United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Aea Technology Inc.

Geoffrey Dearnaley

Kenneth Steeples

Robert E Watkins

Ian J Saunders

Nicholas E Hartley

Alan Thomas Peacock

A femoral component as herein before described for an artificial hip joint made out of an alloy containing titanium, wherein at least a major load bearing portion of which has been subjected to bombardment by a beam of nitrogen or other light ions having energies in the range of 10 Kev to 200 Kev until a surface fluence of between 1 and 8&times;10,ions/cm,has been implanted. An apparatus for processing such components is described also.

Titanium alloy hip prosthesis

An apparatus 10 and a method are provided for treating silicon wafers 26 in vacuum with an ion beam B and for controlling the temperature of the wafers 26. The wafers 26 are mounted on a drum 22 which is rotated through the ion beam B, and which is large enough that the mean equilibrium temperature of the wafers 26, in the absence of any other energy sources, would be less than the desired temperature. The wafers 26 are additionally heated by infra-red lamps 34 so the desired temperature is achieved.

Temperature control in vacuum

A process for hardening the surface of a metal body in which the surface is first bombarded with ions capable of occupying interstitial sites in its crystal lattice, then a coating of a reactive metal is deposited on the surface, and finally the coating is bombarded with ions which will react with it to form a hard material such as a carbide or nitride. The bombardment is continued until the hard material has become embodied in the surface by means of radiation enhanced diffusion.

Surface treatment of metals

Bodies made of titanium or its alloys, having surfaces liable to wear, have their wear resistance improved by coating such surfaces with a layer of a metal such as tin or aluminum which has been bombarded with ions of a light species such as nitrogen, carbon, boron, or neon so as to cause the metal to migrate into the titanium or titanium alloy. The modified surface has improved wear resistance and reduced coefficient of friction.

Titanium and its alloys

A process for producing regions of high resistivity in gallium arsenide, and other related compounds and mixed crystals which show electrical behavior which is similar to that of gallium arsenide, in which deuterons are implanted into a substrate made of the semi-conductor body with energies up to a maximum value corresponding to a desired depth of penetration into the body. Apparatus for carrying out the process also is described.

Method of forming high resistivity regions in GaAs by deuteron

A process for improving the wear resistance of, and reducing the frictional forces between, bodies made of titanium or its alloys, in which surfaces liable to wear are coated with a layer of a metal such as tin of aluminium which is then bombarded with ions of a light species such as nitrogen, carbon, boron, or neon so as to cause the metal to migrate into the titanium.

Method of coating titanium and its alloys

A process for manufacturing gallium arsenide devices in which regions of high resistivity are created in the gallium arsenide by subjecting the regions to bombardment by protons and then by deuterons, and devices so made.

Semiconductor devices containing protons and deuterons implanted regions

A process for treating a titanium containing artefact to inhibit fretting corrosion, in which an active species having a higher heat of formation of its oxide than titanium is deposited on the artefact in vacuo, and the artefact is then heated sufficiently to cause the active species to migrate into the artefact to provide a surface region thereof containing the active species. Preferably the active species is deposited by an ion bombardment technique.

Inhibition of fretting corrosion of metals

A method is provided for treating a metal working tool element made of cemented carbide materials, as hereinafter described, comprising the operation of implanting into a working surface of the tool element ions of a material such as to modify the implanted region of the working surface of the tool element in such a way as to prevent adhesion between the matrix metal of the cemented carbide tool element and a metal being worked by the tool element. Metal working tool elements so treated are also disclosed.

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Abingdon, United Kingdom

Geoffrey Dearnaley