Following the pioneering work on metal vapor vacuum arc (MEVVA) ion sources at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory by Brown and co‐workers, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (Ansto) commenced a program of research aimed at constructing a MEVVA based ion implanter. This phase of the program has been completed and the system is now in routine use for surface modification studies. The purpose of the present article is to give an overview of the Ansto implanter with particular reference to those features, such as triggering reliability, which entailed some developmental work. Finally, current ion implantation research activities on this system are briefly described.