The titanium 3D-printed flute: New prospects of additive manufacturing for musical wind instruments design

Titanium additive manufacturing (Ti-AM) is currently used for customized parts in medicine, aviation, and aerospace. The combination of superior mechanical and physical properties of titanium alloys, together with lightweight properties, seemed to be attractive also for other, large-scale consumer fields. However, the list of successful Ti-AM applications is still limited. Furthermore, in some areas where the potential of Ti-AM can be considered as especially valuable, no attempts had been found to use it. One such promising area is wind musical instruments. The current case study focused on the design and 3D-printing of titanium flute.