HBD highlights metal Additive Manufacturing for custom orthopaedic implants
June 13, 2025
Metal Additive Manufacturing machine maker Shanghai Hanbang United 3D Tech Co., Ltd. (HBD), China, has highlighted its use of metal Additive Manufacturing of complex orthopaedic implants, such as tibial trays and femoral components. By leveraging AM technology, HBD states that it aims to drive a shift in orthopaedic implant production, addressing three long-standing challenges of traditional manufacturing methods:
- High material wastage and costs, with conventional machining achieving only 30-40% material utilisation
- Prolonged delivery cycles, typically spanning 6-8 weeks due to multi-stage milling and post-processing
- Inconsistent product quality stemming from manual polishing and welding, with defect rates as high as 5-8%
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HBD’s Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) technology is now being applied in the manufacture of complex orthopaedic devices such as talar and radial prostheses. Utilising medical-grade TC4 titanium alloy, these implants reportedly offer excellent biocompatibility (meaning they are non-toxic and non-immunogenic). Additionally, the bionic porous lattice structures (with pore sizes ranging from 0.5-1 mm) provide mechanical stability and effective biological integration with the bone.
Using medical-grade TC4 titanium alloy, the talar implant was additively manufactured on the HBD 150 machine in approximately five hours at a 30 μm layer thickness, while the radial prosthesis was fabricated using the HBD 200 machine in nine hours, maintaining the same precision layer thickness.
Both implants are said to demonstrate HBD’s strong capability in the production of complex, patient-specific implants, significantly reducing production time while enhancing product performance. For larger batch production, the HBD 350 and HBD 400 machines reportedly maintain the same level of precision and quality at scale.
In clinical practice, HBD reports that its technology has been applied to complex reconstructive surgeries. In one notable case, HBD collaborated with South China University of Technology and Guangzhou First People’s Hospital to create a patient-specific titanium hip spacer for a developmental hip dysplasia case. By leveraging CT imaging and patient-specific anatomical data, a porous structure tailored to the patient’s bone geometry was produced, ensuring precise fit, promoting bone regeneration, and achieving post-operative symmetry and stability.
