Apple announces a major new manufacturing milestone with its Apple Watch Ultra3 titanium. Apple Watch Series 11 cases are manufactured using 3D printed enclosures. What’s more, they are made from 100% re-cycled aerospace-grade titanium powder, according to the article linked below from australianmanufacturing.com.au
Apple claim it as the first time this approach has been used in full-scale production. So what difference does this process actually make?
The difference from a conventional manufacturing process is that it requires half the raw material previously required.
This 50% reduction equates to around more than 400 metric tonnes in raw titanium that will be saved this year alone.
Not only this, the technology also enhances durability, performance and component design – including new textures not achievable when using traditional forging.
This step, is intended to pioneer a system-wide change – so it becomes integrated across the product range.
This has already migrated to be incorporated into the manufacturing possibilities for the titanium USB-C port enclosure on the new iphone Air. This uses the same recycled titanium powder and 3D-printing process. Apple will look to extend this adoption even further. See the article in full here.