Processes for additively manufacturing orthopedic implants

A process for producing a metal orthopedic implant, the process comprising:

• vertically additively building a metal orthopedic implant comprising an alloy of titanium, aluminum and vanadium and having macro-scale structures, wherein the metal orthopedic implant comprises an anterior side, a posterior side, a top side, a bottom side, and an aperture formed through one or more of the anterior side, the posterior side, the top side or the bottom side,
• the posterior side and the anterior side are external non-bone contacting surfaces, the bottom side and the top side are external bone contacting surfaces and the aperture is surrounded by at least one internal surface of the metal orthopedic implant, and vertically additively building comprises producing layers from the anterior side to the posterior side or from the posterior side to the anterior side such that the top side and the bottom side result from one or more edges of the layers and metal grains are aligned in a direction resulting in a greater number of grain boundaries present on the top side or the bottom side, and,
• in any order, stress-relieving the metal orthopedic implant or heating the metal orthopedic implant and compressing the heated metal orthopedic implant with hot isostatic pressure or hot uniaxial pressure,
• mechanically eroding one or more external bone contacting surfaces and the at least one internal surface surrounding the aperture of the metal orthopedic implant to impart micro-scale structures into the one or more external bone contacting surfaces and the at least one internal surface of the metal orthopedic implant, and
• chemically eroding one or more external bone contacting surfaces and the at least one internal surface of the metal orthopedic implant to impart nano-scale structures into the one or more external bone contacting surfaces and the at least one internal surface of the metal orthopedic implant.