Novel Manufacture of Heat Exchangers

Hiflux Ltd designs and manufactures revolutionary compact heat exchangers which recover up to 90% of waste heat in demanding high temperature and pressure applications. Hiflux technology has been proven in industrial field trials in markets such as small-scale combined heat and power, automotive, clean waste processing and hybrid energy systems. The heat exchanger technology features fine arrays of small pins laser welded between thin sheets arranged in a structure that combines strength to withstand pressure loads and flexibility to accommodate large thermal gradients. The resulting structure has a high level of material integrity but the automation is limited by the use of pulsed YAG laser technology. This project addresses how the process of manufacture, developed for small volumes, can be evolved so that Hiflux can demonstrate a clear path to economically viable high volume manufacture. Hiflux, together with project partners Imperial College and ECM Developments Ltd will investigate new ways of using continuous wave fibre lasers to achieve an optimal balance between throughput, initial capital expenditure, energy usage and total cost of ownership. The project will also examine the merits of adapting the manufacture techiques to production of high temperature micro-pin heat exchangers in combination with electro-chemical machining.