Laser Chillers, Medical Device Cooling, Electronics Cooling and a number of notable applications.
Cooling in Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
With growing concerns about fossil fuels and their impact on global warming, Electric Vehicles (EV) are seeing a major surge in production in China, Europe, Japan and the United States. According to the International Energy Agency, electric vehicles will grow from just over three million today to 125 million by 2030. Conventional charging with alternating current can take up to eight hours. Charging stations have rapidly switched to high power, rapid EV chargers using direct current that can recharge batteries as quickly as ten minutes on the charging station.
These fast EV charging stations generate high currents, up to 500 Amps at 1,000 Volts requiring the electrical charging cable and connector to be cooled. Aspen Systems, a pioneer in ultra-compact refrigeration systems is providing novel solutions for EV charging station manufacturers and is shipping hundreds of cooling systems per month as part of this effort.
The state-of-the-art benefits Aspen provides this expanding application include:
- Rapidly developed custom systems
- Compact size, low weight
- Flexible design
- Reliability and operation in extreme environments
As part of a U.S. Department of Defense project, Aspen Systems developed the world’s smallest rotary compressor which forms the enabling technology required for use in applications with extreme space or weight constraints. Typically, for EV charging stations, a chilled liquid flows around the cable and connector for efficient heat dissipation. The chilled liquid can also be used to cool any other heat generating components within the station. Aspen works closely with the customers’ engineers to ensure a design that can be integrated directly into the unit and provide the requisite cooling power.
For instance, one major manufacturer needed an active thermal management solution to fit into one of their existing enclosures. The space constraints (narrow and tall) prevented a standard Aspen module to be integrated. Aspen’s experts in refrigeration and cooling, successfully designed a new chiller layout using primarily available components (evaporator, condenser, etc.) to fit the space, while also designing ease of access for maintenance.
Stated by the buyer:
“Your unit is a remarkable device. High performance in a very compact package. Our engineering teams are very much a fan (no pun intended). That remarkability, that performance and that packaging is why we will continue to look at your products.”
Vapor compression refrigeration offers the highest efficiency in refrigeration. Compared to thermoelectric or Peltier cooling, vapor compression provides three to five times superior efficiency. Reliability in extreme environments is a key consideration for manufacturers of EV charging stations. Over 3,000 of Aspen Systems’ cooling systems have been deployed by the US Military in Afghanistan and Iraq. These systems have logged millions of hours of operation cooling mobile communication electronics enclosures used in Humvees and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. Uninterrupted communication is vital to front line forces. Not a single compressor failure was seen–even though exposed to the harsh heat and cold of the desert and the vibration imposed in a military vehicle.
According to Glenn Deming, Vice President of Aspen Systems, “Many of the same reasons the Department of Defense selected Aspen Systems for their mission critical application apply to the design needs of EV station engineers – small size, efficiency and rock solid reliability”.
To learn more, call (508) 281-5322 or visit http://aspensystems.com/.
Brief History of EV
Although Electric Vehicles (EV) are not new, they are seeing exponential growth with advances in battery and battery-charging technology. The first EV’s were demonstrated all the way back in the 1830s, and in 1902, the Studebaker Automotive Company was the first to offer mass produced vehicles. However, limitations in the storage batteries prevented widespread use because of limited range between charges.
Keeping Cool About Your Hot Laser
The trend of higher laser output power in increasingly smaller packages has many benefits in reducing the floor space requirements in production floor, cleanroom, medical operating room, clinics, and laboratory environments. Laser product managers are seeing similar pressure to reduce the size of the external laser chiller while still offering improved cooling and energy efficiency. Some are considering adding the refrigeration system directly into their laser system to form an integrated compact package. It is important to make decisions early in the concept development of the product development cycle to ease integration of advanced cooling methods such as direct refrigerant cooling. Read More…
Active thermal management is vital in a number of medical device applications including patient core temperature management, skin cooling, medical device cooling, and laboratory equipment cooling. These applications include initial emergency medical services, in-hospital patient thermal management, a range of procedures that take place in doctor’s offices, and in laboratory equipment. To meet this growing need, medical device designers need highly efficient and compact cooling systems that can be integrated into their systems, often with the option of battery power for mobility. Read Part 1 here… Read Part 2 here…
Over the last ten years there has been a well-documented increase in the energy density of electronic devices. As this energy density has gone up, so has the heat dissipation on electronics packages. In response to this challenge, significant research has taken place to develop chip level cooling systems to meet heat fluxes in excess of 1000W/cm2. As stated by Phelan et al.1, “Calculations indicate that the only possible approach to meeting this heat flux condition, while maintaining the chip temperature below 65°C, is to utilize refrigeration.” While research has focused on achieving heat transfer rates at the chip level, the resistance to heat transfer to ambient air is often more critical.2 In fact, the heat transfer resistance to ambient air as the final heat sink is the dominating factor in system performance. Certain classes of components such as field programmable gate arrays, diode lasers and mobile network systems are being deployed in environments where passive cooling systems cannot maintain junction temperatures below required upper limits. Programs such as the US Army’s Warfare Information Network–Tactical (WIN-T) fall into this category.3These factors place additional constraints on designers to meet the thermal management challenges of their electronics systems. Read More…
Cooling of Laser Power Meters and Laser Beam Stops
Laser output power is a fundamental parameter which requires monitoring regardless if it is a scientific or industrial application. When the laser average power exceeds a few hundred watts, water cooling is recommended to prevent damage to the detector. Aspen Systems visited IPG Photonics in Marlborough with a water cooled laser power meter with the Aspen systems LCS-600 liquid chiller. Read More…
Cooling of High Power UV LED Systems for Curing Applications
Honle UV, http://www.honleuv.com/ successfully demonstrated the use of Aspen Systems’ LCS-600, ultra-compact liquid chiller system. The LCS series is based on Aspen’s vapor compression technology using the world’s smallest compressor. It shares many of the advantages UV LEDs including small size, high efficiency and the chiller is powered by 24 Vdc making it ideal for mobile applications.
According to Deivis Parejo – Business Development Manager at Honle UV America, Inc. “The Aspen LCS-600 is ideal for use with our LED Powerline series. The chiller is less than one quarter the size and less than one eighth the weight of more conventional chillers”. Read More…