Due to the fact that the risk of Ni‐allergies are more and more important for modern therapies, the need of Ni‐free implant materials becomes increasingly vital. Beside Co‐ and Ti‐base alloys the new Ni‐free high‐Nitrogen steels might offer an attractive alternative to these expensive materials. The high‐Nitrogen and Ni‐free stainless steel X13CrMnMoN18‐4‐3 (1.4452) is investigated in the solution annealed state as to its corrosion, fatigue and sliding wear behaviour in Ringer solution. Under all test stresses this steel revealed a better behaviour as the conventional 316L‐type X2CrNiMo18‐15‐3. When compared to literature data of solution annealed Ni‐containing high‐Nitrogen steels and Ni‐free Co‐base alloys the 1.4452 shows similar bahaviour. The good fatigue behaviour is attributed to the low stacking fault energy resulting in the total absence of climbing and cross slip. The corrosion properties can be related to the amount of dissolved N. The sliding wear behaviour in a self‐mating contact benefits from both the low stacking fault energy and the characteristic corrosion mechanisms. Together with the elsewhere reported non‐cytotoxicity the steel X13CrMnMoN18‐4‐3 (1.4452) can be considered being suitable for medical applications.
Austenitic stainless steels generally have a favorable combination of strength and ductility as well as a sufficient resistance against corrosion. This and the reported biocompatibility lead to the use of 304- and later 316 L-type steels in medical applications. Especially in orthopedics these steels were applied as implants for e.g. fracture fixation as bone plates, intermedullary nails, and screws. But these steels contain a high amount of Ni, which was attributed to cause Ni-allergies for an growing amount of patients. Thus, alternatives were needed and — beside the already known CoCrMo-alloys — implants of Ti and its alloys emerged increasingly into the medical market. The aim of this paper is to introduce a new austenitic Ni-free CrMnMo-steel X13CrMnMoN18-14-3 (Material No.: 1.4452, brand name: P2000), which makes use of about 1 % N in order to gain a combination of high strength, high ductility, and a superior corrosion resistance.
In a first step the cyclic fatigue behavior in air and in Ringer solution in the solution annealed state is investigated. This is accompanied by electrochemical testing in Ringer solution as well as in-vitro cytotoxicity tests against MC3T3 cells in bovine serum.
The tests revealed that the solution annealed X13CrMnMoN18-14-3 at 5 Hz has an 50 % endurance limit of 346 MPa in air and of 302 MPa in Ringer solution, which is markedly higher compared to solution annealed CrNiMo-steels. In addition it was found that the CrMnMoN-steel shows no distinct susceptibility to stress-corrosion cracking in the entire region of finite life between stress amplitudes of 400 to 550 MPa. The pitting potential in Ringer solution was measured to be 1.1 V, which is in the range of common Ni-containing high-Nitrogen steels as well as of CoCr20Mo6 alloys. No reduction of MC3T3 cell adhesion could be observed.
Thus, the Ni-free CrMnMoN-steels might be a promising alternative to the CrNiMo- steels in medical applications.
Die vorliegende Arbeit präsentiert einen neuen austenitischen, nickelfreien, hochstickstofflegierten Stahl X13CrMnMoN18‐14‐3, (Werkstoff‐Nr.: 1.4452). Es wurde das Ermüdungsverhalten dieses Werkstoffes unter simulierten Körperbedingungen untersucht. Die ermittelte Dauerfestigkeit liegt deutlich höher als bei vergleichbaren lösungsgeglühten CrNiMo‐Stählen. Das Durchbruchspotenzial beträgt 1.1 V, und ist somit höher als bei CrNiMo‐Stählen und auf einem vergleichbaren Niveau mit CoCr29Mo6‐Legierungen. So könnte der Stahl X13CrMnMoN18‐14‐3 wegen der Nickelfreiheit, besseren mechanischen und chemischen Eigenschaften eine Alternative zu den CrNiMo‐Stählen in medizinischen Anwendungen sein.
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