**7.1 Materials**

In the biomedical field, lots of efforts are being made in order to develop new materials and/or improve material properties (metals and polymers) for biomedical applications. Also, the evolution of manufacturing processes, Coatings and Surface Implant Modification are remarkable areas of work.

Nowadays, metals are the best option for long time load-bearing prostheses. For this reason, the development of new metallic biomaterials for long-term prostheses and adequate the manufacturing processes in order to achieve best possible properties is a matter of great interest.

In particular, Titanium alloys are very interesting for research due to its excellent properties such as high corrosion resistance, low modulus, high fatigue strength, low density (lower than most common metallic materials), good mechanical properties, etc. There are two relevant areas under development:


Although for the time being these alloys are not commercially available for EBM technology there are many efforts to adjust the processing parameters (AIMME, 2011).
