Defence Online

GA-ASI partners with Conflux on Additive Manufacturing

Air May 14, 2020

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has partnered with Australia-based Conflux Technology on the development of a heat exchanger.

The part is being developed using a metal Additive Manufacturing process for possible integration onto GA-ASI’s line of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).

Conflux Technology is an Additive Manufacturing applications company based in Geelong, Victoria that specialises in thermal and fluid engineering. The Company is providing design expertise in the optimisation of Additive Manufacturing heat exchangers to increase the performance of RPA.

“GA-ASI and Conflux are developing novel and state-of-the-art thermal solutions for application to our existing and next generation RPAS. This will allow enhanced endurance and lower manufacturing cost, as well as more flexibility in our product design and integration,” said Linden Blue, GA-ASI CEO.

“Fundamental efficiency gains require heat transfer innovations. In Conflux we have a highly innovative engineering team that blends first principles thermo-fluid dynamics with design creativity and Additive Manufacturing process expertise,” said Michael Fuller, Conflux Technology CEO. “Conflux heat exchangers derive their performance from highly complex geometries enabled by Additive Manufacturing. Our scientists and engineers, alongside their GA-ASI counterparts, will now develop heat exchange applications to improve fundamental efficiencies for GA-ASI’s RPA systems.”

The Australian Government recently selected GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SkyGuardia  variant to provide the Armed RPAS for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) under Project Air 7003.

image courtesy of General Atomics

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Additive Manufacturing Conflux Technology GA-ASI General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc

Post written by: Matt Brown