Today's Industrial Products and Solutions March 2019 | Page 18

fixturing plates (less than 3”) can be used, freeing One prime example of the additive process of
up space in the furnace and allowing for increased diffusion bonding is for heat exchangers, which are
cycle times due to faster heating of the surfaces to usually made from aluminum. Blend circuit heat
the desired temperatures. exchangers are typically made of stainless steel or
Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
even titanium and titanium alloys.
Today the diffusion bonding process is being used With LOM, the concept is to bond layers of sheet
for a new additive technology called Laminated metal that contain machined micro-channel struc-
object manufacturing (LOM). This has tremendous tures. When combined, the channels can provide
potential applications for conformal cooling. for cooling or heat dissipation. The layers can be
Parts are designed using traditional 3D- CAD mo-
deling programs, then divided into 2 layer sections
that equal the thickness of each sheet of metal.
bonded up to a height of 600mm in the MOV dif-
fusion bonding press retaining the strength as the
parent materials.
The processing time is similar to 3D-printing with Another application related to conformal cooling is
a similar investment cost. However, larger parts, for plastic injection molds made in 2-layer designs
with no restriction in regard to materials, can be of tool steel and material such as stainless steel
produced. (STAVAX).
16 TIPS Magazine • March ‘19