Mechanical properties of biomedical titanium alloys

Titanium alloys are expected to be much more widely used for implant materials in the medical and dental fields because of their superior biocompatibility, corrosion resistance and specific strength compared with other metallic implant materials. Pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V, in particular, Ti-6Al-4V ELI have been, however, mainly used for implant materials among various titanium alloys to date. V free alloys like Ti-6Al-7Nb and Ti-5A1-2.5Fe have been recently developed for biomedical use. More recently V and Al free alloys have been developed. Titanium alloys composed of non-toxic elements like Nb, Ta, Zr and so on with lower modulus have been started to be developed mainly in the USA. The beta type alloys are now the main target for medical materials. The mechanical properties of the titanium alloys developed for implant materials to date are described in this paper. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.