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PWR Partners with Velo3D to 3D Print High-Performance Aluminum Heat Exchangers

Velo3D aluminum 3D printed parts

PWR Advanced Cooling Technology, a manufacturer of heat exchangers and cooling systems for the automotive and other industries, entered into a collaborative partnership with Velo3D, a producer of additive manufacturing machines and software. Using Velo3D’s Sapphire laser fusion metal printer, the two companies will collaborate on the design of aluminum alloy heat exchangers with thinner and more-complex features and best-in-class surface finishes. The heat exchanger applications will be used for motorsport, battery cell, electronics, aerospace, and automotive cooling.

“Heat exchanger weight and pressure-drop characteristics have a huge impact on performance and are significant factors in all motorsport categories,” said Matthew Bryson, general manager, Engineering for PWR. “Using additive manufacturing to print lightweight structures, enhancing performance with freedom-of-design, we have the ability to further optimize these characteristics to the customer’s requirements whilst providing the necessary cooling. The broad design capabilities and extremely high print accuracy of the Velo3D Sapphire 3D metal printer will help us optimize these various performance attributes.”

The Sapphire system is a laser powder bed fusion printer designed for high volume manufacturing. The system features in-situ metrology sensors that reduce variances between builds, parts, and machines for part consistency. The economic benefits include production revenue streams with highly innovative designs, the manufacture of higher volumes of customized parts, and the use additive manufacturing for direct part replacement.

“PWR chose Velo3D after extensive testing,” said Bryson. “The Velo3D Sapphire printer demonstrated the ability to produce class-leading thin-wall capabilities and high-quality surfaces with zero porosity. VELO3D and PWR share a passion for pushing the limits of technology to deliver truly disruptive, class-leading, products. We are a natural fit and look forward to building a strong partnership going forward.”

Based in Australia, the U.S., and the U.K., PWR is a globally renowned supplier of heat exchanger and cooling solutions for NASCAR and other racing vehicles, as well as the custom-automotive OEM, military, and aerospace industries. The company hopes that its collaboration with Velo3D will set a new standard in heat-transfer parts for racing and industrial cooling applications. PWR will have the first production-scale Sapphire machine in the Asia Pacific region.

“Our expanding relationship with PWR will be one of innovation and new performance benchmarks in heat exchangers,” says Benny Buller, founder and CEO of Velo3D. “PWR’s history of high quality products, world-class design and testing, and customer success in the grueling environments of motorsport, make our joint endeavor an especially exciting one. We created Velo3D to help industrial end-users of 3D metal printing truly realize geometric freedom We know that our technology can help PWR meet new and evolving design goals in ultra-thin-wall cooling structures.”

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