Brazing in a high vacuum environment provides the most process control and produces the cleanest parts, free of any oxidation or scaling. It is the preferred brazing environment for brazing aerospace components, hardening medical devices and other applications that require the absolute highest part quality. While the MULPIC system consists of a cooling machine featuring precision valve control and an advanced automation system, a process model, or “digital twin,” allows for the integration of historical data, real-time information, and model adaption to impact the efficiency of continuous operation. By recalculating the required flow at every meter along the plate length, feedforward control compensates for variations in the incoming product temperature. Availability and Maintenance Improvements Crossbow” and “canoe” are common flatness defects for plates. By independently setting the flow from each top and bottom header, individual flow control valves can help limit these defects. Selecting the flow ratio can compensate for differences in the water-to-material heat transfer coefficients for the top and bottom surfaces. Edge Masking

A profiled lid is then placed into a recess above the flow-path and is F.S.W (friction stir welded) into place. Finally the welded surface is fly-cut flat, inlet/outlet holes and component mounting holes are added. Die Cast (Liquid cold plate)Unlike previous cooling technologies, MULPIC has adapted accelerated cooling technologies to include the latest automation and digitalization technologies to realize analog improvements in plate cooling. This solution allows producers of high-strength steel to see immediate improvements in quality and yield while reducing their environmental impact. Additionally, the MULPIC system provides flexibility regarding cooling options, from direct quenching to accelerated cooling, making the cooling process more efficient. MULPIC’s Digital Twin also offers the opportunity to use real-world data in an offline testing format to ensure seamless execution of trial runs and assistance with strategy, product design, development times, and the costs typically associated with such practices. With a combined mechatronic and digital solution, MULPIC offers the opportunity for steel producers to lessen their environmental impact while improving production. The impact of accelerated cooling on plate production is immediately visible regarding reduced manufacturing time. For example, direct quenched (DQ) or abrasion-resistant steel plates require specific processing that traditionally utilizes reheating, quenching, and tempering to reach the necessary hardness, toughness, work-hardening, and ductility required. Producers of high-strength steel focus on these characteristics because abrasion-resistant steel is essential in mining, lifting, and excavation industries. Inline cooling technology is a viable solution for steel producers to achieve greater efficiency by applying direct quenching that bypasses the reheating step. While online operations can experience improvements, offline analysis of aspects of inline cooling improves the function of MULPIC—from heat transfer and metallurgical properties to the impact of the cooling machine. MULPIC’s Digital Twin is a model that utilizes the same models as the Level 2 control system and cooling model that adds a user interface to perform offline simulations. These simulations allow steel producers to optimize the cooling process fully.

Abrasion-resistant steel requires temperature control and flatness to achieve the correct microstructure. Cooling conditions can vary during rolling and result in nonuniform temperature profiles of the plate. Despite these challenges, the inline cooling technologies from Primetals Technologies demonstrated the successful application of direct quenching and temperature control to produce ideal and targeted surface microstructures directly after rolling, translating to the necessary hardness and toughness for demanding steel grades. The extremities of the product may become overcooled due to additional water flowing across the top surface or from the rolling process itself. During the head and tail (H/T) masking, the water flow reduces by a predefined level and distance along the material to compensate for this additional cooling. Feedforward Control Accelerated cooling of hot-rolled sheets emerged in the 1980s. Today, “alloying with water” is standard practice in the steel industry, where micro-alloyed steel plates are cooled directly after rolling, achieving the desired strength, flatness, and toughness. However, the value of accelerated cooling extends beyond the ability to achieve the desired microstructure and product quality but also allows for the elimination of expensive reheating practices, efficient water utilization, improved yield, and an accelerated production time. As the steel industry focuses on its environmental impact and producers search for ways of simultaneously improving efficiency and product quality, digitalization and process optimization are the keys to a sustainable future for steel. An analog and digital solution from Primetals Technologies focused on inline plate cooling, MULPIC, provides steel producers with a means of cooling plates in an eco-friendlier and more efficient manner, all the while reducing production costs. The next step beyond an open-air environment is to use a controlled atmosphere under normal or close-to-normal atmospheric pressure. In this type of environment, a high degree of control over the overall process can be achieved and open-air issues of oxidation, scaling and carbon buildup can be virtually eliminated. Vaccuum brazingA gun-drilled cold plate is manufactured by drilling a series of holes through the length of an aluminium plate to form multiple flow paths. Thermoelectric coolers operate by the Peltier effect (one of three phenomena that make up the thermoelectric effect). [2] A thermoelectric module is made from three components; the conductors, legs, and the substrate, and many of these modules are connected electrically in series, but thermally in parallel. [2] When a DC electric current flows through the device, it brings heat from one side to the other, so that one side gets cooler while the other gets hotter. These cold plates are generally used for high-performance designs that require low thermal resistance, and superior leak-free reliability. They enable designers the greatest flexibility in specifying such criteria as thermal resistance, thermal flow, pressure drop, fluid path, size, shape, material hardness, surface geometry, and the ability to mount components on both sides of the plate. The internal features can be created by machining flow guides and fins from the base metal or by introducing high-performance corrugated aluminium-fin. Dependent on the required thermal performance and the cooling fluid to be used the tube can be copper or stainless steel and can be a simple mechanical (dry) press fit, press fit with a thermal epoxy boundary to eliminate micro voids or soldered in place for maximum thermal performance. Gun Drilled (Liquid cold plate) These cold plates have the advantage that there are no thermal boundaries and the aluminium plate has had no thermal stress during the manufacturing process so flatness is easier to achieve. FSW Friction stir welded (Liquid cold plate)

For the inlet and outlet fluid path, holes are drilled perpendicular to the main fluid path and then partially plugged to create a continuous coolant path.

The "hot" side is attached to a heat sink so that it remains at ambient temperature, while the cool side goes below room temperature. In special applications, multiple coolers can be cascaded or staged together for lower temperature, but overall efficiency (COP) drops significantly. The maximum COP of any refrigeration cycle is ultimately limited by the difference between the desired (cold side) and ambient (hot side) temperature (the temperature of the heat sink). The higher the temperature difference (delta), the lower the maximum theoretical COP.

When applying plate cooling technology, the benefits for steel producers are abundant, including improved cost efficiency, reduced environmental impact, increased product versatility—i.e., from structural grades to abrasion-resistant steel—, leaner manufacturing, and enhanced quality and productivity. However, previous accelerated cooling technologies were without recent developments in automation and digitalization, which now take each of these improvements one step further. Primetals Technologies has combined its competencies in mechatronics, automation, and digitalization solutions to create the MULPIC system for inline cooling. Direct quenched (DQ) or abrasion-resistant steel plates on a cooling bed Near-surface optical micrograph taken from a test sample of direct quenched (DQ) or abrasion-resistant steel plate Introducing MULPICMultiple internal and external features can be incorporated into the two Die Cast tools. After casting the two halves can be bonded together by welding or by the use of an epoxy. Brazed (Liquid cold plate) Two unique semiconductors, one n-type and one p-type, are used because they need to have different electron densities. The alternating p & n-type semiconductor pillars are placed thermally in parallel to each other and electrically in series and then joined with a thermally conducting plate on each side, usually ceramic, removing the need for a separate insulator. When a voltage is applied to the free ends of the two semiconductors there is a flow of DC current across the junction of the semiconductors, causing a temperature difference. The side with the cooling plate absorbs heat which is then transported by the semiconductor to the other side of the device. Image of Cold Plate with the upper layer made transparent. This shows the flow path, in this case designed to perform like a Bubble Plate