As soon as I saw what is being used in hip replacements today I knew Arcam electron beam could make a much better prosthesis. Unfortunately the suppliers of these in the EU and US are an oligopoly uninterested in rocking the boat so the main thrust is coming from China.
The suppliers of titanium powder also appear to be an oligarchy, interested on milking profits . I think the entry of Arcam m into making a superior grade of powder hopefully at lower cost may turn out to be one of the smartest moves the company has made. Results of EBM should be better with a better raw material. One not contaminated with oxides and water, and certainly having a more consistent grain shape and size. Which should help to with the partially fused (sintered) powder at the edges of the EBM giving the rough surface.
from the link
Even though it is biologically compatible, titanium has difficulties in molding, casting, and milling. The shaping of titanium onto a model is limited by the artistic aptitude of technician and can be unreliable. CNC milling is also limited by difficulties encountered when trying to replicate complex anatomy or internal features due to collision between the milling tool and the object. With the development of RP technique, the accurate production of prosthesis with complicated morphology and internal features has become possible [22].
Metal RP processes like EBM and selective laser sintering can directly manufacture patient-specific medical TAV implants and devices. In the current study, three kinds of prosthesis manufactured by EBM were implanted to repair the defects in unusual sites. Compared to traditional manufacturing process, EBM greatly simplifies the processing steps and considerably reduced fabricating time. It shows a promising tendency in manufacturing customized prosthesis.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the USA has recently approved the production of certain products fabricated using Arcam’s EBM process. Besides fabricating customized implants, several companies, including Adler Ortho (Italy), have used EBM to manufacture some special structures of standard prosthesis.
For example, the lattice structure of acetabular cup is crucial for osteointegration in hip replacement. But the traditional manufacturing methods are complicated and time-consuming. Now, EBM has been used to fabricate such structures. This direct metal fabrication technique can eliminate several process steps associated with traditional methods [27]. Also in artificial hip system, the stem is usually much stiffer than host bone and, over time, this can cause stress shielding, bone resorption, and implant loosening. Additive processes allow the structure of the stem to be optimized to match the stiffness, or flexibility, of the host bone, reducing stress shielding [28
