A study on selective laser melting (SLM) to produce a compact motorcycle heat exchanger

Heat exchangers are important devices used in many fields of industry. They play a fundamental role in determining thermal and energetic efficiency of industrial processes and products. Conventional heat exchangers, especially radiators are designed to respect the conventional manufacturing methods and have witnessed very little change in design in the last couple of decades. The basic functioning principle of these devices can be exploited in many different ways if the manufacturability of the designed form is possible. Additive manufacturing technologies, in particular selective laser melting (SLM) can open new possibility for this kind of components, giving more freedom to their design The present work investigates the use of SLM technology to produce an innovative and compact motorcycle heat exchanger. The investigation explores the potential of this technology to develop new forms to fulfil the desired function. This preliminary study is conducted on 18Ni300 maraging steel, a material with known feasibility for the process, allowing to study the feasibility of achieving thin walls within the process. The work follows a process-based approach in designing and producing the heat exchangers with three steps: 1- fluid flow optimization exploiting Additive Manufacturing ability to realize complex shapes; 2- technological feasibility of a heat exchanger’s key features: thin walls (200 – 500 µm), 3- final testing of a compact heat exchanger prototype through a “transient test”.