Patent attributes
A heat exchanger may be manufactured using a number of different methods, each having their own benefits and deficiencies. A method of making a monolithic heat exchanger having a plurality of conduits passing through it is provided and comprises the steps of: providing a plurality of successive layers of a material to be remelted and energy beam remelting predetermined regions of each layer in accordance with a predetermined design. The energy beam remelting of each layer is performed prior to the addition of a successive layer. The regions of each layer which are subjected to energy beam remelting form solid structures within the layer, and the energy beam remelting of each layer fuses the remelted regions of each layer to the remelted regions of the preceding layer. This results in the manufacture of a three-dimensional monolithic unit. The heat exchanger is manufactured to have a surface area density of at least 5000 m2/m3 and a mean average porosity of at least 0.6. The energy beam could, for example, be a laser beam or an electron beam.
