저널

Durability of instrument is one of the most important factor to ensure accurate treatment and decrease failure for the orthopedic surgical operation. Normally, a set-screw driver tip has been processed with hard coating for their higher durability and wear resistance. And several surface modification methods were obtained such as titanium nitride (TiN) coating, diamond like carbon coating, other nitriding, and etc. In this study, we have surface modified on set-screw driver tip with TiN and DLC, investigated whether the TiN and DLC coatings affect the mechanical properties and durability of the set-screw driver tip in the pedicle screw system. The surface morphologies were observed with scanning-electron microscopy (SEM), and the static/dynamic torsional properties were investigated with universal testing machine based on ASTM F543. Coating thickness of each coatings were commonly around $1^{circ}C$. Static torsional stiffness, and ultimate torque values for DLC and TiN coated samples were significantly higher than those of non-coated sample by the pared T-test. Surface morphology of after the dynamic torsional test was more clean with less scratch or friction traces from DLC coating than that of TiN coating and non-coated sample.

Pedicle screw system;Orthopedics;TiN;DLC;Mechanical test;