Corrosion Analysis of a Marked Biomaterial

Marking is one of the last steps of manufacturing an implantable biomaterial. The marks on its surface constitute a permanent set of information in order to provide identification and traceability of the biomedical device. These markings become stress concentrators and regions with probability for the occurrence of failures that can lead to fracture; besides damaging the passive layer, naturally formed on stainless steels surfaces, favoring the beginning of several forms of degradation. This work presents the effect of two metal implant marking techniques on the corrosion resistance of ISO 5832-1 austenitic stainless steel, one of the most used surgical biomaterials used in Brazil. Engraving was carried out with mechanical and laser beam marking techniques were prepared. The electrochemical behavior was characterized by cyclic potentiodynamic polarization curves and indicate that the laser marking technique is the one that most affects the passive layer of the material when compared to the mechanical engraving.