The effect of repeated heating on corrosionresistance, hardness and microstructureof a Co-Cr-W prosthetic alloy

Purpose: of this article is to present the results of tests carried out on the impact of repeated heating on the corrosion resistance of a Co-Cr-W prosthetic alloy. Design/methodology/approach: The study used samples prepared in a manner analogous to the production of a dental prosthesis. The effect of three and six-time heating of the material on its properties such as corrosion resistance, microstructure and material hardness were carried out. Findings: Repeated heating of the chromium-cobalt alloy has no significant effect on the polarization resistance and the potentiodynamic characteristics of the material. The introduction of heating in alloy treatment results in an increase in the hardness of the material, however, the number of annealing cycles does not affect this feature significantly. Samples subjected to different amounts of thermal treatments have different microstructure; it should be assumed that this will change the mechanical properties. Research limitations/implications: Microstructure tests carried out after electrochemical corrosion tests showed changes in the microstructure of samples subjected to subsequent annealing. The tests of material hardness and corrosion did not show any significant differences that may result from differences in structure, therefore further tests characterizing the physical properties of the material will be carried out. Originality/value: The article is a description of preliminary research on the impact of multiple annealing used in dental prosthetics on the properties of metallic material. Further work will be carried out to identify the properties that may be affected by the indicated changes in microstructure.