Rolls-royce Corporation

Alistair Calderwood

John O Fowler

James E Boardman

Colin I Adderley

Simon A Banks

A compact, high integrity heat exchanger element comprises a core layer through which the heat exchange fluid passes between its inlet and its outlet. The core layer includes a main heat exchange region containing heat exchange surfaces acting as fins. It also has distributor/ collector regions containing flow intercepting features for distributing or collecting the fluid flow over the width of the element. The heat exchange element consists of a minimum of two unitary sheets of metal joined by diffusion bonding in selected places. During manufacture, at least one of the unitary sheets has been superplastically deformed, in at least some of the places where it has not been diffusion bonded, so as to form the core layer complete with all its features in one operation.

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Nottingham, United Kingdom

Alistair Calderwood