N2 Biomedical’s proprietary IonGuard® process utilizes direct ion beam bombardment to create a hard, low friction, and hydrophilic surface without changing the bulk properties of the device. This low temperature process has been used to treat millions of medical device implants including metal knees and hips and orthodontic arch wires.

IonGuard® treated Titanium knees show wear properties comparable to Co-Cr devices in a 3 million cycle wear study. IonGuard® treated Titanium hip components release 35 times less metal than untreated parts after 1 million wear cycles.

IonGuard®  treated Co-Cr heads remain up to 29% smoother than untreated heads in clinical usage. Multiple clinical studies with multi-year follow-up have demonstrated up to a 40% reduction in wear rates for mating polyethylene surfaces. IonGuard®  treated Co-Cr heads have shown superior performance in a 5 million cycle wear simulation test as compared to TiN-coated Co-Cr and  comparable wear to ceramic-based heads.