kulr technology announced today that it will unveil three new, nasa-tested carbon fiber cooling solutions for space and commercial technology.

at space tech expo, kulr will demonstrate products that have been tested by nasa and built for space and other high-demand applications.

the three products are:

• phase change material (pcm) heat sink
• fiber thermal interface material (fti)
• lithium-ion battery runaway shield (trs)

“these products are the legacy of more than two decades of research and investment by and with our partners at nasa,” said dr. timothy r. knowles, cto of kulr technology. “in most cases, our carbon fiber cooling solutions are the most effective, lightest weight ever tested.”

kulr pcm heat sink is a conductive carbon fiber velvet embedded with a suitable alkane (“paraffin”) having high latent heat at its melting point. such heat sinks offer passive thermal control for instruments that would otherwise overheat or under cool.

dr. knowles and vp of engineering, mike carpenter built two flight pcm heat sinks for the nasa’s neutron star interior composition explorer (nicer) program that will provide high-precision measurements of neutron stars, objects containing ultra-dense matter at the threshold of collapse into black holes. the nicer launch is set for 2017 aboard a spacex dragon cargo spacecraft.

thermally, the heat sinks provide sensible and latent heat capacity to prevent excessive cooling of the nicer instruments when they are disconnected from electrical power. this separation from power is expected to occur when transferring the package from the launch vehicle to its mounting location on the iss and may last as long as 6 hours. 

the pcm heat sinks are integrated into their respective mounting decks so that the thermal and structural functions are combined in one unit. the a-deck provides >900 kj of latent heat and >12 kj/°c sensible heat frozen (>14k j/°c melted). the i-deck provides >600 kj of latent heat and >9 kj/°c sensible heat frozen (>10.8 kj/°c melted).

kulr thermal interface materials (fti) consist of sparse carbon fiber velvets attached to a film of polymer or metal. the fiber packing density and orientation are selected to serve a wide range of applications, including hostile thermal and chemical environments, sliding interfaces, and interfaces with widely varying gaps. they require low contact pressure and provide high thermal conductivity.

kulr has developed a vaporizing heatsink aimed at passive resistance to thermal runaway propagation (trs) in lithium ion batteries in partnership with nasa johnson space center. the heat sink shield keeps trigger cell's neighbor cells safe from thermal runaway propagation. this lightweight solution can achieve 220 wh/kg in battery energy density. this solution is used for energy storage, industrial and consumer electronics applications where it requires a lightweight and passive solution to the battery safe.

nasa has successfully tested trs in live-cell failure test and it represents the best solution for stopping thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries for space and other, wide commercial applications such as electric vehicles and medical equipment.

“kulr’s solution is the lightest weight battery heat sink option nasa has evaluated to date that has excellent promise to prevent thermal runaway propagation with the highest energy density cots li-ion cell designs,” said by dr. eric darcy, nasa johnson space control lead battery principal. “to date, nasa has not found a design solution with as much promise for preventing li-ion battery trp with as positive temperature margins on the adjacent cells while also being very lightweight.”

“our carbon fiber solutions have deep and broad applications to a host of non-space products too, and we’re pursuing those uses in several markets already,” said kulr ceo michael mo.