• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2009

The mechanical characteristics of gamma-ray irradiated UHMWPE specimens were investigated under various heat treatment conditions. The heat treatment was performed in the range of annealing and remelting temperatures. The annealing treatment below the temperature of $130^{\circ}C$ hardly induced changes in the tensile strength, the strain at the failure and the hardness. However the remelting treatment above $140^{\circ}C$ deteriorated those mechanical properties. It was shown in an FTIR analysis that the annealing treatment caused some oxidation of free radicals created by the pretreatment of the irradiation. These quantitative data represented by the behavior of mechanical properties might be used as basic informations for the design and analysis of various artificial joints.