TruPrint 5000 Green Edition

As part of the CERN-coordinated *project I.FAST (Innovation Fostering in Accelerator Science and Technology), the TruPrint 5000 Green Edition was used to print a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ). The particle accelerator is additively manufactured from pure copper. Conventionally, the component is laboriously milled, soldered and heat-treated in several steps to ensure distortion-free manufacture.

*This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 101004730.

Additive manufacturing offers a wide range of advantages in the development of electric motors: The design of copper windings is improved, making it possible to increase the copper fill factor. Busbars or power rails can be integrated for reduced connections. By cooling the housing, the eDrive performance increases significantly.

The gas cooler from Modell- und Formenbau Blasius Gerg was additively manufactured from pure copper. The hot gas that is passed through is cooled by water inside the heat exchanger, with the TPMS (Triply Periodic Minimal Surface) structures optimising efficiency and heat transfer.

In the levitation coil shown, a metallic body can be made to levitate and melt in an electromagnetic field. The seamless 3D printing of the component reduces joining and solder joints to prevent leaks in the inner cooling channel. Complex geometry requirements for wall thickness and shape are implemented.

The heat conductivity of the transistor cooler printed from pure copper is identical to that of conventional copper. Improved cooling capacity is achieved thanks to the newly designed and additive-optimised geometry. The redesign also enables effective direct assembly.

The TruPrint 5000 Green Edition enables the flexible, economical production of coolers made of highly conductive pure copper. The component has significantly improved cooling due to internal cooling channels that are close to the contour.

The inner cooling channel of the pure copper printed heat exchanger has a very flat attachment point and overhang angle, held only by the structure. The design, aimed at reducing mass, is comprised of the finest structures (0.5 mm) and guarantees a good surface/weight ratio. The material properties are equivalent to conventional copper ETP without the need for heat treatment directly from the machine.

The overall capacity of the component is increased due to the combination of an additive manufacturing-oriented design for support-free construction and geometry optimised for cooling performance, combined with the high thermal conductivity of the material equal to that of conventional pure copper. A very thin wall (0.4 - 0.5 mm) to the semi-conductor connection area also improves heat dissipation.

Conventionally, copper inductors consist of several segments that are bent or milled and soldered together. By way of 3D printing from pure copper, these can now be manufactured in one piece without soldering or other weak points. You benefit from a degree of design freedom for optimising the inductor efficiency and its energy consumption.

Designed by: SMS Elotherm GmbH.

The pure copper heat exchanger ETP (CW004A) not only has the task of extracting the heat from a medium. It is also a liquid mixer with two separate inlets at the bottom that are mixed through several thin channels (1 mm inner diameter) into an outlet at the top of the part. The component has a conductivity of 101% IACS, 394 W/(m*K) heat conductivity and a part density of 99.9%.