Choosing the Best Metal for Surgical Tools: Steel or Titanium?

[diajoy38]

Hello Colleagues,

I have a project for medical application. It has a cutting part for precise incisions. It should have excellent notch tensile strength and resistance to pitting corrosion. Obviousely this should be surgical steel or titanium. What would you take?

 

[russ_watters]

Hello Colleagues,

I have a project for medical application. It has a cutting part for precise incisions. It should have excellent notch tensile strength and resistance to pitting corrosion. Obviousely this should be surgical steel or titanium. What would you take?

This is a decision that requires a lot more thought than one paragraph in an internet forum.

 

[Chris Riccard]

surgical steel would be my guess, titanium is to soft.

 

[Astronuc]

The material selection depends on the application. Both titanium alloys and high strength, low Ni steels are used in medical instruments.

http://www.supraalloys.com/medical-titanium.php - titanium alloys make for light instruments that are useful for applications where the tool must be held for a long time.

https://www.valbruna-stainless-steel.com/applications/medical/surgical-instruments - martensitic stainless, precipitation hardened and austenitic stainless steels are common. There is a preference for low Ni stainless steels.

Also - https://www.sandmeyersteel.com/medical-tooling.html
https://www.bssa.org.uk/topics.php?article=132

 

[Cosmodi]

I would suggest this one http://www.kleinmetals.ch/steel/medical-steel/uns-s-46500-instruments-medical-steel.htm

It is used for the production of endoscopic instruments for surgery and for dental instruments, needles, needle wires and other instruments with small diameters.