Vacuum Brazing of Aluminum Cold Plate

Precision Cooling with Aluminum Cold Plates

Aluminum cold plates are essential components in modern thermal management systems, especially within electric vehicles and the broader automobile sector, including battery cooling modules. These plates use internal channels to allow liquid coolant to flow through, efficiently drawing heat away from high-power components. Aluminum is favored for its excellent thermal conductivity, lightweight structure, and corrosion resistance, making it an ideal material for cold plate applications that demand both performance and durability. Ensuring these plates are manufactured with tight tolerances and robust construction is key to their long-term reliability.

Vacuum Brazing of Aluminum Cold Plates

Vacuum brazing is the preferred method for assembling aluminum cold plates, especially those with internal microchannel structures. It ensures clean, high-strength joints by heating the components in a vacuum, where a filler metal melts and flows into the joints without oxidation. This results in smooth, flat surfaces and reduced contact thermal resistance, improving heat transfer to high-power chips. In demanding applications, vacuum brazed cold plates can manage heat loads of several hundred watts while maintaining reliability.

A key phase in this process is the ramp-up stage, where controlled heating sometimes including preheating for complex parts helps prevent thermal shock. Advanced furnaces use precise temperature controls to manage ramp rates consistently. Once the brazing filler reaches its melting point, a carefully timed insulation phase allows the metal to flow into joints and form strong, sealed bonds. Timing is critical: too short may cause weak welds, while too long can lead to coarse aluminum grains and reduced strength. Throughout the process, maintaining a stable high vacuum is essential. Insufficient vacuum can cause oxidation and pore formation, while excessively high vacuum levels increase costs and reduce efficiency. To address this, modern furnaces are equipped with advanced pumps and vacuum monitoring systems that keep vacuum levels within an optimal range, ensuring consistent quality and performance.

Normantherm: Advanced Brazing Solutions for Aluminum Cold Plates

To support the growing demand for high-performance aluminum cold plates, especially in the automobile and electric vehicle sectors, Normantherm offers its VF Series vacuum brazing furnaces, developed with over 15 years of industry expertise. These systems are engineered for precision, reliability, and efficiency across a variety of thermal processing needs. The VF Series includes models such as VF 1300-422 (400×200×200 mm), VF 1300-644 (600×400×400 mm), VF 1300-966 (900×600×600 mm), and VF 1300-1288 (1200×800×800 mm), all capable of reaching temperatures up to 1300 °C with tight vacuum control. With uniform heating and strong metallurgical bonding, Normantherm’s vacuum brazing furnaces enable manufacturers to produce aluminum cold plates with exceptional strength, thermal conductivity, and long-term durability critical qualities for efficient thermal management in automotive cooling systems.

Editor: Sahera Khatun
Copyright: Normantherm Vacuum Brazing Furnace