FUNCTIONALLY GRADED ALL CERAMIC HIP JOINT - Advanced Biomaterials: Fundamentals, Processing, and Applications - page 347

applied to these alumina composites by increasing internally the zirconia content
in order to induce compressive stresses on the surface of the components.
With respect to the production technology for FGM material, electrophoretic
deposition has the advantage that a specifi cally designed continuously changing
composition gradient can be introduced into the component. However, electro-
phoretic deposition is mainly used for the application of coatings and is not yet
implemented as a routine production route for bulk samples in the ceramic indus-
try. An unpublished design study by a team of mechanical engineering and mate-
rials engineering students at K.U. Leuven indicated that it would be possible to
produce the FGM ball-heads by EPD at a production cost of about fi ve Euro.
Sequential slip casting is an alternative technology that has some industrial base
but one that will suffer from a rather low production rate. Other production tech-
niques for FGMs remain to be investigated.
The FGM concept is also being investigated for other applications in bioma-
terials, where a gradual transition in the property of a material is necessary, rather
than a sharply defi ned boundary: gradients in composition in order to prevent
delamination of coatings; gradients in porosity and in bioactivity; graded scaffolds
in tissue engineering; and others.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Work supported by the GROWTH program of the Commission of the European
Communities under project contract No. G5RD-CT2000-00354, the Fund for
Scientifi c Research Flanders under project No. G.0180.02. and the Research
Fund K. U. Leuven under project GOA/2008/07.
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