Powder Metallurgy Preparation of Co-Based Alloys for Biomedical Applications

Co-based alloys represent very important group of materials used for medical applications. Currently, fabrication of these materials is preferentially done by casting or forming. Production by powder metallurgy techniques is less common. However, powder metallurgy fabrication of these alloys brings advantages such as reduced machining, possibility of alloying by high-melting elements, preparation of nanocrystalline materials with enhanced mechanical properties or producing of porous alloys with improved ability to integrate into issues. In this work, our attention was focused on fundamental preparation of an CoCrMo alloy by two methods of powder metallurgy. In the first method, pure metallic powders were mixed, pressed and sintered in vacuum furnace. The second applied technology consisted of mechanical alloying using planetary ball mill and compaction by spark plasma sintering technique. A series of samples was prepared under various conditions by these procedures. Dependence of microstructure, phase composition and mechanical properties of prepared samples on fabrication conditions (milling parameters, sintering temperature etc.) was studied. Obtained results were compared with properties of commercial cast cobalt alloy used for medical applications.