Titanium MIM Watch Case

Introduction of titanium injection molding watch case parts

Product Introduction

1. Implementation standards: the company strictly implements ISO9001, ISO14001, IATF16949 certification

The products have passed the certification of ROHS, FDA EU, etc.

2. Titanium MIM Pistol Trigger material standard: ISO, GB, ASTM, SAE, EN, DIN, BS, AMS, JIS, ASME, DMS, TOCT, GB

3. Main process: metal injection molding MIM, powder metallurgy PM, investment casting, die-casting aluminum

4. Available materials for powder metallurgy:

Copper alloys, iron bases, titanium alloys, stainless steel bases, aluminum alloys, nickel alloys, cobalt alloys, tungsten alloys, cemented carbides, hydroxy alloys, soft magnetic materials and 3D printing can be customized according to customer requirements.

Product Feature

1. Titanium watches are quite comfortable to wear because they are surprisingly light;

2. Titanium is hypoallergenic, it does not contain nickel, the Titanium MIM Watch Case is comfortable to wear even when the skin is sweaty;

3. Because titanium is harder than steel, titanium watches are more durable;

4. The characteristics of corrosion resistance make titanium metal especially suitable for diving watches;

Qinhuangdao Zhongwei Precision Machinery Co., Ltd. is a collection of copper alloy metal injection molding, iron-based metal injection molding, stainless steel-based metal injection molding, aluminum alloy metal injection molding, nickel alloy metal injection molding, cobalt alloy metal injection molding, tungsten alloy metal injection molding A comprehensive high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production and sales of injection molding, cemented carbide metal injection molding, and powder metallurgy structural parts.

MIM Development Status of Titanium and Titanium Alloys

Titanium injection molding technology began in 1988 and was used in the mid-1990s. At present, pure titanium powder, Ti-6Al-4V, TiAl, Ti-Mo-Al and some other titanium-based material powders have been successfully manufactured by injection molding. Qinhuangdao Zhongwei Precision cooperated with Central South University to conduct research and application of titanium metal in 2000. Now it has been mass-produced and operated. The current product MIM titanium products have been used in golf heads, automatic cars, medical machinery, dental implants and watches. It has been applied in luxury goods such as shells, straps and buckles. Titanium MIM molding has the characteristics of easy control of alloy composition, high utilization rate of raw materials, simple production process and high production efficiency.

Figure Titanium alloy metal injection molding MIM for precision manufacturing

MIM Development of Titanium and Titanium Alloys

There are:

The high price of low-oxygen spherical titanium powder and oxygen pollution make nano-scale titanium powder difficult to obtain;

Binder selection and removal process, EBS wax is the most practical at present, but it needs vacuum or argon environment to remove, and the cost is high;

Removal of interstitial elements, etc.

The preparation of low-oxygen and low-cost fine-grained spherical titanium powder is the main direction of titanium and titanium alloy powder development. Among them, the titanium powder prepared by gas atomization technology has small particle size, high sphericity, low oxygen content, and has the ability of large-scale production and low cost. It is the main method for producing high-performance spherical titanium and alloy powders. At the same time, developing new and efficient binder systems for titanium alloy MIM, optimizing mixing, degreasing, sintering processes and injection parameters are the keys to preparing low-cost, high-performance titanium alloy injection-molded parts.

In recent years, with the rise of outdoor sports, sports smart watches have become more and more popular. Major smartwatch manufacturers not only innovate the sports functions of smartwatches, but also experiment with watch materials. Titanium and titanium alloys are favored by the smartwatch industry for their light weight, high strength, corrosion resistance, hypoallergy, and beautiful appearance.

Omega Seamaster has launched a variety of diving watches made of titanium metal, and the dual achievements in water resistance and corrosion resistance also prove that the application of titanium metal in waterproof watches is a great success.

With the further in-depth research on titanium, there may be more and more watch brands that will launch titanium watches in the future. As for whether it can replace steel and become the first choice for watch materials, it is unknown.

The global watch industry has annual sales of 15 billion US dollars, and metal powder injection molding has been closely involved in the production of many new watches. Powder injection moulded bracelets, clasps and watch holders are produced worldwide. Qinhuangdao Zhongwei Precision Machinery Co., Ltd. can produce titanium alloy metal injection molding MIM, tungsten alloy metal injection molding, 17-4 stainless steel, 304 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel and other materials, and can also be customized according to the materials provided by customers.

Application of traditional stainless steel materials

At first, due to the saturation of this field and the reduction of manufacturing costs of traditional forging processes, the rapid growth rate of metal powder injection molded parts was once slowed down in the traditional watch industry. However, with the popularity of smart wear and the complexity of watch structure, the application of powder injection molding in watch parts has grown rapidly.

316 Stainless Steel Metal Injection Molded Watch Case

3. Traditional metal wearable devices are generally manufactured by mechanical processing methods, which are expensive. In today's information society, simple and various information interaction devices are flooding people's daily lives, and materials suitable for wearable devices that are easy to process and have excellent performance are currently required.

4. The wearable device is produced by injection molding method, which can meet the needs of its mass production. The production cost that can be achieved by the injection molding method is about 1/10 to 1/100 of the traditional machining method. Moreover, for 3c parts with complex structures, traditional machining methods and cnc technology cannot achieve large-scale production in a short period of time, and most of the complex structural parts cannot be processed by these traditional methods.

5. However, when some traditional materials such as 904l, 316l and nitriding sintered traditional 17-4ph steel, nitriding sintered material panacea, etc., are made of injection molding powder sintered parts, often due to various difficulties, the original materials are difficult to produce. Apply directly.

