ThermoDust: Next generation heat transfer materials developed for additive manufacturing

Thermal management is in strong need for material innovation. Stunningly, large data centres spend up to 40% of their total energy consumption on cooling. Other areas where innovation is of eminence are electronics cooling and Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMS) of electric vehicles. The ThermoDust project aims to achieve a breakthrough in this direction by joining nanotechnology and process engineering with scalable industrial Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques for the specific purpose of solving thermal control challenges. In this presentation, we are reporting recent progress in relation to the manufacturing of innovative metal-composite powder feedstock materials. We have experimented with copper, AlSi10Mg and Ti6Al4V powders, and attached nano/microscale graphene and hexagonal boron nitride particles to the host particle surface using ball milling. The resulting powders have been analysed using Raman and XRD spectrometry. Moreover, the ability to form bulk shapes has been explored using a range of AM techniques. Initial results relating to cold spray deposition, laser powder bed fusion and binder jetting are currently under investigation and will be presented. Additionally, the tensile properties of agglomerated powder by SPS will be discussed.