Corrosion behavior of a welded stainless-steel orthopedic implant

The corrosion behavior of combinations of materials used in an orthopedic implant: the spherical part (forged or forged and annealed) constituting the head, the weld (tungsten inert gas (TIG) or electron beam (EB) techniques), and the cylindrical part (annealed) constituting the shaft of a femoral prosthesis – has been investigated. Open-circuit potentials, potentiodynamic curves, Tafel slope, mixed potential theory and susceptibility to intergranular attack are electrochemical and chemical procedures selected for this work. Electrochemical measurements using a microelectrode have been made in the following zones: spherical part, cylindrical part, weld, and weld/sphere, and weld/shaft interfaces. To detect intergranular attack, the Strauss test has been used. At the interfaces, corrosion currents, measured (Icorr) and predicted (Icouple) are low, in the order of the pico- to nanoampere. The electrochemical behavior of the electron beam (EB) weld is better than that of the tungsten inert gas (TIG). Welds at interfaces can behave either anodically or cathodically. It is better if welds, which are sensitive parts of the femoral prosthesis, behave cathodically. In this way, the risk of starting localized corrosion (pitting, crevice or intergranular corrosion) from a galvanic couple, remains low. From this point of view, the sample with the EB weld offers the best behavior. All the other samples containing a TIG type of weld exhibit a less favorable behavior. The mechanical treatments (forged, and forged and annealed) of the steel sphere did not show any difference in the corrosion behavior. No intergranular corrosion has been observed at the weld/steel interface for unsensitized samples. With sensitized samples, however, a TIG sample has exhibited some localized intergranular corrosion at a distance of 500 μm along the weld/stainless steel (sphere) interface.