6.904l is a super austenitic steel typically used in Rolex watch cases. As a forging material, its compactness is good, the material density is 8.0g/cm3, the corrosion resistance is good, and the hardness of the sintered material is at the level of hv180. However, as a fully austenitic steel material produced by a sintering method, the surface and volume of the sintered part have many voids and cannot be polished.

7.316l is a widely used corrosion-resistant stainless steel material. 316l powder material, which can be sintered into highly dense sintered parts. However, high-density sintered parts, such as the sintered density greater than 7.94g/cm3 (the theoretical density of 316l is 7.98g/cm3), will always have certain magnetic properties, such as magnetic permeability of 1.02 to 1.05. Non-magnetic materials cannot be used in powder liquid phase. The method of sintering densifies the material. This sintered weak magnetic property uses weak magnets (ferrites) to attract the parts. At the same time, this weak magnetism produces unpredictable signal interference for the operation of today's high-frequency wireless communication equipment, especially in 5g and 6g communication. In this case, device-to-material interference with communication or computing signals will limit the application of the material. Another significant disadvantage of 316l material is that the hardness of sintered low-permeability materials is too low, generally in the range of hv: 120 to 140, the surface is too soft, and it is not easy to polish. Wearable device performance. Therefore, the material of 316l is greatly limited in the mass production and application of wearable device parts.

8.17-4ph, nitriding sintering can be carried out, but the tendency or ability of complete nitriding and austenitization is lower, so the control of nitriding sintering process is relatively complicated, and the sintering conditions are not in place, which often makes the sintered material show certain magnetic properties. Nitrided 17-4ph materials also have low resistance to neutral salt spray corrosion, generally less than 40 hours. The low corrosion resistance makes it difficult to break through the use of 17-4ph nitride materials in wearable devices. During 17-4ph nitriding sintering, the material also exhibits porous properties in the volume, and the polishing effect is general.

9. Panacea is also a kind of nitriding sintered steel. After nitriding and sintering, it reflects the characteristics of non-magnetic and non-nickel. The final hardness hv of the material is 280-320, the yield is 600-750mpa, and the salt spray corrosion resistance is better than that of nitrided sintered 17-4ph steel. However, the hardness of this kind of steel is too high, and the injection sintered parts have a small amount of CNC machining, which is very difficult. The sintered parts of this material have more pores distributed in the volume than the nitrided sintered 17-4ph steel, and the surface polishing value is not great. Therefore, it is difficult for this kind of steel to be applied on a large scale in modern wearable devices.

10. Therefore, develop a non-magnetic, high hardness and relatively easy to process (hv180 ~ 240, reflecting the balance between wear resistance and machinability), dense surface, easy to polish, good corrosion resistance (neutral salt resistance) Fog test is more than 100 hours), and materials with yield strength higher than 316l have practical significance for expanding and promoting the development of 5g information industry.

Application of titanium and titanium alloys in smart watches

1. Garmin

Garmin MARQ with ultra-light titanium bezel, case, bracelet, clasp

Watch Titanium Alloy Body and Strap

Titanium alloy dial

2. Hublot

Big Bang Collection Satin and Polished Titanium Case, Buckle

3.TAG Heuer

Connected Modular Titanium lugs, case

4.Montblan

Figure SUMMIT 2 Titanium case

Advantages of Titanium MIM Process

1. It can realize the mass production of small three-dimensional complex shape parts;

2. The composition is uniform, the structure is fine, and the mechanical properties are excellent;

3. It is easy to add alloying elements to prepare the required materials;

4. It is easy to control the microstructure of the material.

In the injection molding process of powdered titanium alloy, the design of the binder is a core link. It is responsible for the smooth completion of the injection of titanium alloy powder in a fluid state during the entire injection molding process, and can maintain the shape of the green body to the pre-sintering stage plays an important role, but the added binder also becomes the most likely during the entire injection molding process. one of the sources of pollutants. In addition, a higher binder content will reduce the filling amount of the powder, which will not only cause the shape of the green body to collapse after degreasing, resulting in defects such as deformation and cracking, but also increase the sintering shrinkage rate and seriously reduce the dimensional accuracy. Although the content of binder can ensure a high powder filling amount, it is difficult to prepare feedstock with good fluidity, and the injection cannot be completed smoothly, which greatly increases the balance between binder content and powder filling amount. A proxy study of difficulty in the bonding process. It can be seen that although the binder does not determine the final composition of the sintered product, its selection and use will directly affect the subsequent degreasing and sintering processes, thereby affecting the product quality. Therefore, in the research work of metal powder injection molding titanium alloy technology, the focus is on the binder technology, which also grasps the key to the problem.

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Process After Sintering

1. Heat treatment: annealing, carbonization, tempering, quenching, normalizing, surface tempering

2. Processing equipment: CNC, WEDM, lathe, milling machine, drilling machine, grinder, etc.;

3. Surface treatment: anodizing, powder spraying, chrome plating, painting, sandblasting, nickel plating, galvanizing, blackening, polishing, bluing, etc.

Moulds and Inspection Fixtures

1. Mold service life: usually semi-permanent. (except for lost foam)

2. Mold delivery time: 10-25 days, (according to product structure and product size).

3. Tooling and mold maintenance: Zhongwei is responsible for precision parts.

Quality Control

1. Quality control: the defective rate is less than 0.1%.

2. Samples and trial run will be 100% inspected during production and before shipment, sample inspection for mass production according to ISDO standards or customer requirements.

3. Testing equipment: flaw detection, spectrum analyzer, golden image analyzer, three-coordinate measuring machine, hardness testing equipment, tensile testing machine.