Apple confirms laser-based Additive Manufacturing of titanium Apple Watch cases
Apple officially announced that it was using metal Additive Manufacturing in its Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and the new iPhone Air in early September. This was the first time the company had confirmed the use of metal AM; however, at the time, it did not confirm which particular AM process, or processes, it had adopted.
Apple has now confirmed the use of a laser beam powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing technology for producing the watch cases.
The company discussed the thought behind its adoption of Additive Manufacturing in a recent post on its site. Apple stated, “It started with a pie-in-the-sky idea: What if 3D printing – historically used to create prototypes – could be leveraged to produce millions of identical enclosures to Apple’s exact design standards, with high-quality recycled metal?”
“It wasn’t just an idea – it was an idea that wanted to become a reality,” continued Kate Bergeron, Apple’s vice president of Product Design. “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.”
All Apple Watch Ultra 3 and titanium Apple Watch Series 11 cases are additively manufactured with 100% recycled aerospace-grade titanium powder. “Every team at Apple rallied behind a shared ambition. The polished mirror finish on Series 11 had to be pristine. Ultra 3 had to maintain its durability and lightweight form to meet the demands of everyday adventurers. They both also had to be better for the planet without compromising performance, and use the same or better-quality materials.”
“At Apple, every team holds environment as a core value,” says Sarah Chandler, Apple’s vice president of Environment and Supply Chain Innovation. “We knew 3D-printing was a technology with so much potential for material efficiency, which is critical for getting to Apple 2030.”
Apple 2030 is the company’s goal to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by the end of this decade, which includes the manufacturing supply chain and lifetime use of its products. Already, all of the electricity used to manufacture Apple Watch comes from renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
Using Additive Manufacturing enables Apple to produce the components as close to the final shape as possible. Historically, machining forged parts is subtractive, requiring large portions of material to be removed. This shift enables Ultra 3 and titanium cases of Series 11 to use just half the raw material compared to their previous generations.
“A 50% drop is a massive achievement – you’re getting two watches out of the same amount of material used for one,” Chandler added. “When you start mapping that back, the savings to the planet are tremendous.”
In total, Apple estimates more than 400 metric tons of raw titanium will be saved this year alone thanks to this new process.
Over the past decade, Apple reports it has been experimenting with AM, while the industry itself was starting to take off. “We’ve watched this technology mature for a long time and seen its prototypes become more representative of our designs,” says Dr J Manjunathaiah, Apple’s senior director of Manufacturing Design for Apple Watch and Vision. “Using less material to make our products has always been the intention. Previously, we hadn’t been able to make cosmetic parts at scale with 3D printing. So we started to experiment with 3D-printing metal to make cosmetic parts.”
Additive Manufacturing machines
Unsurprisingly, Apple did not identify who is producing the AM parts. However, it did say that each AM machine features a galvanometer that houses six lasers, all working simultaneously to build layer after layer – over 900 times – to complete a single watch case.
Regarding the titanium used, it stated, “The powder had to be 50 microns in diameter, which is like very fine sand,” Manjunathaiah explained. “When you hit it with a laser, it behaves differently if it has oxygen versus not. So we had to figure out how to keep the oxygen content low.”
“Dialing in that thickness so that each layer is exactly 60 microns means very finely squeegeeing this powder,” Bergeron added. “We have to go as fast as we possibly can to make this scalable, while going as slow as we possibly can to be precise. This allowed us to be efficient, while still hitting the goals of the design.”
Once removed from the build plate, an automated optical inspection system is used to measure each watch case, checking that its dimensions and cosmetics are accurate. This is the final quality check to ensure the enclosures are ready for final processing.
“The mechanical engineers have to be the most skilled puzzle solvers in the entire world,” Bergeron continued. “They take the circuit board, the display, the battery – all of the things that go inside the case during final assembly – and make them fit. We test along the way to make sure the watch is functional; then add software and run it for a period of time to check that all the functionality meets our requirements.”
AM Design advantage
Another key design enhancement that AM unlocked is the addition of textures in locations that were historically inaccessible in the forging process. For the Apple Watch, this meant being able to improve the waterproofing process for the antenna housing in cellular models. Within the case, cellular models have a split filled with plastic to enable antenna functionality, and including a specific texture on the inner surface of the metal enabled Apple to achieve better bonding between plastic and metal.
The design flexibility also unlocked another benefit for the USB-C port on the new iPhone Air. By creating an entirely new port with a titanium enclosure that is additively manufactured with the same recycled titanium powder, Apple was able to make it incredibly thin yet durable.
“We’re extraordinarily committed to systems change,” added Chandler. “We’re never doing something just to do it once – we’re doing it so it becomes the way the whole system then works. Our North Star has always been to design products that are better for people and planet. When we come together to innovate without compromise across design, manufacturing, and our environmental goals, the benefits are exponentially greater than we could ever imagine.”
Read more about Apples use of Additive Manufacturing here.
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