Apple plans new 3D-printed aluminum chassis for iPhone and Apple Watch: report

With the Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple introduced a new 3D-printing manufacturing process for the titanium shell – allowing the company to save on raw materials, improve costs, and use 100% recycled titanium powder. The company also uses 3D printing for the titanium version of the Apple Watch Series 11, and the USB-C port on the iPhone Air.

Now, the company is looking to extend that process to aluminum – allowing more Apple Watch shells to be 3D printed. Further, it could also come to the iPhone, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter.

As we heard last month before the announcement, Apple adopted a new low-cost aluminum production process for the MacBook Neo. This allowed the company to continue to maintain a strong, durable aluminum chassis in its cheapest MacBook, although plastic is often associated with cheap products. Until 2010, Apple even offered a cheap white plastic MacBook.

However, although this new aluminum production process is cheap, it does not use 3D printing. It uses as little metal as possible, and MacBook Neo uses 50% less aluminum than traditional manufacturing processes.

3D printed aluminum is coming to iPhone, Apple Watch

Apple wants to see something similar in future iPhone and Apple Watch models. From Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman:

The company’s design team – and its operations department – are working on ways to 3D print aluminum, which will bring more efficiency to the production of Apple Watch cases and, possibly one day, iPhone covers, I’m told.

Despite cost savings being the primary benefit, 3D printing is not just about cost savings. In the Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple took advantage of the process to improve water resistance:

Another key to improving the design of 3D printing is open: printing textures in places that were historically inaccessible in the manufacturing process. For the Apple Watch, this meant being able to improve the waterproofing process of the antenna housing in the mobile models. In this case, the mobile models have a plastic-filled separation for the antenna to work, and 3D printing some texture on the inner surface of the metal has enabled Apple to get a better union between the plastic and the metal.

The iPhone Air also uses 3D printing, which allows for a thinner USB-C port to be made. Without 3D printing, the iPhone Air would probably be a little thicker.

It’s unclear exactly what consumer-facing benefits a 3D printed aluminum chassis would have, but still, it’s a nice win for the environment. Maybe one day down the road we could see a cheaper iPhone ‘e’ model, closer to $499 compared to the $599 iPhone 17e. Only time will tell.

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