General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) is working with Conflux Technology on the design and manufacture of a new Fuel Oil Heat Exchanger (FOHE).
GA-ASI is developing this enhanced thermal solution for its MQ-9B SkyGuardian® and SeaGuardian® Remotely Piloted Aircraft.
GA-ASI is a leading developer of unmanned aircraft, and Conflux is a thermal management system solution company headquartered in Australia.
Conflux is a pioneer in mastering additive manufacturing for heat exchanger applications. The two companies have worked together since 2018 to develop heat exchangers for aerospace.
“GA-ASI wants to optimise and augment the performance of our current units by minimising the differential pressure across the FOHE,” said Stephen Eiting, vice president of Manufacturing Operations for GA-ASI.
Another GA-ASI objective is to develop an AM heat exchanger design that can be 3D printed, post-processed, and bench-tested. As part of this most recent purchase order, Conflux will produce a fully functional prototype unit that can be tested by GA-ASI.
Abe Masoud, business development manager of North America for Conflux Technology said their mission is to heat exchanger performance.
“For our project with GA-ASI this means drop-in replacements that remove thermal load and maintaining a compact profile, while also increasing performance to meet higher system demand.
When you are leading the charge on advanced technology, you need a world class team and agility to do it right,” Masoud said.
The two companies have worked on four different AM projects since 2018.
Most recently the two teams have leveraged AM to develop a cold plate heat exchanger (HX) that provides additional cooling capacity for its high-dissipation Line-Replaceable Unit (LRU) used in various GA-ASI’s UAS platforms.
