Additive Manufacturing Of Products With Functional Fluid Channels: A Review

Products with functional fluid channels can transfer mass or energy and have been widely used in various fields, including aerospace, robotic, and biomedical applications. The manufacturing of these products with complex fluid channels is usually difficult for conventional fabrication methods; thus, a portion of the fluid flow function must be sacrificed to realize the feasible and smooth fabrication. Additive manufacturing not only provides a new way to manufacture the products with complex internal channels but also highlights design revolution for existing products with regular internal channels currently limited by conventional fabrication methods. To date, many publications have been reported on the design and manufacture of products with functional fluid channels, but there is a lack of an overview on this topic. In this paper, the current state of additively manufactured products with fluid channels are reviewed. Different functional fluid channels in heat exchangers, fluid power components, bipolar plates of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and artificial blood vessels are summarized, and the challenges and further direction of additively manufactured products with functional fluid channels are also discussed.