The Transfer Film Effects Induced by 3D Printing Polyether-ether-ketone with Excellent Tribological Properties

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2216558/v1

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The Transfer Film Effects Induced by 3D Printing Polyether-ether-ketone with Excellent Tribological Properties

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2216558/v1

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The building principle of additive manufacturing determines that the printing orientation is one of the key factors affecting the tribological properties of joint prosthesis. Here, fused filament fabrication was used to fabricate polyetheretherketone (PEEK) joint prosthesis, and the effects of printing orientation on the tribological properties of PEEK were investigated by pin-on-plate tribometer in 25% new born calf serum. The UHMWPE transfer film formed on the surface of PEEK, which could be attributed to the mechanically capture of wear debris by the 3D printing groove morphology. The transfer film could be regulated by printing orientation of PEEK. When the printing orientation was parallel to the sliding direction of wear, the number and size of transfer film was larger due to more steady stress compared to other directions. As a result, the friction coefficient, wear volume and wear rate of friction pairs were all decreased from 90° to 0° direction. In addition, the concept and equation of transfer rate was proposed to quantitatively evaluate the ability of wear debris came into being transfer film on the surface of PEEK.

3D printing orientation

Transfer film

Tribological properties

Polyether-ether-ketone

Artificial joint prosthesis

Artificial joint prosthesis, as an established strategy to replace injured joint, can effectively reconstruct movement function and relieves pain of patients with severe joint diseases [1–3]. In the past few decades, metal joint prostheses have been widely used in various joint parts of the human body, such as titanium (Ti) alloy hip joint, cobalt chromium molybdenum (CoCrMo) alloy knee joint, etc [4, 5]. Nevertheless, new generations of joint prostheses have shown the trend of gradually replacing metal joints with polymer joints, especially polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) prostheses [6–8]. PEEK possesses good biocompatibility and high mechanical property close to the strength of natural cortical bone [9–14]. More importantly, PEEK has excellent wear resistance and low density compared to metal [15–19]. Hence it is considered to be a promising artificial joint material for clinical application.

Several researches have been employed to investigate the tribological properties of PEEK [20–23]. Cowie et al. fabricated PEEK plates and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) pins by injection molding and studied the wear performance [24]. The results demonstrated an equivalent wear rate of UHMWPE against PEEK compared with UHMWPE against CoCrMo alloy. Zhang et al. compared the size distribution of wear debris when PEEK and CoCrMo alloys pins against UHMWPE plates, respectively [25]. The results shown that the wear debris of CoCrMo against UHMWPE larger than 30 ${\mu }\text{m}$ accounted for 0.83%, while there no wear debris exceeding 30 µm appeared in PEEK against UHMWPE. It is well known that wear particles can stimulate macrophages to release bone resorption factors and cause osteolysis, the smaller the volume of wear particles, the smaller the osteolysis [26–28]. However, these PEEK specimens were all fabricated by traditional injection molding process, and the corresponding joint prostheses can only be homogeneous structure and materials with single function, this can’t meet the clinical needs of multi-functional joint prostheses.

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process of accumulating materials layer by layer to construct products, among which fused filament fabrication (FFF) can control the distribution of materials in the three-dimensional direction by adjusting the real-time powder feeding amount, and then achieve different functions in different regions [29–33]. The building principle of 3D printing determines that the surfaces of specimens are formed by regularly arranged filaments, even after polishing. The naturally groove structure formed by regular arrangement of filaments can be considered as a kind of textures with high stress hills and low stress valleys. When the sliding direction of wear is along the different printing orientations of filaments, the distribution of stress may be also different due to the existence of groove texture, which is one of the important factors on the tribological properties. A few studies reported the effects of printing orientation on the tribological properties of PLA against steel [34, 35]. Whereas, the mechanical properties of PLA are far lower than that of PEEK and can’t meet the requirements of clinical prostheses. Besides, steel material is inappropriate for application in joint prostheses, further researches need to be carry out by against with UHMWPE. Hence, the effects of printing orientation on the tribological properties of PEEK are very worth studying to provide support for clinical application.

In this study, PEEK pins with different printing orientations were fabricated through FFF 3D printing and the effects of printing orientation on the tribological properties of PEEK were investigated. The friction coefficient, wear volume and wear rate were evaluated by pin-on-plate experiments, wear morphologies of PEEK against UHMWPE were characterized by microstructure analysis, corresponding surface roughness and wear depth were also measured. Moreover, the formation mechanism of transfer film in different orientations was discussed, and the formula of transfer rate was first proposed to quantitatively assess the ability of wear debris form transfer film on the surface of PEEK.

