How 3D printing could make better cooling systems

“Heat exchangers are at the center of the industrial economy. They’re an essential part of every machine and every system that moves energy,” says William King, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and one of the authors of the new study. Existing designs tend to favor straight lines, right angles, and round tubes, he adds. King and his colleagues used 3D printing to design a heat exchanger that includes features to optimize heat movement, like wavy walls and pyramid-shaped bumps, which wouldn’t be possible to make using traditional manufacturing techniques. The team had set out to design a system based on a common refrigerant called R-134a, which is commonly used in devices like air conditioners and refrigerators. When cold water lowers the temperature of the refrigerant, it changes from a gas to a liquid on its path through the device. That liquid refrigerant can then go on to other parts of the cooling system, where it’s used to lower the temperature of anyth ... Read full article.