Tribological behavior and biocompatibility of novel Nickel-Free stainless steel manufactured via laser powder bed fusion for biomedical applications




Nayak Chinmayee, Anand Abhinav, Kamboj Nikhil, Kantonen Tuomas, Kajander Karoliina, Tupala Vilma, Heino Terhi J., Cherukuri Rahul, Mohanty Gaurav, Čapek Jan, Polatidis Efthymios, Goel Sneha, Salminen Antti, Ganvir Ashish

PublisherElsevier

2024

Materials and Design

Materials & Design

113013

242

0264-1275

1873-4197

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2024.113013

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2024.113013

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/393516036

Correction to this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2025.113984 ; DOI:10.1016/j.matdes.2025.113984



Due to the risk of releasing carcinogenic nickel ions from conventional 316L stainless steel under a corrosive human body environment, a new variant of steel termed nickel-free stainless steel (NiFSS) has been investigated. The present study investigates the tribological properties and biocompatibility of NiFSS manufactured via laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M). The ferritic NiFSS exhibited significantly lower coefficient of friction (0.08 to 0.28) and wear rate (1.60 × 10-6 mm3/Nm to 6.60 × 10-6 mm3/Nm) compared to reported values for austenitic 316L SS, under both dry and simulated body fluid (SBF) conditions and various sliding geometries. This improvement is attributed to the superior hardness (3.394 ± 0.1340 GPa) and elastic modulus (238 ± 9.0797 GPa) of NiFSS. To assess the biocompatibility, the viability of mouse pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells was evaluated with an Alamar Blue assay when the cells were cultured on top of PBF-LB/M built NiFSS and 316L SS samples. The results indicated that even though cell growth was most optimal on regular cell culture plastic, cell viability was better maintained on PBF-LB/M built NiFSS compared to 316L SS. Therefore, the results of the present study propose that PBF-LB/M fabricated NiFSS holds promise for application in biomedical devices for joint arthroplasty.

Last updated on 2025-09-06 at 13:00