2.1. Materials

The PEEK (1.3 g/cm³) powder supplied from Victrex Co., Ltd. of United Kingdom had a particle diameter of 50 ${\mu }\text{m}$, which was dried in drying cabinet at 100℃ for 4 h and then fed into a twin-screw extruder (YTG-25, Yongtuo, China) to obtain PEEK filaments with uniform diameter of 1.75 mm. The UHMWPE (0.945 g/cm³) plates were provided by Suzhou Microport Joint Medical Co. of China, they were cut into rectangles with dimensions of 20 mm $\times$ 20 mm $\times$ 5 mm (length $\times$ width $\times$ thickness) and surface roughness of Ra < 0.5 ${\mu }\text{m}$. New born calf serum solution was purchased from Wisent Biotechnology Co., Ltd. of Canada, which was diluted to a protein content of 20 g/L with deionized water according to the ISO 14243-1:2009. Decahydronaphthalene solvent was provided by Shanghai Aladdin Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd. of China.

2.2. Fabrication of PEEK Pins

The fabrication and post treatment process of PEEK pins with different printing orientations was illustrated in Fig. 1a and b. The PEEK pins ($\text{\varnothing }$5 mm $\times$ 18 mm) were fabricated via FFF 3D printer (Engineer 250, Jugao, China). The printing parameters were set as follows: nozzle diameter of 0.4 mm, layer thickness of 0.2 mm, printing temperature of 420 ℃, printing speed of 20 mm/s. The exterior of peek pins were sliced into concentric path and the inner were sliced into perpendicular path in slicing model. The same specimens were fabricated in the 3D printing process, and then were twisted relative to the sliding direction to form 0°, 22.5°, 45°, 67.5° and 90° in the friction tests. After printing, the PEEK pins with different printing orientations were all polished to surface roughness of Ra < 1.5 ${\mu }\text{m}$, and then kept at a constant temperature of 200 ℃ for 30 min to anneal to improve crystallinity.

2.3. Friction and Wear Tests

The tribological experiments were implemented using a pin-on-plate tribometer (UMT-2, Campbell, America) and shown in Fig. 1c. The PEEK pins and UHMWPE plates were immersed in the new born calf serum medium to wear in reciprocation model. The wear parameters were set as follows: reciprocating stroke of 6 mm, frequency of 1 Hz, applied load of 40 N (2 MPa), tests number of 10,000 times. As control group, no reciprocating PEEK and UHMWPE specimens were immersed in the lubricating medium to avoid the wear result error generating from water absorption of specimens. Each group was conducted three replicates at room temperature (n = 3). Before tests, the PEEK pins and UHMWPE plates were ultrasonically cleaned with detergent and deionized water for 10 min, respectively. Then they were dried in vacuum drying cabinet at 50 ℃ for 8 h, and weighed the mass alternately by scale with a resolution of 0.001 mg. The above operations were repeated once again after wear tests. The real-time friction coefficient curves and average friction coefficient were recorded by the tribometer, wear volume and were rates were calculated according to the mass change of friction pair before and after wear.

2.4. Quantitative Assessment of Transfer Film

UHMWPE wear debris evolved into transfer film on the surface of PEEK after wear, it led to the increased mass of PEEK and affected the judgment of whether the PEEK was worn, and subsequent quantitative evaluation of transfer film also became difficult. In order to verify whether PEEK was worn after against with UHMWPE, it was necessary to remove the transfer film adhered on the surface of PEEK. Concretely, the mass of PEEK was measured before wear, and then the decahydronaphthalene solvent was utilized to dissolve the UHMWPE transfer film adhering on the surface of PEEK pins at 135°C for 4 hours, it couldn’t dissolve PEEK pins. Finally, the mass change of PEEK pins was measured to verify whether the wear of PEEK.

2.5. Characterization

The wear surface morphologies of PEEK were observed by scanning electron microscopy (su-8010, Hitachi, Japan) at an acceleration voltage of 10 kV. The wear surface morphologies, surface roughness (Ra) and wear depth of UHMWPE were characterized by laser scanning confocal microscope (OLS4000, Lext, Japan). The composition of transfer film formed on the surface of PEEK was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (Nicolet iS10, Thermo Fisher, America) and X-ray diffraction analysis (Advanced D8 A25, Brook, Germany).

