Resistance to sliding of stainless steel multistranded archwires and comparison with single-stranded leveling wires.

The sliding mechanics of multistranded stainless steel (SS) wires were compared with single-stranded leveling wires in the passive and the active regions when dominated by classical friction and elastic binding, respectively. Tests were done under both dry and wet (human saliva) conditions. The round multistranded wires had 3- (triple) and 6-stranded (coax) configurations in nominal sizes of 15.5, 17.5, 19.5, and 21.5 mil; the rectangular wires had 3- (rect3) and 8-stranded (rect8) configurations in nominal sizes of 16 x 16, 16 x 22, 17 x 25, and 19 x 25 mil. While a ligature force of 150 g was applied and the second-order angulation was varied from -12 degrees to 12 degrees, each wire was translated relative to its bracket as the drawing force was digitally recorded. Linear regressions were fitted separately to the passive and the active regions. In the passive region, the kinetic coefficients of friction mu(k-FR) in the wet state were the same as, lower than, and higher than in the dry state for single-stranded SS, single-stranded nickel titanium (NiTi), and multistranded SS wires, respectively. Because the kinetic coefficients of friction were similar for multistranded and single-stranded SS wires, mu(k-FR) is a material property for SS and perhaps also for NiTi. In the active region, the frictional behaviors of multistranded SS wires compared with other leveling archwires are as follows: (1) coax wires had low friction, (2) triple and rect8 wires had midrange friction, and (3) rect3 wires had high friction. The coefficients of binding (mu(BI)) were not affected by saliva and were proportional to the wire stiffnesses. The resistance to sliding depended on wire stiffnesses to the extent that the differences in the mu(k-FR)'s of SS versus NiTi became unimportant shortly after binding occurred.