At Fabrisonic we are currently spending a lot of time and effort working with heat exchangers.  UAM’s ability to 3D Print heat exchangers is covered in this months issue of JOM, the member journal of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society.  As described in the article, recent studies have shown the ability of UAM to make internal channels that have burst pressures in excess of 3000 PSI for aluminum and in excess of 4000 PSI for copper.  Similarly the high vacuum tests with helium indicate that channels can be built that are 100% hermetic.  Complex three dimensional fluid pathways, that are not achievable with traditional machining, have also been demonstrated with several customers.

The solid-state nature of Fabrisonic’s welding process, allows UAM to readily bond aluminums and coppers. Additionally all SonicLayer machines are based off of traditional 3-Axis CNC mills. Thus, the welding process can be stopped at any point and three dimensional channels can be machined. Subsequently, the additive process continues to build up metal sealing in complex 3D flow paths.  Below are some examples of channels built for 3D printed heat exchangers.

 

3D printed channels of different scales

3D printed channels of different scales


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