Rapid prototyping assists cooling technology

To reduce loud fan noise on his home-office computer, Copenhagen-based Henrik Olsen formed a company named Noise Limit ApS back in 2005, a developer of noiseless cooling technology for high-end CPU's. Noise Limit has since grown into a seven-employee business that is about to sell its first products to a growing list of interested parties.

The company’s new system is called SilentFlux, and helps to eliminate the requirement for fast running fans to blast air on to aluminium heatsinks. SilentFlux solutions are hermetically closed, self-circulating liquid circuits with no moving parts that can dissipate more heat using less airflow. Because airflow is the main source of noise in most PCs, this reduction decreases noise levels considerably.

The development process over the past couple of years has been meticulously planned - and the need for rapid prototypes at various stages has been paramount in helping Noise Limit demonstrate its ideas to potential customers across the globe. Although the SilentFlux cooler is manufactured from aluminium, various plastic parts are also required to mount the product on to the motherboard.

“In the development phase we needed to produce samples equivalent to the production design,” explains Noise Limit’s CEO Torben Lange. “Machining plastic parts produces different mechanical properties - we needed moulded components manufactured from the actual material. Initially I searched the internet for companies capable of meeting our requirements but most were quoting six, seven or eight week lead-times. Unfortunately timescales of these proportions are not fast enough in the IT industry. Then I came across the website of Protomold, where I discovered I could have my parts in just five days."

Lange submitted a design via ‘Part Tester’ on Protomold’s website, and stated, “Part Tester is a brilliant concept. Within an hour of submitting our design we had feedback from Protomold on how we could optimise the design to suit mass production moulding.”

So impressed was Lange that Noise Limit has used Protomold’s services many times during the development of SilentFlux.

“Only last week I discussed a tool with Protomold,” he says. “The tool was completed over the weekend and yesterday I received 50-off components moulded in the production material. The parts are being assembled here today and will be shipped to our potential customer in Taiwan tomorrow. Using a service such as Protomold also offers me a back-up should production tools from Asia get delayed or broken. If I have a customer waiting I know that Protomold has a tool ready-to-go should it be required.”

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