Titanium heatpipes

[Zap]

Modine Supplies Titanium Heat Pipe Prototypes to NASA for Trip to Moon and Beyond

Modine Manufacturing Company (NYSE: MOD)... has delivered, through its wholly owned subsidiary Thermacore International Inc., high temperature titanium heat pipes to NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. These heat pipes are evaluation prototypes in support of NASA's effort to develop radiator panels for rejecting heat from the power generation systems for long duration space and planetary base missions and could be used on trips to the moon, Jupiter and points further in space.

The Thermacore heat pipes are intended for use at temperatures up to 250o Celsius. The delivered prototypes, which are 1.27 millimeters in diameter and 1.15 meters long, are made from Titanium and use water as the internal working fluid. These devices, capable of transporting over 500 watts...

...large radiator panels that contain heat pipes operating in the temperature range of 20o Celsius to 250o Celsius. To minimize weight, these heat pipes were constructed from Titanium.

20-250ºC and can dissipate 500W? Remember those "Prescott Ready" stickers on the earlier i865PE chipset boards? :laugh:

I'm a Summer intern at this company... wonder if they'll let me snag a "sample" for, ahem, R&D purposes?

I've seen samples here of notebook heatpipe coolers and server coolers. Really "cool" stuff. Too bad none of that makes it into these Dell systems on our desks. I've got a SFF Optiplex GX620 and I think the HDD is slowly starting to go out. It's a WD 7200RPM unit and in the past month it's started to vibrate - so bad now that if my hands aren't on the keyboard the keys rattle. I've taken the cover off the system and it is the HDD making the "good vibrations" plus it is burning hot. Someone in their infinite wisdom designed these things with one HDD mount... right behind the CPU. Think of a BTX style SFF system... start with front vents, then an 80mm fan, then the 3.2GHz Prescott CPU with a heatsink over it, then the HDD, then the rear vents. :roll:

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Your link is KAPUT!

We have a SFF, Notebook Forum


...Galvanized

 

[Howard]

Titanium, huh. I guess they need a lot of strength, but I wonder why they didn't try stainless steel.

 

[996GT2]

Titanium is very light as well as strong, steel is strong but also heavy

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: Howard
Titanium, huh. I guess they need a lot of strength, but I wonder why they didn't try stainless steel.

Weight. Plus NASA loves spending money

Plus, with the break-up of the USSR, there is just scads of titanium on the market.
Mother Russia had a 300,000++ metric tons of titanium in stock for planes & subs & such


...Galvanized

 

[Parkre]

well I better start stocking up on titanium then....

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee

Originally posted by: Howard
Titanium, huh. I guess they need a lot of strength, but I wonder why they didn't try stainless steel.

Weight. Plus NASA loves spending money

Plus, with the break-up of the USSR, there is just scads of titanium on the market.
Mother Russia had a 300,000++ metric tons of titanium in stock for planes & subs & such


...Galvanized

They actually built an entire submarine's hull (Alpha class maybe?) out of Ti, crazy :Q.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I don't think so. Titanium is still a scarce resource even with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The processes required to make titanium are extremely slow and costly and titanium usage has been growing exponentially over the last few decades mainly for its use in airplanes, and ships, but also for use in the commercial sectors for consumer products where lightweight, high strength matterials can lessen the total weight of items as well as for the marketing value.

I do however remember reading that a couple professors have developed a new method of producing titanium which in theory will give a 7x cost reduction in price to make. It is still in the early prototype phase though with a very VERY small scale prototype having been made.

 

[Howard]

Oh yeah, Ti is almost half as dense... but its thermal conductivity is extremely low. Realllllly low.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: Howard
Oh yeah, Ti is almost half as dense... but its thermal conductivity is extremely low. Realllllly low.

I wonder what ambients this heatpipe must operate in. I wonder how thin the pipes can be made. I wonder why Howard doesn't get over to NASA to straighten thier dumb asses out


...Galvanized

 

[tylerdustin2008]

Well if the make a heatsink out of it and is affordable to us the consumers, i will try it out.m And i mean affordable as in under $150, and REALLY good test results for me to buy it.

