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Cobalt-Chromium Alloy

Materials Engineering

Cobalt-chromium alloy fuses cobalt and chromium for very high specific strength and a protective chromium-oxide film that gives it excellent corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Elwood Haynes discovered the alloy in the early 1900s and patented it as Stellite, receiving his first Stellite patents in 1907 and further patents in 1912 and 1913, initially marketing it for cutting tools and wear-resistant hardware. Its biocompatibility carried it into medicine after the first cobalt-chromium prosthetic heart valve was implanted in 1960 and functioned for more than three decades, and it remains standard today for artificial hips and knees, dental prosthetics, gas-turbine components and surgical stents. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Primary UseSourced to the subject's own account
Artificial hip and knee joints; dental prosthetics and bridges; gas-turbine components; surgical stents and cardiac implants. 1
Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account
1907 1
Classification
Material ClassSourced to the subject's own account
Metal 1
Connections

Associated With

Biomedical Engineering, Fields

Cobalt-chromium alloys are a core biomedical engineering implant material, a second field beyond its primary materials-engineering field.

Source Cobalt-Chromium (Wikipedia)
Stainless Steel, Materials

Both are corrosion-resistant alloys used in medical implants

Stent, Inventions
Titanium Alloy, Materials

Both are standard orthopedic implant alloys

Total Hip Replacement, Inventions

Cobalt-chromium alloy is widely used for femoral heads and bearing surfaces in hip replacement.

In Field

Sources
1. Cobalt-Chromium (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Properties section
    Co-Cr alloys are well known for their biocompatibility.
  • material-class sentence
    Cobalt-chromium alloy fuses cobalt and chromium for very high specific strength and a protective chromium-oxide film that gives it excellent corrosion resistance and biocompatibility.
  • Associated With: Gas Turbine Engine, Uses section
    Cobalt-chrome has a very high specific strength and is commonly used in gas turbines, dental implants, and orthopedic implants.
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