Additive Heat Exchanger Components With Sacrificial Channel Formation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The fabrication of conventional heat exchangers is expensive, time-consuming, and prone to failures due to harsh environments and challenges in joining dissimilar materials, leading to potential leaks and downtime in industrial processes.
Innovation Solution
The use of additive manufacturing methods, such as laser engineering net shaping and selective laser sintering, to form heat exchanger components by introducing a matrix material and a sacrificial material, selectively exposing them to energy to form bonds and remove the sacrificial material to create channels, allowing for the formation of complex geometries and reducing weaknesses at joints.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional joining methods (welding, diffusion bonding, brazing) are used to assemble heat exchanger components, then the heat exchanger can be manufactured with separate components, but the joints are prone to failure under harsh conditions leading to leaks and downtime
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate components (tubes, plates, baffles, tubesheets) into a single monolithic structure formed by additive manufacturing. This eliminates all joints and connections between components, thereby eliminating the reliability issues associated with welding, diffusion bonding, or brazing while still allowing the heat exchanger to be manufactured with complex internal geometries and multiple functional elements.
2Reliability
If additive manufacturing is used to form heat exchanger components, then complex geometries can be created without joining operations, but the process requires new manufacturing techniques and equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical joining systems (welding equipment, diffusion bonding apparatus, brazing furnaces) with an additive manufacturing system that uses controlled deposition and bonding of material layers. This substitution eliminates the need for separate joining operations while creating monolithic structures with complex internal geometries that would be impossible to achieve with conventional manufacturing and assembly methods.
3Productivity
If conventional manufacturing methods are used, then standard production processes can be employed, but machining and assembly are time-consuming and difficult for complex geometries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by creating the entire heat exchanger structure, including all internal channels, passages, and geometric features, during the additive manufacturing process itself. This eliminates the need for subsequent time-consuming machining and assembly operations that would be required for conventional manufacturing, particularly for complex geometries that would be difficult or impossible to machine after fabrication.
4Strength
If diffusion bonding is used under high pressure and temperature, then components can be bonded together, but maintaining precise nominal diameter throughout channels and tubes is challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the channel and tube structures directly into the monolithic body during additive manufacturing, eliminating the need for separate diffusion bonding operations. This direct formation process allows precise control of channel and tube diameters throughout the structure, maintaining consistency without the dimensional variations that occur when components are bonded together under high pressure and temperature.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces the likelihood of failure, facilitates the use of modular heat exchangers, and enables the formation of heat exchangers with tailored heat removal capacities, improving efficiency and reducing production downtime by eliminating the need for welding and diffusion bonding.
Implementation Method 1
selectively exposing at least the first portion to focused energy to form bonds between particles of the matrix material
Implementation Method 2
selectively exposing the additional feed material to focused energy to form a second thickness of the structure
Data Source
AI summary
A method of forming at least a component of a heat exchanger comprises introducing a feed material comprising a first portion including a matrix material and a second portion including a sacrificial material on a surface of a substrate, exposing at least the first portion to energy to form bonds between particles of the matrix material and form a first thickness of a structure, introducing additional feed material comprising the first portion over the first thickness of the structure, exposing the additional feed material to energy to form a second thickness of the structure, and removing the sacrificial material from the structure to form at least one channel in the structure. Related heat exchangers and components, and related methods are disclosed.