Abstract

The development of artificial joint prostheses is an especially relevant advance linked to the combined use of medical and engineering sciences. In ideal conditions a joint prosthesis should last the whole patient's life. For a younger patient, that is normally linked to using enhanced designs capable of reducing friction and wear rate, thus increasing patient's comfort and prosthesis service life. Present study concentrates on validating the use of micro-textured surfaces for improving friction and minimizing wear rate by means of increasing the (elasto) hydrodynamic lubrication range. Micro-textured surfaces have been obtained by UV-photolithography upon photosensible films and subsequent chemical etching of the uncoated surface zones. A ball-plane contact tribometer has been used to assess the friction coefficient of the different micro-textured surfaces in order to validate our approach. Significant reductions of friction coefficient have been obtained thanks to the micro-textures, what provides useful information for computer-aided design manufacturing processes linked to the development of innovative and efficient biomimetic prostheses.