A pie-in-the-sky idea has led Apple to creating a new manufacturing process for the Apple Watch. Using recycled aerospace-grade titanium powder, Apple uses 3D printers on an industrial scale to make the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and titanium Apple Watch Series 11 cases.
Apple’s vice president of Product Design, Kate Bergeron says “Once we asked the question, we immediately started testing it. We had to prove, with continuous prototyping, process optimisation and a tremendous amount of data gathering, that this technology was capable of meeting the high standard of quality we demand.”
Apple 2030 is the company’s ambitious goal to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. Already, all of the electricity used to manufacture Apple Watch comes from renewable energy sources like wind and solar. The shift to using 3D printing and recycled materials further extends the company’s move towards this target.
3D printing the future
The company used an additive 3D process. The process builds an object layer after layer until it reaches the final shape. Traditionally, this involved machining away a solid piece of titanium to achieve the desired form. This new process means making each watch case uses half as much material. Effectively, Apple gets a two-for-one deal on the materials.
Apple will save more than 400 metric tons of raw titanium this year alone thanks to this new process.
The journey to 3D printing these cases has taken several years. It started with a series of demos and proofs of concept to fine-tune the recipe. Engineers tested everything from the specific alloy composition to the printing process. They previously tested this process on a much smaller scale in previous product generations. This gave the team confidence in its ability to solve for the challenges of working with titanium.
“We always try to take those incremental steps to allow us to take the next step,” says Bergeron. “This has now opened up the opportunity for even more design flexibility than what we had before. Now that we’ve achieved this breakthrough at scale, in a truly sustainable way, and at the cosmetic and structural level that we need, the possibilities are endless.”
A similar process is used to make the iPhone Air’s USB-C port enclosure.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.