Curtiss-Wright Controls Electronic Systems claims that the recent testing of its CoolWall technology for thermal management of rugged embedded computing enclosures has revealed improvement in payload power cooling when compared to aluminium construction. The technology, based on a mixture of metal composites, delivers good thermal conductivity at a weight less than aluminium. Recent test results using the company's baseplate-cooled Hybricon SFF-6 enclosure showed a 2.4-fold increase in thermal conductivity at the chassis level (2.4-fold decrease in sidewall temperature rise) besides a 10% weight decrease as compared to aluminium construction. The technology comprises a thermal metallic composite core housed within a structural metallic composite shell. The use of CoolWall technology is not limited to cold plate applications. It offers the potential to enhance the weight and thermal performance of natural convection-cooled, forced air conduction-cooled, or liquid conduction-cooled chassis through good heat spreading. To address a range of requirements, it can be optimised to modify the balance of its optimisation of thermal management or weight reduction. The technology can also be used for designing embedded computing modules to enhance the thermal performance of conduction-cooled module thermal frames.
