Due to its good thermal conductivity, copper is often used to make heat dissipation and cooling components. 3D printing can improve the efficiency of heat dissipation and cooling parts due to the realization of complex geometric shapes. Therefore, 3D printed copper cooling parts would theoretically be very efficient.

But copper is a difficult material to 3D print because of its high reflectivity and thermal conductivity. However, with the advancement of 3D printing technology, there are now several 3D printing processes that can be well used for 3D printing using copper. At the 3D printing exhibition Formnext in 2021, Alloyed showed a 3D printed copper cooling plate.

In order to give full play to the role of 3D printing, Alloyed has developed a set of advanced product design software, which can not only design parts with complex geometric structures, but also select the most suitable 3D printing process and alloy materials through algorithms. This enables faster and more economical delivery of better functioning parts for a variety of applications

It is understood that this cooling plate is specially used in data centers and is a liquid cooling system, due to its complex geometry, it has better performance in terms of heat exchange and liquid pressure drop, and the cooling efficiency is also higher. Moreover, the 3D printed one-piece structure reduces assembly requirements and is easier to maintain.

At present, in addition to technological improvements, material manufacturers are also researching new types of copper powder to adapt to the current mainstream SLM 3D printers.