2.6. Statistical Analysis

Experimental data was shown in the form of mean ± standard deviation (SD). Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software and unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test was utilized to determine statistical significance, P > 0.05 (NS), P < 0.05 (*), P < 0.01 (**) and P < 0.001 (***) were used to label the differences between different groups.

3.1. Friction and Wear Properties

The tribological properties of PEEK pins with different printing orientations against UHMWPE plates were shown in Fig. 2. The friction coefficient curves of friction pair were recorded in Fig. 2a. After 6000 cycles, all the friction coefficient curves tended to be steady, which indicated that they entered into stable period from the run-in period. Average friction coefficient were calculated and presented in Fig. 2b. When the printing orientation of PEEK filaments was vertical to the sliding direction, the average friction coefficient was 0.23, it decreased to 0.14 when parallel to the sliding direction and reduced by 39%. Besides, the friction coefficients of friction pair at 22.5° and 45° didn’t have a significant difference compared to the 0° direction, but there had a significant difference compared to 67.5° and 90° direction.

The separate wear volume of PEEK against UHMWPE was shown in Fig. 3a. The wear volume of PEEK pins in five orientations was all negative, which indicated that the mass of PEEK didn’t lose after wear, but increased inversely. The reason for the increased mass of PEEK pins after wear may be attributed to the transfer of wear debris from UHMWPE to the surface of PEEK, which would be discussed detailedly in the subsequent microstructure. The total wear volume of friction pair was presented in Fig. 3b when the PEEK and UHMWPE were regarded as a system. The total wear volume of friction pairs in different directions all wasn’t zero, which demonstrated that part of the wear debris flowed into the new born calf serum medium. The smaller the wear volume, the less wear debris would flow into the medium. The total wear volume at 0° is minimal compared to the other directions. Therefore, 0° direction was the optimal orientation of filament in the 3D printing process.

The wear rate of PEEK against UHMWPE was shown in Table 1. The PEEK had negative wear rate, indicating that volume was gained after wear. The obtained volume of PEEK gradually decreased from 0° to 90°, the corresponding wear rates changed from − 5.725$\times$10⁻⁶ mm³/N$\bullet$m to -4.954$\times$10⁻⁶ mm³/N$\bullet$m. While the UHMWPE had positive wear rate, indicating that that volume was lost after wear, the corresponding wear rates increased from 6.502$\times$10⁻⁶ mm³/N$\bullet$m to 7.981$\times$10⁻⁶ mm³/N$\bullet$m with the increased printing orientation. Similarly, the total wear rate also showed a similar trend with the increased printing orientation.

Table 1

Wear rate of PEEK against UHMWPE.
Different printing orientations	Wear rate ($\times {10}^{-6}{ \text{m}\text{m}}^{3}/\text{N}\bullet \text{m}$)
Different printing orientations	PEEK	UHMWPE	PEEK-UHMWPE
0°	-5.725	6.502	0.777
22.5°	-5.540	6.698	1.158
45°	-5.329	6.987	1.658
67.5°	-5.223	7.321	2.098
90°	-4.954	7.981	3.027

3.2. Wear Morphology of PEEK

The microstructure of PEEK with different orientations after wear was shown in Fig. 4. After against with UHMWPE, the surface of PEEK with different orientations all appeared white particles at low magnification (Fig. 4a1-e1). At high magnification, it can be seen clearly that these particles adhered to the surface of PEEK in an irregular and discontinuous sheet-like structure (Fig. 4a2-e2 and a3-e3). Based on the molecular chains characteristics of couple materials, these countless tiny and isolated sheet-like structure might be transfer film generated by the wear debris of UHMWPE. Meanwhile, it was very interesting that the characteristics of transfer film formed in different orientations of PEEK were diverse. In terms of amount, the transfer film formed on the surface of PEEK was more at low magnification when the printing orientation of filaments was parallel to sliding direction of wear. The amount of transfer film decreased significantly from 0° to 90°, and only little transfer film could be observed on the surface of PEEK at 90°. In terms of size, the transfer film on the surface of PEEK at 0° direction was also larger than other directions at high magnification. In addition, a greater amount and size of transfer film formed on the surface of PEEK at 0° compared to other orientations.

