Single and reciprocal friction testing of micropatterned surfaces for orthopedic device design.

The use of micropatterning to create uniform surface morphologies has been cited as yielding improvements in the coefficient of friction during high velocity sliding contact. Studies have not been preformed to determine if these micropatterns could also be useful in biomedical applications, such as total joint replacement surfaces, where the lower sliding velocities are used. In addition, other factors such as lubricant viscosities and materials used are more tightly constrained. In this study, the effect of pattern geometry, feature size and lubricant on contact friction and surface damage was investigated using 316L steel in sliding contact with a stainless steel and polyethylene pins. Using a novel proprietary forming process that creates millions of microstructures in parallel, a variety of micropatterned surfaces were fabricated to study the influence of shape (oval, circular, square), geometry (depressions, pillars) and feature size (10, 50 and 100 mm) on both contact friction and surface damage. All samples were 316L stainless steel and the static and dynamic coefficients of friction when in contact with either a stainless steel or polyethylene counterface were measured in dry and lubricated conditions. All samples were characterized for surface uniformity and pattern aspect ratio using white light interferometry and optical microscope image analysis, and the coefficients of friction were measured for each surface/lubricant/pin system using a CETR scratch testing system. Results showed that round depressions with diameters of 10 μm had a significantly lower steady state coefficient of friction than the non-patterned substrates or substrates with greater diameter depression patterns. In addition, our results showed that the single-pass coefficient of friction measurements were not good predictors of the steady state coefficient of friction values measured.