UK Manufactured 3D Printed Sintered Wick Heat Pipes for Embedded Solutions

该项目将评估开发3D打印烧结芯热管坚固型嵌入式热框架的商业可行性。该项目中评估性能的基本单元将是模块化VPX VITA 48.2传导冷却热框架。之所以选择这种外形尺寸，是因为它在机械方面受到VITA标准的高度限制，并且代表了目前市场上坚固的国防部门的大量产品。作为该项目一部分开发的解决方案可以在更大的模块上复制，或者为同一行业开发坚固的机箱。集成热管对于坚固的市场来说并不是一项新技术，然而，开发人员可能一直在努力正确地实现它们，从而导致考虑到它们的成熟度，采用率低于预期。常见的问题包括集成和装配差，或供应商的管道质量差。通过将芯结构集成到单个印刷单元中，这些挑战完全从单元中消除，并将允许更多的开发人员在其产品中使用和实施这些技术。此外，热管供应链，几乎普遍起源于远东，由于该地区的政治紧张局势，该公司正受到国防计划的严格审查。对于这些低容量市场，替代供应链成本高得令人望而却步，这阻碍了热管技术在产品中的广泛应用。集成热管模块的体积小，芯几何形状复杂，有助于开发增材制造的替代品。通过该项目的结束，熵打算表明增材制造的烧结芯模块在坚固的电子模块中具有性能和成本优势，优于传统制造的同类产品。Entropy将有明确的步骤来实现这些产品的商业化，并将评估进一步的资金，包括商业合作伙伴关系，以达到生产准备水平。

This project will evaluate the commercial viability of developing a 3D printed sintered wick heat pipe rugged embedded heat frame.The base unit for evaluating performance in this project will be a modular VPX VITA 48.2 conduction cooled heat frame. This form factor has been selected as it is highly mechanically constrained by the VITA standards and represents a large number of products in the rugged Defence sectors currently on the market.It is intended that solutions developed as part of this project can be replicated on larger modules, or rugged chassis developments for the same industry.Integrated heat pipes are not a new technology for the rugged market, however may developers have struggled to correctly implement them resulting in lower uptake than should be expected considering their maturity. Common problems include poor integration and assembly, or poor pipe quality from supplier.By incorporating the wick structure into a single printed unit, these challenges are removed entirely from the unit and will allow more developer to use and implement these techniques in their products.Additionally, heat pipe supply chains, which almost universally originate in the Far East, are under severe scrutiny from Defence program engagement due to political tensions in the area. For these low volume markets, alternative supply chain costings are prohibitively high which discourages wider implementation of heat pipe technology in products. The low volume, and wick geometry complexity of integrated heat pipe modules lends itself to the development of an additively manufactured alternative.By close of this project, Entropy intend to show that additively manufacture sintered wick modules have both a performance and cost benefit in rugged electronics modules over their traditionally manufactures counterparts. Entropy will have clear steps to commercialisation of these products, and will evaluate further funding including commercial partnership to progress to production ready levels.