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ManageMent
www.us-tech.com Laser Focused on Additive Manufacturing Cooling Process By Greg Rankin
Persistence Market Research, the sector is currently on pace to grow by more than 22% this year and is expected to double in size by 2028, exceeding $15 billion. Traditionally AM, also re-
A
ferred to as 3D printing, consist- ed of turning plastic resins into prototypes and low-volume parts. Now, the industry is ex- panding to include a growing list of metals that can be processed on sophisticated 3D printers. However, along with these ad- vances comes a new challenge: managing excessive heat loads. Utilizing plastics in additive
manufacturing requires relative- ly low temperatures, often under 300 degrees Celsius. With metal, however, the print media can reach temperatures ranging from 1,100-1,400 degrees C. To mitigate the heat, cooling towers are increasingly being employed to cool the process water down. This is exactly the challenge
that the GE Aerospace additive manufacturing facility in West Chester, Ohio, recently encoun- tered. “The aviation company was working on a state-of-the-art approach to manufacture metal aircraft parts utilizing laser 3D printers,” says Steve Coppock, Consulting Engineer at Armour & Associates. The Ohio-based company provides for the design,
dditive Manufacturing (AM) is booming. Accord- ing to a recent report from
installation, and commissioning of both HVAC and processing cooling systems. “The engineer- ing firm brought us in to help with the cooling system that was required to chill the water used in the processing of these parts.”
Hydrodynamics From lightweight designs,
rapid prototyping, and now in- creasingly used for low to medi- um-volume components, AM is still in a fledgling state with an incredible amount of untapped potential. At the GE Aerospace facili-
ty, which has been the focus of important R&D work for the company, the laser printers are utilized for components that re- quire complex geometries or ex- ceptional precision. While lasers themselves are not hot, the heat produced when the photons come in contact with metals can be sig- nificant. “The facility was looking for a
cooling tower that would provide some longevity and would not re- quire a lot of maintenance or re- pairs,” explains Coppock. “We had been having a lot of success with cooling towers made out of engi- neered plastic and recommended them for this application.” Made of high-density poly-
ethylene (HDPE), engineered plastic cooling towers are corro- sion-proof, offer exceptional durability, require significantly
less maintenance, as well as an easier and quicker installation. The first tower at the GE
Aerospace facility was installed in late 2022 and after a success- ful debut, a second tower was added a year later to increase production. “The Delta Cooling towers
have been a good fit for this facil- ity, and with the 20-year warran- ty they are covered for the next two decades,” says Coppock. Delta Cooling Towers pio-
neered the engineered plastic cooling tower design in the 1970s. The seamless one-piece shell has no joints, seams, panels, gaskets, bolts, fasteners or caulking like conventional towers. The models selected were the Paragon series which each have a cooling capaci- ty of 250 tons.
Increase in altitude Another issue for any end
user looking to add or replace a cooling tower system is the po- tential noise it generates. At the GE Aerospace plant, the towers are between two buildings which could have created a significant echo reverberating throughout the industrial park. To combat the issue of noise,
the engineering firm decided it would be best to elevate the tow- ers so that they sit closer to the roofline of the buildings. “The towers look great sitting up on those platforms, but in
hindsight, we may not have even needed to raise them up above ground level because they run whisper quiet,” explains Coppock. “When you’re standing there, lit- erally, the only thing you hear is the water running through.” The towers also came with variable frequency drives (VFD)
From lightweight designs, rapid prototyping, and now increasingly used for low to medium-volume components, AM is still in a fledgling state with an incredible amount of untapped potential.
which allows the fan speed to vary so that the units do not run at max RPM except when neces- sary. Depending on the applica- tion, this alone can result in sig- nificant energy savings. In fact, an independent report by the New York Power Authority esti- mated almost a 40 percent de- crease in electrical consumption when using the VFDs on Delta’s cooling towers. HDPE cooling towers can
deliver additional cost-saving benefits with a quicker, simpli- fied installation. While getting a typical cooling tower up and run- ning can take several weeks or more, the engineered plastic de- signs are factory assembled, en- abling an installation process that can often be completed in as little as a single day with a smaller crew. “That installation was basi-
cally plug and play,” adds Cop- pock. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s some wiring and piping to do, but nowhere near the scale that it takes to put in a stainless steel, galvanized, or even a fiber- glass tower for that matter.” The savings did not end
there for GE Aerospace. Coppock estimates that the two new cool- ing towers have greatly reduced the company’s expenses on costly water treatment chemicals and because they are being well maintained, they have essential- ly eliminated downtime related
to processing temperatures. Contact: Delta Cooling
Towers, Inc., 185 US-206, Roxbury Township, NJ 07836 % 800-289-3358 E-mail:
sales@deltacooling.com Web:
www.deltacooling.com r
Jan/Feb 2025
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