With the aim of further advancing its additive manufacturing (AM) capability, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) has established a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its long-time partner Conflux Technology. The new MoU is the culmination of several years of collaborative work between the two companies to build a flight-qualified ‘fuel oil heat exchanger’ (FOHE) for GA-ASI platforms.

Ken Loving, GA-ASI’s regional vice president for Indo-Pacific, said: “We continue to work closely with Conflux on the design and manufacture of FOHEs for our aircraft. Through this new MoU we will establish a clear path to production for the heat exchanger components used by multiple GA-ASI production lines.”

GA-ASI is a leading developer of unmanned aircraft, and Conflux is a thermal management system solutions company that is based in Australia and an industry-leading expert on applying additive manufacturing (AM) for heat exchanger applications.

Abe Masoud, Conflux’s business development manager (North America), said: “Our continued partnership with General Atomics is a milestone for the commercialisation of additively manufactured heat exchangers within the aerospace and defence markets, carrying the significant weight and performance benefits offered by these technologies towards production.”