Molds for composite part production have been increasing in size and complexity and this has caused challenges with the curing process, both in-autoclave and out-of-autoclave. Due to the challenges associated with driving energy inside the tooling/molding platforms that are used for these composite parts, integrating heat pipes into the tool/mold can enhance the heat up [...]
ISOBAR® heat pipes are typically employed in a horizontal orientation or a similar orientation where gravity assists the charge fluid in the Isobar heat pipe to return to the evaporator section. Ongoing research continues on ISOBAR® heat pipes to optimize performance when they are required to "work against gravity." Acrolab consistently analyzes, investigates and tests [...]
Acrolab was asked by a client to assist them with the development of an automated, rapid cure process for producing a series of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) parts utilizing ISOMANDREL® technology. Acrolab’s ISOMANDREL® technology was utilized to create this new manufacturing process The first step was to understand the client’s requirements and develop a [...]
Acrolab was asked to develop a new thermal management concept to improve the efficiency and reliability of a battery electric (BE) thermal management system, other than air-cooling and liquid-coolant cooling systems, used in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV). In order to optimize the performance of the (BEV) battery we were required to maintain the optimal operating [...]
Acrolab was asked by a client to analyze the performance of their cooling chamber for one of their pre-preg manufacturing machines and to provide recommendations on how to improve it. Based on test results, the new cooling chamber was not operating in an optimized manner and Acrolab was contracted to solve the problem. Optimizing Cooling [...]
Due to the unique design for this ISOBAR® Heat Pipe, the performance of this ISOBAR® would have to meet specific testing requirements and achieve consistency and reliability in the manufacturing process in order to prove viability. This custom Isobar® heat pipe design had to meet certain specific geometric constraints, performance criteria and quality standards, including [...]
Acrolab was approached by a client to develop a fast heating & fast cooling composite mold for out-of-autoclave composite curing. The technological objective of this study was to develop a vapour chamber mold structure of complex shape used in aerospace and automotive composite part production to apply heat energy to the curing of the composite [...]
This project was a collaborative effort among Acrolab and McMaster University to develop a pizza oven waste energy recovery (POWER) system that would capture waste heat (thermal energy) and convert it to electricity for restaurants or for sale to energy companies. The device was developed for electric or natural gas pizza ovens but it could [...]
By developing this cooling system, the engineering team at Acrolab noticed two major obstacles in this project. The first technological obstacle was the complete design of the entire cooling system. Acrolab has limited experience with conventional cooling system designs for this type of application. Other important details that made the project more challenging were that [...]
Heaters are one of the primary products that we sell to our clients; we design different types of heaters such as band heaters, cartridge heaters, tubular heaters, immersion heaters and other types depending on the needs of our customers. Acrolab was asked to develop a multi-zone split heater (3 zones) and capable of operating at [...]