ACT’s New Patent Expands Its Spacecraft Thermal Control Solution Offerings
Lancaster, PA June 5, 2018 – Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted ACT US Patent 9,952,000, “Constant Conductance Heat Pipe (CCHP) Assembly for High Heat Flux.” The patent teaches how to increase heat flux capabilities for CCHPs, used commonly to dissipate heat from satellite electronics, by combining them with copper/water heat pipes. ACT is one of the very few companies that have flight heritage with both aluminum/ammonia CCHPs and copper/water heat pipes.
According to Mr. Jens Weyant, ACT’s Defense/Aerospace Products Group Manager, “For years, we have been supplying our spacecraft customers with CCHPs, which can accept heat fluxes of up to 10-15W/cm2. This has become a serious constraint, as electronic devices continue to increase in power and shrink in size. By combining CCHPs with copper/water heat pipes, we can now provide products that can handle heat fluxes of more than 50W/cm2. Our customers are very excited about this new capability.”
The main feature of the invention is the embedding of copper/water heat pipes in the flanges of aluminum/ammonia CCHPs. See Figure 1. This innovation benefits both the aluminum evaporator and the condenser. In the evaporator, copper-water heat pipes can accept a heat flux up to 50W/cm2 or more. The heat is then spread along the CCHP to a flux that is manageable and on the order of 15W/cm2 or less. In the condenser, copper/water heat pipes can be used to transfer heat to/from a remote location as shown in Figure 2. The copper water heat pipes can also be embedded in the condenser flange, to improve the effective thermal conductivity.
ACT’s Spacecraft Products
With trusted expertise in engineering and manufacturing spacecraft thermal control systems, ACT consistently delivers innovative solutions to meet the most demanding spacecraft performance requirements. ACT offers one of the most complete product lines for spacecraft thermal control, including:
- Constant Conductance Heat Pipes
- Variable Conductance Heat Pipes
- Loop Heat Pipes
- Copper Water Heat Pipes
- High Conductivity (HiK™) Plates
- Phase Change Material (PCM) Heat Sinks
- Accumulators for Pumped Fluid Systems
- Cold Plates for Thermal Vacuum Testing (TVAC)
For more information, visit ACT’s Spacecraft Thermal Control Products page, or read our blog post with ACT’s Space Flight Heritage Timeline.
About ACT
ACT specializes in advanced thermal technology development and custom thermal product manufacturing. ACT designs and manufactures PCM heat sinks, cold plates, HiK™ plates, heat pipes, custom thermal, fluid, and mechanical systems, and pumped liquid and two-phase loops for customers in diverse markets including Aerospace, Electronics, Temperature Calibration, Medical Device, and Energy Recovery Systems.
ACT’s team consists of personnel with established track records in technology development, commercialization and production. Many of them were involved in the pioneering work on heat pipes, loop heat pipes and other single and two-phase heat transfer devices. They are the inventors/co-inventors on numerous U.S. and international patents and the authors/co-authors of hundreds of scientific publications.
ACT’s Facility measures more than 60,000 square feet, including office, laboratory and manufacturing spaces. With ISO9001 and AS9100 certified quality system in place, the facility has designed and manufactured high quality, cost effective, thermal management solutions for dozens of mission critical satellites, and numerous military and commercial applications. ACT’s diverse R&D efforts are developing thermal solutions for tomorrow’s emerging technologies.
For more information about ACT, please visit www.1-ACT.com.