Apple has announced that, this year, all Apple Watch Ultra 3 and titanium Apple Watch Series 11 cases are 3D-printed with 100% recycled aerospace-grade titanium powder, an achievement not previously considered possible at scale.
“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 ambitious 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, Chandler says.
Using the additive process of 3D printing, layer after layer gets printed until an object is as close to the final shape needed as possible. Historically, machining forged parts is subtractive, requiring large portions of material to be shaved off. 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 explains. “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.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
