At present, titanium and titanium alloy have been widely used in artificial bone joint, artificial bone, joint foot plate, broken bone fixator, intramedullary nail, artificial heart valve, skull and so on. According to statistics, China's annual demand for titanium alloy artificial joints exceeds 5,000 sets, and the clinical application results are good.

Application of titanium in transplantation



The replacement materials for artificial joints and artificial bones should have the following basic properties: light and high strength materials, biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, no deterioration of the materials caused by the tissue reaction of the implants in the body, less fatigue and damage caused by repeated stress, etc. The most important properties of metal implants are formability, mechanismability, and burnability, which must remain functional during the expected life of the implant and will not deteriorate under fatigue, abrasion, corrosion, and impact loads. Titanium and titanium alloys meet all of these requirements. The first artificial joint materials such as denture powder, polypropylene and organic glass are of low strength, easy to fold and poor biocompatibility. Later switched to stainless steel, but the proportion of stainless steel is larger, about 2 times the proportion of human bones, and in the body by the role of body fluids will appear corrosion and fracture. Co-cr alloy is also an excellent artificial joint material, but unfortunately both cobalt and chromium are toxic to the human body. Titanium and titanium alloy are ideal materials for artificial joints because of their small specific gravity (similar to that of human bone), high strength, good mechanical processing and excellent corrosion resistance.



Pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4Veli alloy are the main titanium materials for surgical transplantation. Recently, the graft materials ti-6Al-7Nb and Ti-13Bn1-13Zr with good human affinity have been approved by ASTM standards. Using titanium to make artificial bone, cells can regenerate on it, and bone can grow. Titanium has good affinity with human bone, epithelium, and created tissues. In order to improve the surface quality of the implant connected with human bone, bioceramics layer on the coarsed surface is also an effective method. At present, titanium and titanium alloy have been widely used in artificial bone joint, artificial bone, joint foot plate, broken bone fixator, intramedullary nail, artificial heart valve, skull and so on. According to statistics, China's annual demand for titanium alloy artificial joints exceeds 5,000 sets, and the clinical application results are good.



Application of titanium in orthopaedic surgery



The elastic modulus of medical titanium alloy is closer to human bone than stainless steel, so it is suitable for human orthopedic surgery. In orthopaedic surgery, titanium nickel shape memory alloy is used. Research shows that NT-SMA is a collection of wear resistance, corrosion resistance, shape memory effect, false elastic sound damping and other properties of a new material, the application of nT-SMA in orthopedics is becoming more and more widely, in addition to the commonly used bone plate, intramedullary needle, mandible internal fixation, scoliosis correction, Shanghai Changhai Hospital and NT-SMA series of design and clinical application. For example, nT-patellar fixator, NT-arc nail, NT-arch fixator, and NT-flapping fixator (specially designed for sacral reconstruction) have achieved satisfactory results. For the titanium alloy materials applied to the human body, countries are still making continuous efforts to explore, seek for a more safe and reliable new titanium alloy, for the benefit of people all over the world.



Titanium is used in pharmaceutical industry



Titanium is used in the pharmaceutical industry to make containers, reactors and heaters. In pharmaceutical production, equipment is often exposed to hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid and other inorganic acids, organic acids and salts, equipment is often damaged due to corrosion, and iron ion pollution caused by steel equipment affects the quality of products. Titanium equipment can solve these problems. For example, penicillin esterification kettle, saccharification tank, chloramphenicol film evaporator, Anemin reactor, metol filter, dimethyl sulfate cooler, liquid medicine filter, etc., all have a precedent of titanium material, the quantity and quality of the liquid medicine produced are constantly improved, and the quality is fully in line with the provisions of Chinese pharmacopoeia.



Application of titanium in medical devices



Titanium and titanium alloy have good corrosion resistance, titanium is non-toxic, non-magnetic, is a good choice of materials for medical equipment. In the history of the development of surgical instruments, the first generation of surgical instruments were mostly made of carbon steel, but they were eliminated because their performance after electroplating could not meet the requirements of clinical use. The second generation of austenite, ferrite and martensite stainless steel surgical instruments, but stainless steel components of chromium toxicity, falling off the chromium layer on the human body has a certain impact, therefore, the emergence of the third generation - titanium surgical instruments. Titanium's light weight makes it particularly suitable for microsurgery. Titanium has corrosion resistance, good elasticity, no deformation, etc., resistant to repeated cleaning, disinfection surface quality is not affected; Titanium surgical instruments are more and more widely used because they are non-magnetic and can eliminate the threat of damage to small and sensitive implanted electronic devices. At present, it has been used to make surgical blade, hemostatic forceps, scissors, electric bone drill, tweezers and so on. In medical instruments, titanium blood vessel suture needle, sternal suture line, titanium filter piece of oxygen filter of one of cardiac surgery instruments, titanium as electrode in electrocardiogram machine, titanium as incubator in vitro culture machine; The probe of medical ultrasonic crusher, the automatic controller of blood transport box and titanium instruments used in eye surgery are all in good condition.



Dental applications of titanium and titanium alloys



Titanium is suitable for dental applications due to its excellent corrosion resistance, human affinity, metal sensitivity and specific strength. Metals used in dental surgery began with amalgam and metal crowns in the 1920s, followed by gold, silver and palladium alloys in the 1960s, stainless steel became the most commonly used material for permanent and detachable orthodontic instruments in the 1970s, and titanium casting technology was popularized in the 1990s. Dental casting with titanium investment casting machine has the characteristics of high dimensional accuracy, no bubble and shrinkage cavity. Among the metal materials used for human body hard tissue repair, the elastic modulus of titanium is the closest to human tissue, which can reduce the mechanical inadaptability between metal implant and bone tissue. The thermal conductivity of titanium is the lowest among all the metal materials used in dental restoration. The low thermal conductivity can reduce the thermal stimulation of the pulp of the teeth with crowns, which is very important for dental restoration. Titanium inlay and crown can protect the pulp from cold and hot stimulation. Dental titanium in the material, the original is mostly pure titanium, but its strength is insufficient, difficult to grind, poor wear resistance, easy to produce casting defects and quality instability and other characteristics. Titanium alloy strength is high, the most commonly used is Ti-6Al-4V alloy, but because of the metal V harmful to human body, use Nb instead of V, the successful development of Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy, it has excellent corrosion resistance, and basically harmless to human body, but also has strong plasticity, good abrasive and other advantages, has been approved by ASTM standard. At present, super-elastic Ti-Ni alloys are widely used in tooth straightening. Since the 1980 s developed countries began to study the application of titanium in oral cavity repair, first used in dental implants, and later used for denture stents, and tooth crown bridge is silk, the titanium for dental crowns, nail crown and fixed bridge, bridge PFM bridge, binding, denture card ring, underpinning, connection device and strengthen device, denture nearly all the metal parts can be made with titanium. The study of titanium and titanium alloys has become a hot spot in dental alloys. Titanium alloy porcelain teeth can be a very good restore tooth form and function, and high strength, good appearance, colour and lustre is stable, smooth surface, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, is a kind of permanent restoration, applies to all fixed tooth, especially its good biological compatibility, is suitable for people who are sensitive to nickel ions, has been widely applied in the restoration of teeth.