3.3. Characterization of Transfer Film

To analyze the formation process of transfer film, the surface morphology of PEEK before and after wear at 0° direction was shown in Fig. 5. As control group (Fig. 5a1-a4), the surface of PEEK before wear showed regularly arranged groove structure, which was formed under the synergistic action of regular arrangement PEEK filaments during the 3D printing and the subsequent polishing process. This regularly arranged groove structure could be considered as a kind of textures [36, 37]. At low magnification, the surface of PEEK appeared white particles after against with UHMWPE, and these particles were evenly distributed and linearly arranged along the edges of the groove texture (Fig. 5b1 and b2). At high magnification, it was evident from Fig. 5b3 and b4 that the UHMWPE transfer film was firmly bound to the PEEK matrix without any large gap. Moreover, the extension direction of transfer film was consistent with the sliding direction of friction.

Phase characterization was used to demonstrate that the white particles appearing on the surface of PEEK were UHMWPE transfer films. Firstly, the FTIR spectrum was shown in Fig. 6a to identify the functional groups change of PEEK and UHMWPE before and after wear. UHMWPE before and after wear all exhibited characteristic peaks of -CH₂ at 2914 cm^− 1 and 2846 cm^− 1, the PEEK of test group also exhibited two similar characteristic peaks of UHMWPE compared to the control group, which indicated that UHMWPE debris transferred on the surface of PEEK. XRD was utilized to analyze the phase change of PEEK against UHMWPE (Fig. 6b). PEEK and UHMWPE exhibited characteristic diffraction peeks at 2${\theta }$ = 18.6, 22.2, 28.6 and 21.6, 24.1 before wear, respectively. After wear, the characteristic diffraction peeks of UHMWPE didn’t change, while a new characteristic diffraction peeks of UHMWPE at 2${\theta }$ = 24.1 appeared in the PEEK spectrum. This further certified that the sheet-like structure on the surface of PEEK was UHMWPE, which had been adhered to the surface of PEEK to form transfer film.

3.4. Wear Morphology of UHMWPE

The wear morphology of UHMWPE was shown in Fig. 7. The surface of UHMWPE generated various wear morphology after against with different orientations of PEEK and the furrow could be characterized qualitatively. The surface of UHMWPE formed fine and light furrows when the friction direction was 0° (Fig. 7a), the depth of these furrows increased with printing orientation increased to 25° (Fig. 7b). As the print orientation further increased, the width of furrows increased sharply (Fig. 7c and d). When the printing orientation was 90°, the depth and width of furrows were the biggest simultaneously.

The visual 3D surface morphology of UHMWPE was shown in Fig. 8a1-e1. The surface of UHMWPE was flat in the 0° direction, while numerous wide and deep furrows appeared on the surface with the increased orientation. Corresponding wear width curves were recorded in Fig. 8a2-e2. The wear width curve of UHMWPE had a steady trend at 0° orientation. However, the wear width curve had drastic fluctuation from 45° to 90° orientations, which indicated that the inconsistency between printing orientations of filaments and sliding direction of wear would lead to serious wear of UHMWPE. The wear morphology of UHMWPE was further quantitatively analyzed by the Ra and wear width (Fig. 8f and g). The Ra of UHMWPE at 0° was 0.559 ${\mu }\text{m}$, it increased to 3.179 ${\mu }\text{m}$ at 90° and had a significant difference compare to 0° orientation. Similarly, the wear depth of UHMWPE after against with PEEK at 0° exhibited a significant difference compared to 45°, 67.5° and 90° orientations. The UHMWPE possessed the smallest surface roughness and wear depth when the printing orientation of filaments was parallel to sliding direction of friction.

3.5. Quantitative Evaluation of Transfer Film Forming Ability

In order to quantitatively evaluate the ability of UHMWPE wear debris came into being transfer film on the surface of PEEK after wear, the concept of transfer rate was first defined and calculation formula was proposed as the Eq. (1):

$${\text{R}}_{\text{t}}\text{=}\frac{({\text{V}}_{\text{1w}}-{\text{V}}_{\text{1}})+|{\text{V}}_{\text{1wd}}-{\text{V}}_{\text{1}}|}{{\text{V}}_{\text{2l}}}=\frac{{\text{V}}_{\text{1w}}-{\text{V}}_{\text{1wd}}}{{\text{V}}_{\text{2l}}}=\frac{{\text{V}}_{\text{1g}}}{{\text{V}}_{\text{2l}}}\text{×100%}$$

