DLC Coatings on Spherical Elements of HIP Endoprostheses

Abstract Hard coatings are increasingly being used in medicine to protect metal endoprostheses The experimental process for the high-productive synthesis of high-quality diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings with high hardness and a sufficiently high level of adhesion to the spherical shaped parts of the hip joint made from the stainless steel or cobalt-chrome alloy have been developed. DLC coating deposition was performed by vacuum-arc method from a high-productive source of the filtered vacuum-arc carbon plasma of rectilinear type with a "magnetic island". The high degree of thickness uniformity in the coating on the head of the hip joint with a high adhesion to the metal joint base was developed. Modernization of the vacuum arc plasma source allowed to accelerate the cathode spot motion, exclude substrate overheating and increase the diamond-like carbon hardness up to 30-40 GPa. The high adhesion level was achieved as a result of the high voltage pulsed of substrate bias potential use and multilayer architecture of DLC coating. The DLC coating on the heads of hip endoprosthesis did not peel off when boiling endoprosthesis or when immersing it into the liquid nitrogen.