All electronic devices have a maximum operating temperature beyond which they can become damaged or cease to operate. This can reduce productivity and possibly endanger people’s lives. To overcome these challenges, companies need to implement heat management solutions. These include self-monitoring programs, acclimatization strategies, and training for workers to recognize symptoms of heat strain.
Reduced Downtime
Thermal management solutions are designed to help keep devices within their temperature design limits, so they can continue working at peak performance. This is especially important for medical, defense, aerospace and automotive applications, where any downtime due to overheating can damage the device’s reputation or cause safety hazards. Thermal solutions provide various functions within components to effectively dissipate heat. They include carrying heat away from the elements that generate it, offering stress relief due to thermal cycling, providing electrical insulation, and filling gaps. These functions enable longer component lifetimes and a smoother operating experience. In addition, thermal management solutions like those at Delta Electronics are typically formulated to resist thermal degradation and oxidation. This helps extend the components’ operational lifespan, reducing the overall cost of a device or system ownership. As the world shifts towards electric mobility, thermal management systems are critical for ensuring that electrified vehicle batteries and onboard electric systems operate optimally. These solutions also play a major role in developing renewable energy systems, as they are required to capture and transfer heat for power generation.
Reduced Energy Consumption
Thermal management solutions can dissipate excess heat from electronic devices to prevent overheating. This reduces energy consumption by allowing devices to operate at their optimal temperature range and extend their lifespans. This is a critical benefit for industries that rely on sensitive devices like aerospace, medical and automotive, where system downtime or hazards can hurt customer satisfaction and product sales.
All electronics have a lower and an upper threshold below which normal operation becomes compromised. Components can quickly degrade or become too hot to touch if operated outside these temperature limits. In addition, high temperatures can cause electrical short circuits. To help reduce energy consumption, engineers use thermal management technologies to optimize the operating temperature range for their devices. Thermal management materials can carry and dissipate heat away from the devices that generate it, offering stress relief and insulation, lubricating components, filling gaps and providing long-term stability within applications.
The global market for thermal management solutions is growing due to the increasing demand for electric vehicles (EVs). In conventional cars, thermal management focuses on cooling down engines and transmissions through coolants and radiators. In EVs, however, thermal management involves cooling power batteries, fuel cells and motors. Therefore, EV manufacturers require special thermal management fluids to maintain these components at their optimum temperature range.
Increased Product Lifespan
Many electronic systems require a thermal management solution to prevent overheating. When overheating occurs, sensitive internal components can deteriorate or fail. Thermal management solutions are designed to dissipate excess heat, keeping these components within their operating temperature range and extending the product’s lifespan.
For example, electronic cooling systems are an essential component of electric vehicles. They help to ensure that batteries, power electronic systems, and motors can operate at optimum efficiency, which is critical to vehicle performance and driver safety. These cooling systems are also required to cool military electronics, aircraft power systems and other devices that must withstand extreme temperatures and environments.
In addition to effectively dissipating heat, some thermal management solutions are designed to resist corrosion and fouling. This helps to extend equipment life and reduce maintenance costs. Thermal management solutions are formulated to offer excellent chemical and thermal stability, allowing them to resist thermal degradation, oxidation and other forms of degradation. They are used in open-vented heat transfer systems and various industrial products, including laminating and calendaring rolls, molds, dyes, rubber and plastic extrusion equipment, and automotive, aerospace, energy & power, and other industries.
Increasing demand for energy-efficient, environmentally friendly products has led to new technological advancements that create a need for more effective thermal solutions. By offering a variety of advantages, thermal management solutions are helping to drive growth in several industry sectors.
Reduced Environmental Impact
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense with the world’s climate changing alarmingly. During these extended periods of high temperatures, cumulative physiological stress harms human health and exacerbates many of the world’s leading causes of disease and death. Indirect impacts can include loss of productive capacity and disruption of social services and critical infrastructure like energy, water and transportation.
Thermal management solutions effectively cool and dissipate excess heat in electronic systems. These include conducting heat away from the components that generate it, offering stress relief, providing electrical insulation and filling gaps to offer long-term stability within products. With the rise in miniaturization of electronics, the need for efficient and stable component and system-level cooling has become increasingly important.
The thermal fluids that are used in the production of these solutions come in a variety of forms, with non-aqueous holding the largest market share. This is because non-aqueous thermal management solutions can withstand higher temperatures, have greater thermal stability and have better corrosion resistance than water-based alternatives. They also do not need to be diluted before being used in industrial processes, resulting in increased operational efficiency. In addition to providing industrial applications with the necessary tools to reduce downtime and maximize productivity, thermal management solutions are also important in supporting electrified vehicles and enabling the onboard electric systems of these cars to operate at optimum efficiency. The automotive industry is transforming toward hybrid and electric vehicle models, which require advanced thermal management solutions to ensure their batteries last longer and that the onboard electric systems run smoothly.
