Tribological Study on Titanium Based Composite Materials in Biomedical Applications

Titanium (Ti) and titanium based alloy (Ti6Al4V) are known for its high strength, high stiffness, resistance to corrosion and biocompatibility. The mechanical properties as well as bio-compatibility of titanium lead to wide variety of applications in biomedical, environmental, aerospace, automotive and marine applications. The titanium based composites are widely preferred at present to enhance the wear, friction and corrosion behavior based on applications where it is used. Moreover, titanium based bio-composites are widely preferred in biomedical applications because of its improved friction and wear resistance properties. The present chapter emphasizes more on tribological study of titanium based composites in general and also titanium based bio-composites in hip joint replacement on biomedical applications. At the same time, the focus is also given to classify various coating techniques used to produce the titanium composites and parameters used to analyze the tribological behavior of titanium composites. This chapter also deals with approaches used to test with and without bio-lubricant, tribological and corrosion properties of titanium composites.