Serial Production with EBM

Moving from prototyping to production is a major challenge for the additive manufacturing industry. It requires a robust and reliable technology having high and verifiable repeatability. The transition into production is not possible without the technology being capable of sustaining a high product quality as well as productivity in par or better than traditional manufacturing. Electron Beam Melting (EBM) has since 2007, been used for manufacturing of CE-certified standard orthopedic implants with more than 20’000 units produced in several EBM systems. High productivity combined with process stability has been key factors for this application to emerge. Added product value in form of engineered surface porosity has been vital to promote the step into serial production. Development of EBM has been focused on system reliability, process stability, material quality, productivity and means for process validation to reach proven requirements for production. Statistical process control (SPC) has been a very powerful tool to carry out this development in an efficient way.