Surgical article formed from fine grained tungsten carbide in nickel matrix

Abstract

A biocompatible surgical article is provided for cutting biological tissue or implantation in contact therewith. The surgical article has a composition of tungsten carbide-nickel with a percentage of additional metal carbides present. A typical composition in total weight percentages is WC 85 to 95%, Cr3C2, Mo2C, VC each alone or in combination being present from 0 to 2%, and Ni constituting the remainder. The composition is formed to have a mean grain size of between 200 and 800 nm with a particle dispersion index (PdI) corresponding to (the square of the standard deviation)/(mean grain size) of between 0 and 0.6, and in some embodiments between 0.02 and 0.2.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.