Ming Chi-Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, recently reported that – according to his latest survey – Apple is actively adopting 3D printing technology. He therefore expects that 3D printing will be used to make some of titanium mechanical parts for the 2H23 Apple Watch Ultra. Currently, the 3D-printed mechanical parts must still go through CNC processes for the back end. However, he still believes AM can improve production times and lower costs.
Farsoon, BLT, and IPG Photonics are the only suppliers of 3D printing components used to make mechanical parts for Apple Watch Ultra. IPG Photonics has the exclusive supply of lasers. If shipments go well, Kuo believes more Apple products will adopt 3D printing technology, which will help improve production cost and ESG performance in Apple’s supply chain, and the above-mentioned suppliers will also benefit from this new production trend.
The components could include the Digital Crown, Side Button, and Action Button, as these are the only mechanical parts of the Apple Watch Ultra. These are the titanium components that are currently CNC-machined. The new process could reduce production costs and improve production times.
This is a deduction that has not been confirmed, but the news is that Apple is using 3D printing from BLT and Farsoon. There is no confirmation that the company will actually produce the Apple Watch Ultra parts but that is very likely, especially in light of the fact one of its Chinese competitors in the mobile device segment, Honor, just accurately detailed its own – very real and very clear – strategy, to implementing metal AM for mass production of the new Magic V2 foldable smartphone.
According to Siemens VP of Additive Manufacturing Karsten Heuser, who first reported about the Honor project in Western media via a LinkedIn post “The Honor Magic V2, achieves a thickness of just 9.9 mm in its folded state by designing a titanium hinge to be produced with & by 3Dprinting. According to the announcements using AM made it 62% heavier and reduced the number hinge parts from the 92 to only four. Titanium alloys are stronger due to their tailored design compared to traditional machined steel or aluminum parts.
Honor has also stated that 2 out of 4 parts will be 3D printed. The other parts may use 3Dprinted models for a single cast process with a finer structural detail, or they could even 3D print the parts themselves. Hanbang 3D said the hinge and its cover were developed using their technology. There are also other AM companies in China involved.
Heuser finally points out that “While many in the European AM industry still explain that only low volume production would be addressable by AM, these examples clearly show the path towards high volume advanced manufacturing with AM. Especially the European metal L-PBF machine companies, being pioneers in AM, need to be alerted by these developments.”
If the Apple report is true and the Honor project goes through, along with the commercial success of this new smartphone, it will be the beginning of a new age in AM serial production and even mass-production. In this article, we have argued that the key USPs of additive manufacturing are small and large components (alongside complex geometry and subassemblies), because there is no other way to produce them. AM is expected to be increasingly used in the production process of products of the future, simply because it is the only way.
It is something the entire AM sector already knows, and the majority of adopting companies have begun to learn (with medical and aeronautics leading the charge in the West). However, scaling use of AM for serial production – which was hailed as a means to “reshore manufacturing” – is now being led by Asian and especially Chinese companies where manufacturing already happens. Western companies have made big claims but they failed to implement AM-based production strategies aggressively, mainly because they did not invest the necessary funds.
There are exceptions. Companies like OECHSLER, which manufactures polymers, and Oerlikon (which produces metals) are investing heavily in developing effective and efficient AM production lines. Siemens, too, after the announcement of its $1 billion investment in digitalizing manufacturing and implementing manufacturing at their plant in Erlangen. Many space companies (sometimes later than they would have liked) are now aggressively implementing AM. These companies are large, but they cannot do enough.
As market analysts and specialized another major challenge we are seeing in the West is that adopting companies don’t want to openly discuss their AM strategies. There are two/three reasons why companies don’t want to disclose their AM strategies. They want to preserve an imaginary competitive advantage (as they don’t know that AM is available). The second is that they sometimes see AM (or 3D printing) as a hyped-up term that would diminish the value of their products and thus don’t want to be associated with it. Finally, sometimes the larger companies just don’t consider AM and AM media as much as they should. They look for generalist media coverage but generalist media don’t have a sufficient understanding of the complexities AM to be able to treat this topic accurately.
In China this is quite different. While Chinese companies don’t make significant media investments in the West they certainly do so in the domestic market. Once you overcome the language barrier and geographical barriers, many Chinese companies are openly discussing their use of additive manufacture even without making any investments. VoxelMatters’ database is growing as they are willing to share information about sales. Companies like BLT, Farsoon and HBD, along with other AM companies in polymer, metal and ceramics, are ready for scale-up, thanks to Chinese adopters. They have developed their technology rapidly, as has the Chinese smartphone and electric vehicle technology. Both things are actually connected. Will the traditional Western AM market leaders also focus on growing the industry or will they remain confined to small-batch high-value applications and M&A activities?