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Tribocorrosion damage is a cause for the premature failure of hip implants made of cobalt-based alloys. Low-temperature carburising can be a plausible solution towards mitigating the tribocorrosion damage of articulating components. This diffusion treatment introduces a supersaturated carbon solid solution, termed S-phase, which hardens the CoCrMo alloy without detriment to the corrosion resistance. This work investigates and compares the tribocorrosion behaviour of untreated and carburised ASTM F1537 CoCrMo alloys tested in Ringer’s solution using a reciprocating sliding configuration against a polycrystalline alumina counterface under different electrochemical conditions. The research shows that whereas the carburised alloy suffered a slightly higher wear loss under a cathodic potential, it was able to reduce the material losses considerably when tested under both open circuit and anodic potential conditions. Under anodic conditions material losses by corrosion due to wear dominated. The better tribocorrosion resistance of the carburised layer was attributed to the better qualities of the passive film for the carburised sample coupled with an increased load support.

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This article presents selected results from the development process of a small, prototype multi-bladed wind turbine designed to replace the American western-style, wind-driven water pumps still encountered in the Maltese rural landscape. The main focus of this article is on the rotor design, fabrication and system assembly, as well as on the results of the first open field tests. While the new design proves that the new machine is capable of aesthetically representing the windmills of old, preliminary findings indicate that it is also capable of meeting its predicted performance characteristics in a satisfactory manner, albeit subject to the installation site’s specific wind climatology.

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