Manufacturing beyond line-of-sight: Finishing next-gen heat exchanger features
The evolution of thermal management is pushing component design into geometries that traditional manufacturing was never built to handle. As heat exchangers become denser and more internally complex, the challenge is no longer just how to design them, but how to reliably finish the critical surfaces hidden deep within the part. Addressing these
“ beyond line-of-sight” features is quickly becoming a defining constraint in next-generation manufacturing.
By Kirk Gino Abolafia, Technical Sales & Marketing Manager, Voxel Innovations, Inc
As thermal architectures continue to increase in complexity across aerospace propulsion and high-density semiconductor manufacturing systems, new challenges have come to light on how to efficiently produce these geometries atscale. Traditionally, heat exchanger geometries were intentionally limited: stacked plate heat exchangers or tube-and-fin assemblies were designed with the material removal process in mind. But today( largely enabled with additive manufacturing), new architectures are coming to the forefront with significant improvements to heat transfer efficiency, cost and density( think internal microchannel networks or lattice-based heat exchangers) via improved surface area and flow control. However, these challenging architectures are a double-edged sword, as a new manufacturing constraint has come in its place: many of the most critical surfaces now exist in conventionally inaccessible areas inside the part. In this article, we’ ll explain why heat exchanger features are becoming more“ internal”, the core limitations of conventional manufacturing processes to access non-line-of-sight features, and what postprocessing solutions exist to mitigate these issues such as pulsed electrochemical machining( PECM).
Why thermal architectures are moving internal First, there are a few key reasons why heat exchanger designs are becoming more complex in the first place. There are a few general benefits of these part designs:
• Increased heat transfer surface area: microchannels / lattice structures dramatically increase the available heat transfer surface in a given part;
• Improved flow control: engineers want heat exchangers that can maintain uniform flow distribution or to direct coolants precisely where heat loads occur, providing additional layers of control on the component;
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