To improve the bioactivity of Ti6Al4V alloy, an innovative cladding method has been developed to bond a Ti/fluorapatite (FA) composite onto the alloy for load-bearing applications. With the aid of a silver interlayer and external pressure during sintering, a defect-free interface between the composite and the substrate was obtained. The fabricated materials were bioactive and could induce the nucleation and formation of bone-like carbonated apatite after immersed in the simulated body fluid (SBF). Functional ions, such as Ag+ and F, were released from the materials during immersion, which could impart favourable activities for the implant. This work demonstrated that a simple and novel method could be applied to enhance functionalities of Ti alloys for load-bearing implant applications. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.