J0401-1-1 Effects of irradiation and thermal treatment on the fatigue property of UHMWPE

Highly crosslinked polyethylene (HXLPE) has been widely introduced as a bearing material of joint prostheses due to its better wear property than conventional ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). However, there are still concerns about its oxidative stability and fatigue property. In this study, effects of irradiation dose (25, 50 and 100kGy) and thermal treatment temperature (annealing at 110℃ or remelt at 150℃, for two hours) on the fatigue property and the oxidative stability of materials were investigated. The combination of high irradiation dose and remelt resulted in reduced fatigue property, while annealing resulted in poor oxidative stability. It was suggested that optimization of manufacturing process is necessary to achieve excellent properties in all of wear property, oxidation stability and fatigue property.