Thermal Transfer Product Design

What is Thermal Transfer?

In layman's term, thermal transfer is simply the ability to take temperature from one point to another. To have this definition a little more explicit, I will say that thermal transfer is the action of evacuating a certain temperature or to hold it to attain a precise end.

An simple example of heat transfer happens every time you are cooking. When you put a the pot over the cooker, heat is transferred to the pot by conduction. At first, the pot is cold, then it gets heated as the heat get transferred to it continuously, up to the point where both have the same temperature.

What is thermal transfer used for in industry?

We count numerous examples where we could not do without thermal transfer as it is at the heart of many industrial processes.

Taking a car's engine for example, it is necessary that it get cooled as it works because if the temperature of the engine were simply left to cool naturally without any system in place, it will simply break.

That is the reason why in Automotive, heat transfer is a MUST, not only because of the engine since the whole interior of the cars and its mechanic need a certain temperature regulation while it functions.

A proper Heat Transfer Design not only enhance the efficiency of the engine but also extend its life expectancy.

A car has in itself many processes that actually require thermal transfer such as the exhaust system, the ventilation, the air conditioning system, the heat exchangers and the battery cooling system.

Thermal Transfer Product Design

At HTPD, we have an extensive experience in thermal transfer product Design which is one of the core competency of ours.

The ABC of designing using 123D Design

123D Design is a free CAD software by Autodesk commonly used for educational purposes and for 3D printing.

This piece of software in my opinion is one of the easiest CAD software to learn out there, with the minimum options but allowing you at the same time to use your creativity to come out with exceptional designs.

In this post, we will see what it looks like to decide to start using this CAD software from scratch.

First step

The first thing to do is to head to 123D Design official site to download a free copy of the software which you can install in your computer and start designing right after.

One thing to know is, unless you have a computer mouse with at least 3 buttons, you would not be able to use any CAD software properly. You can't just CAD design using a touch pad. Nevertheless, there are version of CAD software created for tablets.

Getting to know the software

Here is what the main window of the software looks like at a first glance. You have drop-down menu above the fold and some tools on the side of the main window.

Designing your first object

Let's design a square.

Step 1

Click on Sketch and select Polyline

Step 2

Draw a square with each side equal to 40 units

 Step 3

Move to a 3D view with a click on the down left corner of the 3D navigation box as shown on the image below.

The view should look something like the image below

Step 4

Click on the EXTRUDE icon, select the object we have just drawn, indicate the height of the extrusion but pulling on the arrow that will make itself visible after you activate the extrusion command and hit the ENTER key on your keyboard.

The height of the box does not matter. When it is done, the result should look something like the image below.

Step 5

Now, Let's round some edges using the Fillet command.

Activate the command, select the edges to adjust and use the arrow to indicate the radius by which they will be rounded. You can also indicate the radius by entering its value in the text area that will appear on the down side of the window.

Let's head to the following.
Where two of the radius are 10 and two are 5. You can easily figure out the combination.

Use the orbit icon to navigate in 3D

As basics as this is, I wish it somehow helped you have gauge a bit while designing in 3D using 123D Design looks like.

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