Thermal response of additive manufactured Aluminum

The thermal response of a liquid-cooled, 3D-printed aluminum heat sink is compared to that for a conventionally-manufactured aluminum 6061 heat sink of identical geometry. Differences in thermal response were observed; however, the employed 3D-printed aluminum composition could be annealed to produce equivalent thermal characteristics to that of Al 6061. The achievement of that thermal equivalency indicates that the attractive attributes of 3D-printing can be exploited for heat exchangers with a simple and additional processing step.