Where ${\text{R}}_{\text{t}}$ represented transfer ratio; ${\text{V}}_{\text{1}}$ represented initial volume of PEEK; ${\text{V}}_{\text{1w}}$ represented the volume of PEEK after wear; ${\text{V}}_{\text{1wd}}$ represented the volume of PEEK after wear with dissolved the UHMWPE transfer film; ${\text{V}}_{\text{1g}}$ represented get volume of PEEK from UHMWPE; ${\text{V}}_{\text{2l}}$ represented lost volume of UHMWPE. According to the above calculation formula, the transfer rate of PEEK with different orientations against with UHMWPE was presented in Fig. 9. The transfer rate of wear debris forming transfer film on the surface of PEEK was 70.8% at 90°, it increased to 94.3% when the direction was 0°, which indicated that the ability of forming transfer film was improved when the printing orientation was parallel to the sliding direction of wear.

At present, artificial joint prosthesis is all prepared by injection molding process, but limited by complex shape structure, expensive mold development and long preparation cycle. With the improvement of patients' demand for therapeutic effect, personalized joint prosthesis must be the future direction. 3D printing can directly build personalized appearance structure in a short time through stacking materials layer by layer, which can well meet the needs of individuation and economy.

Compared with other molding processes, the orientation of filaments is unique and crucial for tribological properties of 3D printing PEEK. The friction coefficient and wear rate of 3D printing PEEK and UHMWPE friction pair were 0.14 and 0.777×10^− 6 mm3/N∙m (Figs. 2 and 3), slightly larger than the friction pair of injection molded PEEK and UHMWPE [21]. The reason could be ascribed to the following: (Ⅰ) the 3D printing PEEK and UHMWPE friction pair performed 10,000 cycles and just entered the stable period of wear. While the study of Cowie et al. executed 1 million cycles and friction pair had been completely in the stable period, the wear rate calculated from the run-in period was obviously greater than the stable period [22]. The purpose of this study is to obtain the optimal printing direction of tribological property, and finally achieve the reasonable distribution of the printing path on the prosthesis based on overall wear. In fact, the tribometer in Fig. 1c can only execute one specimen at a time during friction. Therefore, considering the research purpose and time cost, the test was performed 10,000 cycles. Unsworth et al. removed the wear volume in the run-in period and severe wear period, and only calculated the wear rate in the stable period, so its wear rate was far less than that of other studies [19]. (Ⅲ) The 3D-printed surface is formed by regular arrangement of filaments, which will generate groove structure (Fig. 5) and roughness, this is one of the reasons for the high wear rate.

The mechanism of UHMWPE forming transfer film on the surface of 3D printing PEEK was discussed. In the initial stage of wear, the micro bulges on the surface of PEEK were embedded in the interior of UHMWPE due to higher hardness, and cut off the surface material of UHMWPE like tool to form wear debris during sliding. Afterwards, these wear debris would be mechanically captured by the groove texture of PEEK with hills and valleys, temporarily stored in the valleys. Finally, the UHMWPE wear debris gradually adhered to the surface of PEEK to form transfer film under the reduplicative action of contact stress. The hills stress of groove texture was too high for wear debris to enter, and the valleys stress was too low for wear debris to adhere on the surface of PEEK, so the transfer film mainly followed the transition area between the hills and valleys, namely the edge distribution of groove texture, which could be proved from Figs. 4 and 5.

Meanwhile, the effect of 3D printing orientation on the formation of transfer film was also analyzed. The suffered contact stress of wear debris on the hills of groove texture was much greater than that in the valleys during sliding wear. When the printing orientation of PEEK filaments was parallel to the sliding direction, the wear debris could continuously slide along the hills and valleys of groove texture (Fig. 10). As a result, the transfer film formed at 0° orientation possessed larger number and size (Fig. 4a1-a3). However, when the printing orientation of PEEK filaments was perpendicular to the sliding direction, the wear debris would alternately experience hills and valleys between groove textures, corresponding contact stress would change from the minimum of valleys to the maximum of hills and then repeated intermittently, which wasn’t conducive to form firm transfer film on the surface of PEEK. Consequently, the number and size of transfer film on the surface of PEEK was less at 90° orientation, which could be evident from Fig. 4e1-e3. Therefore, it can be concluded that steady stress was an important factor affecting the formation of transfer film.

