TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Novel Advanced Manufacturing Techniques for Heat Transfer Components

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY

Novel Advanced Manufacturing Techniques for Heat Transfer Components

Innovative manufacturing enables reduced facility footprint, improved resource use, enhanced control, and innovative performance-boosting designs.

Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering to enter into a license or collaborative research agreement to commercialize these novel advanced manufacturing techniques for heat transfer components. This technology transfer opportunity is part of a dedicated effort to convert government-funded research into job opportunities, businesses, and, ultimately, an improved way of life for the American people.

Overview: Compact heat exchangers are considered by the next-generation reactor community to transfer heat efficiently and effectively. However, the challenge with these heat exchangers is the high fabrication cost and lack of durability.

The invention describes advanced manufacturing techniques such as powder bed, LENS, and aerosol ink additive manufacturing processes to fabricate compact heat exchangers. The proposed methods can lower facility and equipment footprint, better utilization of resources, and better control and create innovative designs to enhance heat transfer performance further.

Benefits:

• Reduce fabrication costs to make compact heat exchangers an economically attractive option


• Enhance heat transfer performance through innovative designs


• Improve durability by implementing modularity and easy restoration processes


• Reduce facility and equipment footprint, better utilization of resources, and better control during the manufacturing process

Target Applications:

• Advanced reactor design


• Heat exchanger design and manufacturing

Development Status: TRL 2; early stage concept.

IP Status: US Patent No. 11,383,302, “Heat Exchangers Fabricated by Additive Manufacturing, Related Components, and Related Methods,” BEA Docket No. BA-1011.

INL seeks to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Added value is placed on relationships with small businesses, start-up companies, and general entrepreneurship opportunities.

Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Andrew Rankin at td@inl.gov.