Surface-mount adhesives used in microchannel production

This type of technology will be needed, researchers say, in applications including next-generation computers, lasers, consumer electronics, vehicle-cooling systems, fuel processors and miniature heat pumps.

‘Even though microchannel arrays have enormous potential for more efficient heat transfer and chemical reactions, high production costs have so far held back the broad, mainstream use of the technology,’ said Brian Paul, a professor in the OSU School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.

‘In certain applications, this new approach has reduced material costs by 50 per cent,’ added Paul. ‘It could cut production bonding costs by more than 90 per cent, compared with existing approaches to microchannel lamination. And the use of surface-mount adhesives is directly translatable to the electronics assembly industry, so there is less risk going to market.’

Microchannels can be patterned into the surface of a metal or plastic, and can be designed to speed up the heat exchange between fluids, or the mixing and separation of fluids during chemical reactions. The accelerated heat and mass transfer leads to smaller heat exchangers and chemical reactors and separators.