Hinetics 3D Prints Heatsinks for Electric Aviation via Protolabs

Hinetics aims to help electrify flight. To achieve this, it needs high-performance components, including those for heat sinking. Founded in 2017 by Dr. Kiruba Haran, Hinetics makes electric motors for aircraft, electrical generators for wind power, and other permanent magnet motors. Often, a high degree of customization is required for new motors to work well.

“If somebody wants to create an electric plane and wants to fly it, they know the aerodynamics of the plane and they know where to put the mass. But they don’t know how to make a motor that’s light enough to put on the plane. That’s why they may order one from us. It’s a very deep collaboration,” said Peter Xiao, and electrical engineer at Hinetics.

At the crux of their challenge is making high power density motors. The motor and its entire drivetrain have to be as light and efficient as possible. Thermal management of these motors is also important. Heat may cause the motor to degrade, shortening its lifespan, or it could fail more quickly than it should. The team decided to use aluminum, a material often used for heat sinks, to create an air-cooled heat sinking solution for a motor. Shorter lead times and the ability to generate complex geometries led them to turn to 3D printing. They then turned to Protolabs to print the parts.

The initial design was for a water-cooled unit, but this was impractical and added too much weight to the design. Half a year later, the team developed an air-cooled example. In the design, aluminum 3D-printed fins radiate outward, and their cooling is aided by an additional impeller. The part was produced on the GE X Line 2000R dual laser powder bed system. The part was lightweight, and special care was taken to maximize surface area while reducing weight. The part also had to be redesigned since it was too big for the Y axis.

Protolabs’ day-to-day business is becoming commoditized. Xometry, Chinese players, and intense competition are making the “print an STL” business a difficult one to profit from. However, here we have an example of a critical part that is very complicated to make. Protolabs has an applications engineering department that can help them deal with the difficult dependencies and challenges of such complex, high-value parts. Many other services would wait for you to figure it all out and hope to receive a fully coherent STL to move forward. Clearly, for Hinetics, trust in their vendor is paramount. If they trust their vendor’s knowledge and ability, then advice on the design and how to best make it will be accepted.

Application development is very difficult to do, and few people do it well. For Protolabs, good application engineering could accelerate their customers’ journeys into additive manufacturing. Customers could take their first steps with Protolabs, get hard parts made, and may never leave for another vendor. At the same time, a complicated heatsink could serve as a halo part to attract other business. Heat management is a hot topic in 3D printing right now. For space, aerospace, electric vehicles, defense, and many other areas, people are turning to 3D printing to make heat management devices. Advanced designs for heat sinks and heat exchangers in electronics, missiles, drones, and more are all being made today. They all need to be light, have specific performance requirements, and work according to spec. These requirements often make them good business cases for 3D printing. This is especially true if they need to be squeezed in somewhere, need to be conformal, or need to be iterated quickly.

If Protolabs developed a specific service for heat sink design and production, they could be an even more effective force multiplier for their clients and win even more business. Commodity services are being commoditized further, but if you can accelerate how others do business, you can make a significant impact on them and your bottom line.