The development of a small-scale wear test for CoCrMo specimens with human synovial fluid

A new test was developed to measure friction and wear of hip implant materials under reciprocating sliding conditions. The method requires a very small amount of lubricant (<3 ml) which allows testing of human synovial fluid. Friction and wear of Cobalt Chromium Molybdenum (CoCrMo) material pairs were measured for a range of model and human synovial fluid samples. The initial development of the test assessed the effect of fluid volume and bovine calf serum (BCS) concentration on friction and wear. In a second series of tests human synovial fluid (HSF) was used. The wear scar size (depth and volume) on the disc was dependent on protein content and reduced significantly for increasing BCS concentration. The results showed that fluid volumes of <1.5 ml were affected by evaporative loss effectively increasing the protein concentration resulting in anomalously lower wear. At the end of the test thick deposits were observed in and around the wear scars on the disc and ball; these were analysed by Infrared Reflection-Absorption Spectroscopy. The deposits were composed primarily of denatured proteins and similar IR spectra were obtained from the BCS and HSF tests. The analysis confirmed the importance of SF proteins in determining wear of CoCrMo couples.