BIOLOY®
Permedica has been using the coating in the orthopedic field since 2007 to coat joint prosthetic components.
Permedica’s decades of experience in the clinical practice of BIOLOY®-coated knee prosthetic implants and the excellent clinical results obtained demonstrate the excellent performance and reliability of the BIOLOY® coating.
The TiNbN coating has very similar characteristics to titanium nitride (TiN) coating, a coating historically used for biomedical applications. TiNbN coating differs from TiN in the presence of the element niobium, which gives the coating greater hardness and higher density.
Some research on surface modification of biomaterials in recent years is investigating the osseointegration ability of TiN coatings with in vitro and in vivo results comparable or better than titanium controls with the same roughness.
PVD-coated titanium nitride (TiN) surfaces also would appear to be subject to lower bacterial adhesion and proliferation in vitro and in vivo than uncoated titanium surfaces of the same roughness in the presence of oral flora bacteria.
Recent research findings regarding the ability of TiN coatings to osseointegrate and at the same time, reduce the risk of peri-implantitis a major cause of dental implant failure, prompted Permedica to use TiNbN PVD coating on dental implants and thus develop the BIOLOY® Surface with the aim of reducing the risk of peri-implantitis.
PVD is a coating technique by which positively charged metal ions pass from the solid state to the vapor state inside a vacuum chamber and react with a gas introduced into the coating chamber. The surface to be coated is negatively charged so as to attract these ions and create a strong adhesion between substrate and coating.
TiNbN coating is a single-layer surface coating that aesthetically imparts a golden color to the coated substrate. The requirements that the BIOLOY® coating must meet are a coating hardness >2000 HV (Vickers), a thickness of 3÷6 µm, and adhesion characterized by no coating delamination.
