THERMACO Smart Thermal conductive Al MMCs by casting

Summary

THERMACO is an European project that focuses on the use of novel, extremely efficient, carbon based thermally conductive materials for heat evacuation applications in critical fields such as power micro-electronics, e-mobility and (renewable) energy generation as well as highest performance combustion engines. It provides manufacturing technologies to integrate thermal highways based on Graphene and TPG into Aluminium cast parts, creating extremely efficient solutions of heat evacuation using Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites (Al-MMC), applicable in many key technologies and products, bolstering several sectors in Europe. THERMACO develops new and improved specialised heat conductive materials, aiming at extremely efficient solutions while taking environmental aspects into account. It incorporates technological and strategic innovations in order to provide products applicable to a wide range of sectors with suitable tools and methodology for a significant increase in functional properties while ensuring compact design, weight reduction and cost efficiency.

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Web resources:	http://www.thermaco.eu https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/608978
Start date:	01-09-2013
End date:	31-08-2016
Total budget - Public funding:	5 024 711,00 Euro - 3 399 994,00 Euro

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Original description

The ever–growing demand for heat evacuation applications in fields such as power microelectronics, e-mobility or (renewable) energy generation is motivating today's suppliers to come up with better and better heat conductive materials. Most of these products who were recently introduced to the market are carbon based materials aimed for extremely high heat conductivity (up to 2,000 W/mK). While delivering extremely good thermal properties, the carbon products themselves usually do not have a structural vale in terms of mechanical properties, hindering stand-alone applications. However, when enclosed in metal envelopes, they could be used to form MMC (Metal Matrix Composite) parts which are significantly more durable and strong. In THERMACO we intend to develop the best suitable manufacturing technology required to produce a high-strength, selectively reinforced Aluminium MMC with carbon based thermal reinforcements. We will create continuous highly heat conductive routes – consisting of carbon-based Graphene or TPG material – integrated within the structural part, that lead to dispersion/collection areas at surfaces with optimised thermal transfer properties. The structural material of the product will be regular cast Aluminium, thus allowing for an integration of those thermal highways into complex shaped, task-specific parts within a wide range of applications. The ability to cast such product will lead to a technological breakthrough and a change of concept in every heat management application, since the limiting factors of size of the cooling area or the demand for external heat transfer solutions (such as heatpipes) can be overcome. Due to the anisotropy of the carbon based thermal highways, a heat transfer can be realised through the part, without affecting it’s surrounding material, maintaining the mechanical stability of the application and enabling the usage of lighter designs and materials with a lower thermal stability than required before.