Wear particles of carbon/carbon composite artificial hip joints

The carbon/carbon composite wear particles generated from a hip joint simulator were separated. The size, morphology and thickness of the particles were tested by laser particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscope and 3-D profiler, respectively. The results show that the particles are 0.3-93.9μm in size and the morphology and the thickness of the particles distributes regularly according to their sizes. The particles whose sizes are larger than 30μm are carbon fibers with a constant thickness. The particles whose thicknesses are in a broad range with medium size (3-30μm) show irregular morphology and complex boundary. The particles whose thicknesses are in the range of sub-micrometers are less than 3μm in size and have a spherical or circular shape. Based on the experimental results, the evolvement of the wear particles in the wear process is explained.