An engineer is designing a total hip implant. She intends to make the femoral stem out of titanium because it forms a good interface with bone. However, since titanium does not have optimum wear properties she intends to make the ball component out of stainless steel and attach it to the stem using a press fit. Should she be worried about corrosion? If so, what types of corrosion could take place?

1. Yes.

2. Localized corrosion

Explanation:

Should she be worried about corrosion?

Yes, the engineer needs to be worried about corrosion as stainless steel has a lower resistance to corrosion, in other words, stainless steel corrodes faster than Titanium.

If so, what types of corrosion could take place?

The type of corrosion that takes place is called Localized corrosion. Localized corrosion occurs when a small part of a component experiences corrosion. In this case, the ball component of the femoral stem is made of stainless steel which will corrode faster than the other parts of the femoral stem which is made of Titanium.