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Additive manufacturing is an emerging manufacturing technology that enables production of patient spe-cific implants, today primarily out of titanium. For optimal functionality and proper integration betweenthe titanium implant and the body tissues surface properties, such as surface oxide thickness is of partic-ular importance, as it is primarily the surface of the material which interacts with the body. Hence, in thisstudy the surface oxidation behavior of titanium parts manufactured by Electron Beam Melting (EBM®)is investigated using the surface sensitive techniques ToF-SIMS and AES. Oxide thicknesses comparableto those found on conventionally machined surfaces are found by both analysis techniques. However, abuild height dependency is discovered for different locations of the EBM®manufactured parts due to thepresence of trapped moisture in the machine and temperature gradients in the build.

Additive manufacturing, or 3D-printing as it is often called, build parts in a layer-by-layer fashion. A common concern, regardless of the specific additive manufacturing technique used, is the risk of inadequate fusion between the adjacent layers which in turn may cause inferior mechanical properties. In this work, the local strain properties of titanium parts produced by Electron Beam Melting (EBM®) were studied in order to gain information about the quality of fusion of the stock powder material used in the process. By using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) the strain fields in the individual layers were analyzed, as well as the global strain behavior of the bulk material. The results show that fully solid titanium parts manufactured by EBM are homogenous and do not experience local deformation behavior, neither on local nor on a global level.

The surface morphology of components produced by powder bed metal additive manufacturing is of interest for multiple industry sectors including biomedical and aerospace. For some applications, improvements in surface finish can reduce or eliminate the requirement for secondary finishing processes. In this study, titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) samples were manufactured using the Electron Beam Melting (EBM) process. The effect of variations in sample thickness, powder size distribution and layer thickness were measured with three different techniques, both for direct measurement and comparison of the techniques. Ra-values in the range of 15 µm – 37 µm were obtained and varied depending on measurement technique. However, independent of technique, Ra values were found to be dependent on powder size distribution, build layer thickness, and wall thickness. Analytical transmission electron microscopy of cross sections prepared by focused ion beam milling revealed that the outermost surfaces consisted of an oxide layer of 5 nm -6 nm thickness.

Metal powder bed additive manufacturing technologies, such as the Electron Beam Melting process, facilitate a high degree of geometric flexibility and have been demonstrated as useful production techniques for metallic parts. However, the EBM process is typically associated with lower resolutions and higher surface roughness compared to similar laser-based powder bed metal processes. In part, this difference is related to the larger powder size distribution and thicker layers normally use As part of an effort to improve the resolution and surface roughness of EBM fabricated components, this study investigates the feasibility of fabricating components with a smaller powder size fraction and layer thickness (similar to laser based processes). The surface morphology, microstructure and tensile properties of the produced samples were evaluated. The findings indicate that microstructure is dependent on wall-thickness and that, for thin walled structures, tensile properties can become dominated by variations in surface roughness.