Orthopedic Titanium Alloy Materials

Among the many internal fixation materials in orthopedics, titanium alloy steel plates are becoming more and more common. Not only are they different from stainless steel internal fixations in terms of whether magnetic resonance can be performed after surgery, but they also show different properties in other aspects.
Titanium alloys have the advantages of good chemical stability, high biocompatibility, high strength, and light weight, so they are widely used in the manufacturing standards of implant materials in the human body. Let’s take a closer look at the properties and characteristics of this material.
What are Titanium Alloys
Titanium alloy is a metal that contains a mixture of titanium and other chemical elements. This alloy has very high tensile strength and toughness (even at extreme temperatures). They are lightweight, have exceptional corrosion resistance and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures. Titanium has a high affinity with oxygen atoms, which means that a very thin dense oxide layer (TiO2) can be formed on the surface of titanium alloys in room temperature atmosphere, which is also the reason why titanium alloys have excellent corrosion resistance.
Classification of titanium alloys
Titanium exists in two crystal forms. At room temperature, unalloyed (commercially pure) titanium has a hexagonal close-packed structure (hcp), called the alpha phase. When the temperature of pure titanium reaches 885°C (called the beta transverse temperature of titanium), the crystal structure transforms into a cubic structure (bcc), called the beta phase. The properties of titanium alloys mainly depend on the arrangement, volume fraction and respective properties of the α and β phases.