ETA Watch Case MIM Metal Parts Projects

Project Development Time: March 2019

Industry:  Watches，Consumer Goods

Material used: Stainless Steel

Qty: 50,000pcs mim parts

Benefit: Cost Saving, Improved Performance

Case background

ETA is the world's largest manufacturer of complete and semi-finished watch movements. Its history can be traced back to the late 18th century, and later ETA became a movement factory under the Swatch Group.

ETA turned to metal injection moulding for its range of SWATCH-IRONY watch cases because of cost savings compared with hot forming. ETA paid particular attention to health and safety issues, such as nickel allergy through release of nickel, when selecting the stainless steel material for the watch case.

Solution

Composition: The cases, which follow the same basic design as the plastic SWATCH, are made in 316L stainless steel using a BASF moulding binder. Tolerances are generally ±0.05 mm, but must be maintained at ±0.025mm for the case holes. The cases are polished to provide a mirror finish.

Component Specification

Density (g/cm3): 5.8 and this increases to 7.95 after sintering