Wear behavior of hydroxyapatite reinforced polymer composite for biomedical applications

In medical fields, hydroxyapatite (HA) is used for restoring the human bones and teeth. Nowadays, newer bio composites are being developed to replace the broken or removed teeth in human using hydroxyapatite. The original teeth may be removed from human, due to various reasons such as tooth decay, periodontal disease and gum diseases. Due to the bioactivity property of HA, it helps the tooth to grow. In this work, tribological properties of HA powder reinforced composite are investigated. Three most important factors that affect the properties of the composites were chosen and varied during wear testing of the composites. The HA powder weight %, applied load (P) and sliding distance (SD) were varied on the basis of Taguchi’s experimental design. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and (Signal to Noise) SN ratio analysis was used to study the influence of each factor on the specific wear rate (SWR). It was concluded that the HA wt% highly influences the SWR of the composite during pin on disc testing.