Trade Studies

Similar to our Feasibility Studies, ACT’s TRADE STUDIES provide our customers, across many industries, with fundamentally sound guidance on addressing thermal management issues.  Using ACT’s significant experience in all major thermal, fluid, mechanical, material, chemical and manufacturing engineering fields, a Trade Study can help sort out the critical thermal issues and guide you to the best solution.  A Trade Study is generally recommended when there appear to be multiple ‘feasible’ thermal solutions to satisfy design requirements (i.e. heat pipes vs. heat sinks, single phase vs. two phase cooling, active cooling vs. passive cooling, etc.).  ACT engineers will explore critical aspects such as cost, performance, timing, reliability and maintenance for each of the potential solutions.  Using our significant depth and breadth of thermal management and related technologies, we will offer a recommendation based on solid quantitative information - before design resources are applied.  In all these Studies, the same basic process steps are always sequentially executed:

1. Work with the customer to identify and select thermal solutions that are truly realistic.  Determine and prioritize key criteria to evaluate.  Make sure the ‘must haves’ are clearly defined and then satisfied in the recommended solution.
2. Using ACT’s expert technical knowledge and experience with all aspects of all thermal management solutions, evaluate options.  We generate quantitative information that our experts can interpret for you.
3. Communicate the results to you.  Through a summary report and/or presentation, ACT will provide a technically sound thermal solution recommendation for your project.  Results are communicated in clear, understandable manner to enable you to accurately evaluate thermal performance in potential next steps.

If you are uncertain which thermal solution is right for your project, consider having an ACT TRADE STUDY performed.  As many of our customers have experienced, a Trade Study, particularly when completed early in the product development cycle, can save time and money.  To get started, contact an ACT representative today.