LIFE - Lightweight thermal management through carbon fibers

Important results from the project

The purpose of the project was to verify the potential to reduce the weight of cooling solutions by using carbon fiber instead of metals in heat sinks. The project has refined the the technology from before the project and showed very good performance in small scale trials. The full-scale prototypes, built and tested, has despite the fact that they did not reach the same performance as in the smaller scale proven to be equal to the reference but with a weight saving of about 50%.

Expected long term effects

The project has shown potential for a significant weight reduction in full scale trials and also potential to a large energy reduction in small scale trials. At the same time, some challenges have been identified and the work to solve these has been initiated. The expected effects in a future commercialization is to reduce the total energy consumption, partly by a weight loss in vehicle components but also through a reduced need for cooling air in other electronic applications.

Approach and implementation

The project has been implemented as planned through four technical work packages where applications has been identified, design has been optimized, function has been verified and the process has been further developed and demonstrated. The different project parts have been responsible for different work packages and meetings has been held about once every two months.