Our new wear testing machine with 50 test stations has arrived and has been successfully put into operation. The TE 87 Circular Translation Pin-on-Disc (CTPOD) machine from the manufacturer Phoenix Tribology is being used as part of a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to investigate the wear behavior of hundreds of explanted polyethylene inlay components from total hip endoprostheses.
The results, together with further analyses, will help to better understand the wear resistance of different implants and thus determine which implants deliver the best long-term results for patients.
The TE 87 CTPOD Machine is manufactured under licence from Dr. Vesa Saikko of the Laboratory of Machine Design, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology, and is based on his Super-CTPOD machine design. It is a compact, cost-effective, and user-friendly wear testing device developed for evaluating prosthetic joint materials. Its large testing capacity allows multiple material combinations to be tested simultaneously under identical conditions .
Although the system is classified as a pin-on-disc machine, its motion differs from that of conventional machines. In standard pin-on-disc systems, the disc rotates around its own axis, creating unidirectional sliding at the pin surface. In contrast, the TE 87 uses an orbital motion without disc rotation. The pin track can also be adjusted to produce circular, elliptical, or linear reciprocating movement .
This advanced testing capability also opens up new opportunities for future research projects and industrial collaborations, enabling the efficient evaluation of a wide range of polymeric materials and wear-related research questions under highly controlled and reproducible conditions .