The wear of oriented UHMWPE under isotropically rough and scratched counterface test conditions

Unidirectional wear tests of UHMWPE against smooth counterfaces show that molecular chains at the surface of virgin material become oriented parallel to the sliding direction giving low wear rate. It is postulated that under more abrasive conditions and predominantly unidirectional motion as in knee prostheses, it may proof beneficial to provide molecular orientation of the bulk material. Therefore strips of UHMWPE were oriented by die drawing at elevated temperature and the resulting anisotropic material subjected to tensile tests, small punch tests and also unidirectional wear tests both parallel and perpendicular to the draw direction. The tensile tests showed that, in the parallel direction, the oriented UHMWPE became stiffer and less ductile compared to the virgin UHMWPE. In the perpendicular direction, there were reductions in yield stress, 5% proof stress and energy to failure compared to the virgin material. The small punch test showed that the oriented UHMWPE exhibited apparent hardening when tested in both parallel and perpendicular directions but the mechanical behaviour in the perpendicular direction was comparable to the virgin UHMWPE. The wear tests demonstrated that the oriented UHMWPE did not show any significant improvement of wear resistance for sliding against either isotropically rough or scratched counterfaces. There was no clear dependency between the mechanical properties and wear factors of the oriented UHMWPE.