on the treatment. The treatment that assured the best performances induced an increase in fatigue resistance with respect to the initial properties of the non-treated Ti6Al4V alloy.

Conclusions: Since in previous research the same surface treatment was shown to prevent fretting corrosion phenomena, the study tests confirmed that the Anodic Spark Deposition treatment can significantly increase the structural reliability of Ti6Al4V multi-component prostheses.