Callaway Golf is putting $15 million into a new titanium 3D printing facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Carlsbad, California, club maker will use the plant to expand advanced titanium research and manufacturing. The new capacity is for complex titanium designs and structures that conventional tooling cannot make. Callaway plans to manufacture custom titanium products there for a portion of its U.S. needs rather than leaving the work as one-off prototypes.
The project sits next to Callaway’s North America Distribution Center in Fort Worth’s AllianceTexas area. It is expected to become operational in mid-2027. Support for a portion of U.S. product needs is planned for 2028, with the first work focused on custom titanium products.
The Fort Worth investment builds on about seven years of additive manufacturing research inside Callaway. Since late 2022, Callaway has produced prototypes and custom models in-house and developed specialized expertise in titanium 3D printing.
Chip Brewer, President and CEO of Callaway Golf Company, linked the Fort Worth spending to how far printed metal can push club performance. “We believe 3D printing represents one of the most significant opportunities to advance golf club performance in decades, and we’re investing to lead that future,” he said.
An earlier GE Additive collaboration focused on how a putter sounded. In 2018 Callaway signed a consultancy agreement with GE Additive’s AddWorks team, and the first project was a redesigned Odyssey R-Ball Prototype putter head. The putter had begun as a tour-preferred model in Japan with an acoustic signature tuned to that market. Callaway’s goal, according to the GE Additive release, was to change that sound while keeping the preferred shape and performance.
The teams used additive design, including topology optimization with acoustical mapping, to add geometry that conventional casting struggled to deliver. They also refined the build direction so features were self-supported or easily supported during the print. The head was printed in 17-4PH stainless steel on a Concept Laser M2.
AddWorks also advised Callaway on processes, materials selection, parameters, and testing protocols, and helped identify other parts that might suit additive production later. Details of that project are in the November 15, 2018 GE Additive release (GEADPR014).
Source: Callaway Golf Company.
