How to Innovate a Gaming CPU Cooler With Additive Manufacturing

 The future of thermal management

Excess heat limits the miniaturization of portable computers, power electronic devices and high-power LED lighting. Ambitious technological solutions from the lab are often not yet ready for mass production and deployment in consumer products. Industrial 3D printing, so called additive manufacturing, of thermal management solutions can bridge the gap and keep lossy electronics cool even when the available space is severely limited. Due to the freedom of design, 3D printed thermal management components offer the same or superior effectiveness as conventionally manufactured components but require far less space. Enlarged surfaces, any-shape geometries and conformal cooling channels are opportunities of this manufacturing technology.

AM Metals, TheSys and EOS have teamed up to develop a gaming CPU cooler and demonstrate how the future of thermal management will look.

 Gaming CPU cooling requiring 81% less space

We see that excess heat limits the miniaturization of high performance computers, e.g. for gaming or design works. But how to overcome this obstacle?

Equipped with state-of-the-art additive manufacturing and material technology, AM Metals’ application development specialists created an innovative design that can match the best-in-class gaming CPU cooler. Thermal solutions specialist TheSys carried out thermal simulations that served as the basis for an improved version of the cooler. With only one iteration, we came up with a design that meets the target cooling performance. The design was realized on an EOS M290 machine in a matter of hours.

The result is a CPU cooler which operates at the same cooling performance but requires 81 less space than the original design.

This is an enormous improvement in a very modest development time. Besides CPU coolers there are countless applications where space for heat transfer is a premium. Take high power LEDs, Lasers, autonomous driving, power electronics, chemical micro reactors. We believe that additive manufacturing can bridge the gap between current market demands for miniaturized thermal management solutions and future technologies that might circumvent the problem in a fundamental way.

We are preparing a white paper about our gaming CPU cooler project in which you will find detailed information.

Source: EOS