Interfacial Strength of Plasma-sprayed Hydroxyapatite Coatings

View of improvement of Quality of life (QOL) for senior citizens, the implant treatment that embed prosthesis into a living body has advanced as a method of treating for deterioration or a lesion part. Recently, addition of Hydroxyapatite (HAp) coatings onto titanium alloy has been developed to reduce duration of treatment and improve strength of treated part. Such coatings are mainly manufactured by plasma spraying. However, it is important to understand the influence of change in quality of plasma-sprayed HAp coatings on adhesion of coating / substrate interface. The purpose of this study is to establish quantitative and simple method for adhesion evaluation. Some tensile and shear adhesion strength tests were carried out for plasma-sprayed HAp coatings. As the results, quantitative knowledges about the influence of pre- and post-heat treatment on the interfacial strength between HAp coating / substrate interface were obtained.