Current some researches had reported the tribological behavior of PEEK, but the surface didn’t appear transfer film [19, 21, 22]. The reason could be attributed to the unique surface morphology formed by 3D printing process. These PEEK specimens were all fabricated by traditional injection molding process, and the surface roughness was less than Ra 0.1 ${\mu }\text{m}$, this smooth surface wasn’t conducive to capturing and storing wear debris. Therefore, UHMWPE wear debris couldn’t be adhered on the surface of injection molding PEEK to form transfer film. The 3D printing surface of PEEK was formed by regular arrangement of filaments, which possessed groove texture (Fig. 5a1-a4). They could mechanically capture wear debris, and then form transfer film under the action of contact stress. The friction coefficient and wear rate were all decreased with increasing formation of transfer film (Figs. 2 and 3). In conclusion, 3D printing PEEK showed unique advantage in the construction of groove morphology to form transfer film.

Furthermore, the wear mechanism of PEEK against with UHMWPE was also analyzed. The surface of UHMWPE appeared lots of furrows, and they changed from light and thin to deep and wide with the increasing orientation (Fig. 7). These furrows could be attributed to the micro-cutting effect of PEEK groove texture to UHMWPE. At 0° orientation, the sliding contact area between PEEK and UHMWPE was smaller compared with other orientations, the micro-cutting effect was slight, so the corresponding tribological properties were the best. Based on the above analysis, it could be known that the wear mechanism of 3D printing PEEK against with UHMWPE was abrasive wear.

The wear debris flowing into the serum is harmful and can cause osteolysis [38–41]. In this study, part of the wear debris flowed into the serum, while the other part adhered to the surface of PEEK to form transfer film. It can not only cover the matrix material of friction pair to improve tribological properties, but also reduce the flow of debris into the serum resulting in osteolysis. In addition, although the PEEK pins were cleaned by ultrasonic after wear test, it can be seen from the microstructure that the UHMWPE transfer film still adhered on the surface of PEEK and didn’t fall off with ultrasonic treatment (Figs. 4 and 5), which indicated that the UHMWPE transfer film has been firmly adhered to PEEK. A strong bond between transfer film and matrix would enhance the wear life of transfer film and avoid shedding into the serum causing biological damage.

In summary, PEEK pins were fabricated by FFF 3D printing process and the effects of printing orientation on the tribological properties of PEEK were investigated by pin-on-plate tribometer in 25% new born calf serum. On the basis of friction and wear tests, the following conclusions can be drawn.

1) Transfer film was found on the surface of PEEK after against with UHMWPE by microstructure. The formation mechanism of transfer film could be attributed to the mechanically capture of wear debris by the groove morphology generated under the regular arrangement of PEEK filaments during 3D printing.

2) The amount and size of transfer film could be regulated by printing orientation. The transfer film was larger compared to other directions when the printing orientation of PEEK filaments was parallel to sliding direction of friction. The reason was that the UHMWPE wear debris was subjected to continuous stress in the parallel direction compared to intermittent stress in the other directions, which is more conducive to the adhesion of wear debris to the surface of PEEK.

3) The transfer film between PEEK and UHMWPE could cover the matrix materials of friction pair and improving the tribological properties. As a result, the friction coefficient and wear rate of friction pair were slowed down 39.13% and 74.33% from vertical to parallel direction, respectively.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the following funds: (1) National Key R&D Program of China [2018YFE0207900]; (2) Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51835010]; (3) Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province [2018B090906001]; (4) Natural Science Basic Research Program of ShaanXi Province [2022JQ-378]; (5) China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2020M683458]; (6) Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; (7) Youth Innovation Team of Shaanxi Universities.

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No competing interests reported.

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The Transfer Film Effects Induced by 3D Printing Polyether-ether-ketone with Excellent Tribological Properties

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Abstract

Figures

1. Introduction

2. Materials And Methods

2.1. Materials

2.2. Fabrication of PEEK Pins

2.3. Friction and Wear Tests

2.4. Quantitative Assessment of Transfer Film

2.5. Characterization

2.6. Statistical Analysis

3. Results

3.1. Friction and Wear Properties

3.2. Wear Morphology of PEEK

3.3. Characterization of Transfer Film

3.4. Wear Morphology of UHMWPE

3.5. Quantitative Evaluation of Transfer Film Forming Ability

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

Declarations

Acknowledgments

References

Additional Declarations

Supplementary Files

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