Plough-extrusion Forming for Making Micro-groove Heat Pipes on Hydrostatic Thrust Bearings of Heavy Machinery

The present paper focuses on the manufacturing of micro-groove heat pipes on hydrostatic thrust bearings of heavy machinery. Special multitooth tools were designed for plough-extrusion forming heat pipes on flat copper. Experimental results were conducted to determine whether the plough-extrusion forming could achieve better performance than traditional wire electrical discharge. Furthermore, the processing using multi-tooth tool with 10 mm length, 55 tooth number, 0.25 mm tooth depth and 0.22 tooth top width was found to achieve the best performance among the six optional tools. The 50 mm/min forming speed was determined to acquire the best surface quality of the microgroove structure. Through heat transfer testing, the theoretical model for a micro-groove heat pipe made by plough-extrusion forming was also verified.