New Aluminum Alloy Enables the Production of Parts Requiring High Thermal Conductivity and Durability, Will be Available to Print in Both 50 and 100 Micron Layers
Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE: VLD), a leading metal additive manufacturing technology company for mission-critical parts, and PWR Advanced Cooling Technology have partnered to qualify Aheadd® CP1, an aluminum alloy developed by Constellium, for use in Sapphire printers.
PWR will use the alloy to manufacture highly efficient, compact, and lightweight heat exchangers for Formula 1 along with a variety of other components for their high-performance customers. In addition to the standard 50-micron layer thickness that all of Velo3D’s printers use, Aheadd® CP1 is also being qualified to print in 100-micron layers, providing customers with a balance between finished part performance and system throughput.
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body over Formula 1 and other global motorsports, recently approved the Aheadd® CP1 alloy for use in Formula 1 cars beginning in the 2024 season. This effort was largely driven by PWR—who works with many professional motorsports teams to provide them with finished, tested, ready-to-use heat exchangers—and its customers.
“Our team is committed to listening to customers and enhancing our technology to meet their needs, so when PWR came to us with a challenge of qualifying a new alloy with a first-of-its-kind parameter set, we were thrilled to partner with them on the project,” said Dr. Zachary Detweiler, Velo3D Vice President of Technology. “Aheadd® CP1 is the first alloy qualified in our Augsburg, Germany European Technology Center. Our American and European teams are both adept at creating scalable solutions for metal AM materials and we encourage companies who need customized material development for their applications to contact us about their specific requirements.”
For more than 2 decades, PWR has provided its customers in F1, NASCAR, V8 Supercars, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and other motorsport categories with quality, high-performance aluminum radiators, intercoolers, oil coolers, and other finished parts. It also services customers in the energy, defense, and aerospace industries. The company is AS9100D and ISO 14001 certified, ITAR compliant, and has secured Nadcap accreditations for its chemical processing and heat-treating services.
“Aheadd® CP1 is a fantastic addition to our additive manufacturing services and Velo3D’s unparalleled print capabilities coupled with PWR’s brazed fin technology creates a unique performance differentiator for our customers,” said Mark Booker, PWR Technical Project Manager. “Our goal is to give our racing customers an unfair advantage on the track and we look forward to seeing these teams win using new parts manufactured by PWR.”
Aheadd® CP1 is an aluminum, zirconium, iron alloy that is specially designed for laser powder bed fusion printers, like Velo3D’s Sapphire family of printers. It is thermally stable up to 300 degrees Celsius, provides excellent corrosion resistance, is highly isotropic, and printed parts have excellent surface finish and stable microstructures.
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