3D Printed Titanium Wire Alloys Promise New Option for Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Processes

Recently, the most popular 3D printing technology is titanium 3D printing technology.

This month, Apple's fall conference declared that some titanium parts, expected to be released in the second half of this year on the Apple Watch Ultra smartwatch, will use 3D printing technology.

Previously in July, in the glory of the latest release of the folding screen cell phone Magic V2, the hinge of the shaft cover part of the first time to use titanium alloy 3D printing process, the width of the material compared to aluminum alloy reduced by 27%, but the strength of the strength is increased by 150%, to achieve a balance of thin and light and reliability. It has become the first large-scale application of 3D printing on cell phones, and the market space of titanium alloy 3D printing technology is expected to further open in the future.

Advantages of 3D printing titanium alloy

With the ever-increasing requirements for thinness and durability of consumer electronics products, as well as the pursuit of design freedom, the material of product components is very critical. Titanium alloy has significant advantages in high strength, light weight, corrosion resistance, etc., and has become the preferred material.

Titanium alloy, although light and hard, but also the objective existence of processing difficulties, the traditional CNC machining process, in the face of the complex structure of the titanium alloy parts processing difficulty, low efficiency, low yield, high cost problems, and 3D printing is molded with hot melt, compared to cutting processing is easier, in the solution to the problem of titanium alloy material molding at the same time, but also has the advantages of a short production cycle, strong customizability and so on.

According to statistics, in the aerospace combustion chamber industry, 3D printing reduces the cost of expenses by 50%; in the denture metal inner crown industry, 3D printing reduces the cost of labor by 70%; in compression grinding, 3D printing reduces the cost of time by 50%.

The future of 3D printing titanium alloy

Although 3D printing technology was born forty years ago, its largest applications to date are still primarily focused on Aerospace Titanium and dentistry (non-price sensitive areas), with other markets growing relatively slowly.

Previously, due to the high cost and surface accuracy and other reasons, 3D printing(Grade 2 Titanium Wire, Grade 23 Titanium Wire) in the downstream application of the penetration rate is low, more focused on some high-end manufacturing, complex manufacturing areas, in the civilian field of application is small.

It is understood that the current stage of the glory folding phone on the titanium alloy shaft cover of the material cost of about 30 yuan, processing costs between 200-300 yuan. In the future, with the 3D printing technology in titanium alloy shaft cover mass production further scale, yield rate is further improved, bringing marginal cost reduction, the price is expected to fall further.

If glory, Apple and other introduction of titanium alloy 3D printing technology, cell phone product shipments go smoothly, it will mean that 3D printing is officially moving towards mass production, I believe that there will be more consumer electronics products to follow the use of 3D printing technology, 3D printing titanium alloy technology is expected to become a new option in the manufacturing process of consumer electronics products.

According to market research organizations, the global titanium alloy 3D market size will grow at an annual rate of 20% in the next few years.

In recent years, from the development of industry development goals, given financial subsidies, included in the key areas, etc., the management continues to introduce a number of 3D printing industry development to play a role in promoting policies to support the development of the industry. In addition, in the policy support and downstream demand, the core components continue to localization, China's 3D printing technology is maturing, and advanced countries in the level of the gap continues to shorten, the future is expected to open up a huge market space.

Review the past 10 years, China's 3D printing industry scale compound growth rate of 41.42%. According to Zuo Shiquan "additive manufacturing ten years of development and outlook" data, China's 3D printing industry scale is expected to exceed 40 billion yuan in 2023, more than 100 billion in 2027. 3D printing is expected to usher in a golden period of development.