 

[keldog7]

We probably all know a bit about the thermal characteristics of various heatpipes/heatsinks. Is there perhaps a thermal characteristic to titanium which makes it suitable for a heatpipe? Can anyone comment on its thermal characteristics, sompared with, say, silver or copper?
-A

 

[nyker96]

I'm not sure titanium is the best heatsink for regular application since they are not the best heat conductors materialwise. And of course shuttle need it due to the weight limitation but if we not flying into space, titanium although expensive and cool might not be the practical choice for average computers.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Your link is KAPUT!

DOH! Fixed. That link works from the company intranet, but didn't from my home cable connection. Went back to the company site (which is what I did from work) and it was a different URL.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

It's been decades, but Modine was/is a highly respected name in truck cooling componets.

Being new at most of this, I was suprised by the heat pipe coolers for laptops.

To be seen at this site http://www.thermalfx.com/merchant2/

Thanks for fixing the link. I did look around


...Grasshopper

 

[Zap]

That part of the company is Thermacore, a "wholly owned subsidary." Modine is still a respectable name in truck cooling, as well as automobiles, HVAC and more recently electronics with the acquisition of Thermacore.

 

[Talcite]

I was under the impression that the majority of heat transfer occured inside the heatpipe, in the fluid/gas evap and condensation. Isn't very little heat transfered through the outside heatpipe material?

Oh and perhaps they were talking about titanium alloy, not just pure titanium?

 

[Ayah]

But to reach the fluid inside the heatpipes, you have to pass through the outer layers first.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Strange.

I've been fascinated with Titanium ever since I was managed a bike shop during the fall of the Soviet Union and Titanium was available in more than an abundance than ever before. I have Titanium bikes... Titanium watches... Even bought my wife some Titanium ear-rings once, but never thought of Titanium as making a good heat pipe.

The only really good characteristic of Titanium is it's low density. Second is it's resistance to corrosion.

If I remember correctly, it's thermal conductivity sucks. I believe aluminum is 10 times more thermal conductive as titanium.

And Titanium is not just expensive because of it's extraction process, but because of it's hardness. It's harder than steel is even after it's been hardened, but since the molds and dies that press or extrude titanium are generally not much harder than the Titanium itself, only a limited production of a Titanium product can be made before the mold has to be replaced.

So in other words, unless you just want a really light heatpipe... Titanium is a HORRIBLE metal to use.

Where are my Gold heatpipes????

 

[Geomagick]

Titanium is a real ***** to work with. The first time you have to drill a hole in a titanium panel makes you wish it was hardened steel it really is that hard.
Every now and then I have to do this and I use tungsten carbide drill bits - the sort that are gauranteed forever to home users and these blunt after about half a dozen holes.

 

[Talcite]

arn't tungsten carbide drill bits standard stuff? 0.o I've been using these all my life and I've never used anything else >.>'

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Strange.

I've been fascinated with Titanium ever since I was managed a bike shop during the fall of the Soviet Union and Titanium was available in more than an abundance than ever before. I have Titanium bikes... Titanium watches... Even bought my wife some Titanium ear-rings once, but never thought of Titanium as making a good heat pipe.

The only really good characteristic of Titanium is it's low density. Second is it's resistance to corrosion.

If I remember correctly, it's thermal conductivity sucks. I believe aluminum is 10 times more thermal conductive as titanium.

30 times, actually

George, titanium is usually less hard than steel, so it must be some other mechanism (galling? dunno) that's messing up your bits.

EDIT: http://www.supraalloys.com/Machining_titanium.htm

 

[Zap]

Pure titanium may be a bit softer. Most bikes (and probably aerospace applications) use titanium alloys made of 90% or more titanium with a few percent aluminum/vanadium or something. These alloys are a lot more rigid (and perhaps harder) than pure titanium.

 

[Howard]

Well, the fact remains that the hardest steels are harder than the hardest titanium alloys - which is why titanium knives aren't more popular than they are now.