Additively Manufactured Heat Pipes

The majority of metal 3D printing machines use low thermal conductivity raw materials such as titanium alloys, cobalt chrome alloys and steel alloys. Thus any parts built will have limited heat transfer capabilities unless action is taken to deliberately enhance this characteristic. One such action is to embed heat pipes into the part as it is being built. This talk introduces a number of additively manufactured heat pipes designs and compares their performance to off-the-shelf units.