National Capability Database | Capability Detail

Louise Jennings

L.M.Jennings@leeds.ac.uk

Pre-clinical Wear Simulation : Material Screening

Capability Description

iMBE has extensive pre-clinical wear simulation facilities with in excess of 80 stations for studying tribology of hip, knee and spine arthroplasty bearing materials and cartilage repair interventions. At Leeds we can wear-test polymers and metals in a simple geometrical configuration, determining the wear gravimetrically. This pin on plate wear testing can be used to rank wear performance of different material combinations in simple geometric configurations. The test combines linear reciprocating motion of the plate with rotation of the pin to deliver a multi axial test. Tests are typically run for 1 Million Cycles over a duration of 3 weeks and can be used to assess: materials, lubricants, Kinematics, and contact pressures. We can also test samples under aseptic conditions to produce physiologically relevant, sterile wear debris to investigate its effect on cells in culture as well as characterise the debris in terms of size and morphology..