Titanium-Nitride Coating of Orthopaedic Implants: A Review of the Literature

Table 2

Preclinical studies on wear of TiN-coated materials compared with control material.

Study	Test	TiN-coated material	TiN-coating process	Control	Findings	TiN-coating related problems
Coll and Jacquot (1988) [35]	UHMWPE pin on disc	Ti6Al4V	AVID	Ti6Al4V	Reduction of UHMWPE wear
Maurer et al. (1993) [2]	Screws on plates	Ti6Al4V	PVD/PIII/NII	Ti6Al4V	Reduction of weight loss and metal release
Venugopalan et al. (2000) [34]	Pin-cylinder scratch test	Ti6Al4V	N	Ti6Al4V	Better scratch resistance
Hendry and Pilliar (2001) [37]	Fretting test	Ti6Al4V	PVD	Ti6Al4V	No evidence of significant wear	Microparticles and pinholes
Komotori et al. (2001) [44]	Multidirectional scratch testing	Ti6Al4V/SP-700	AIP	TO-Ti6Al4V/SP-700	More mechanical damage	Adhesive coating failure; pitting and blistering
Fisher et al. (2002) [51]	MOM hip simulator	CoCrMo	AEPVD	CoCrMo	Lower wear	Relatively high wear inserts
Williams et al. (2003) [22]	Multidirectional pin on plate	CoCrMo	AEPVD	CoCrMo	Fourfold increase of wear	Cohesive failure
Gutmanas and Gotman (2004) [41]	UHMWPE hip simulator	cpTi/Ti6Al4V	PIRAC	SS	Lower UHMWPE wear rate
Fisher et al. (2004) [50]	MOM hip simulator	CoCrMo	AEPVD	CoCrMo	Lower wear	Some localized damage
Galvin et al. (2008) [33]	UHMWPE hip simulator	CoCrMo	AEPVD	CoCrMo	Higher UHMWPE volumetric wear rate
Galetz et al. (2010) [45]	Station-wheel-on-flat testing	CoCrMo	PVD	CoCrMo	No scratches	Polyethylene in pinholes
Kim et al. (2010) [38]	Pin on disc	Ti6Al4V	AIP	Ti6Al4V	Lower wear	Higher wear of TiN compared with TiAlN
Lee et al. (2010) [47]	UHMWPE pin on disc	SS	PIII	CoCrMo	Lower UHMWPE volumetric wear rate

: of titanium-nitride coated material compared with the control; TiN: titanium-nitride; UHMWPE: ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene; MOM: metal-on-metal; SS: stainless steel; Ti6Al4V: titanium-aluminum-vanadium alloy; TO-Ti6Al4V: titanium-oxide coated Ti6Al4V; SP-700: Ti4.5Al3V2Fe2Mo, titanium-aluminum-vanadium-iron-molybdenum alloy; CoCrMo: cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy; cp Ti: commercially pure titanium; TiAlN: titanium-aluminum-nitride coating; PIII: plasma immersion ion implantation; AIP: arc ion plating; AVID: arc vapor ion deposition; PVD: physical vapor deposition; NII: nitrogen ion implantation; N: nitrogen diffusion hardening; AEPVD: arc evaporative physical vapor deposition; PIRAC: powder immersion reaction assisted coating.