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CP004
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The CP004 is a high-performance liquid cold plate engineered for 3000W industrial laser systems. It combines friction stir welding (FSW) construction with an extruded aluminum heatsink to deliver reliable, cost-optimized thermal management — maintaining stable laser diode and gain medium temperatures without the premium cost of vacuum-brazed or diffusion-bonded alternatives.
With dimensions of 256 × 232 × 25 mm, the CP004 provides a generous 59,392 mm² contact footprint to cover the full heat dissipation zone of high-power laser pump chambers, fiber coupling assemblies, and power electronics within the laser head enclosure. The degreased surface finish ensures contamination-free integration into closed-loop liquid cooling circuits, preventing particulate buildup that could degrade pump and heat exchanger performance over extended service life.
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that uses a rotating tool to generate frictional heat, softening the aluminum without melting it. The tool then mechanically stirs the materials together along the joint line, creating a strong, homogeneous bond. For cold plate manufacturing, FSW offers several distinct advantages over traditional joining methods:
No filler materials — Eliminates compatibility concerns between filler and base metal that complicate fusion welding processes
Leak-free joints — The solid-state bond forms without solidification defects (porosity, hot cracking) that create leak paths in fusion-welded cold plates
Near-parent-material strength — The stirred joint zone achieves mechanical properties approaching those of the original aluminum alloy, ensuring structural integrity under thermal cycling
Reduced manufacturing costs — Compared to vacuum brazing or diffusion bonding, FSW eliminates furnace time, reduces energy consumption, and achieves faster cycle times, translating to an estimated 30–50% cost reduction at comparable thermal performance
Excellent thermal uniformity — The solid-state bond maintains thermal conductivity across the joint interface, ensuring the structural seal does not become a thermal bottleneck between the channel plate and cover lid
These characteristics make FSW particularly well-suited for high-power industrial laser cooling applications, where leak reliability and long-term thermal stability under continuous operation are non-negotiable requirements.
Industrial laser systems operating at the 3000W level present a demanding thermal management problem. Unlike lower-power laser systems, where passive air cooling or simple cold plate designs may suffice, the 3 kW class requires deliberate thermal engineering:
Concentrated heat sources in a compact head. The laser diode pump array, gain medium (whether fiber, disk, or slab), and associated drive electronics all generate significant waste heat within a physically constrained laser head enclosure. The CP004's 256 × 232 mm footprint is designed to serve as a shared cold plate for multiple heat sources within the laser head, consolidating thermal management into a single, space-efficient component.
Temperature stability for wavelength and beam quality. Laser diode emission wavelength and gain medium performance are temperature-dependent. Even modest junction temperature fluctuations in the pump diodes shift emission wavelength away from the gain medium's absorption peak, directly reducing wall-plug efficiency and degrading beam quality. The CP004's extruded aluminum micro-channel structure provides uniform heat extraction across the full contact surface, minimizing temperature gradients that cause wavelength drift and mode instability.
Long-duration continuous operation. Industrial 3000W lasers are production tools — they run shifts of 8–12 hours in cutting, welding, and additive manufacturing environments. The cold plate must sustain thermal performance not in a short burst, but continuously, without developing hot spots or flow channel degradation over thousands of operating hours. FSW construction eliminates the risk of braze alloy erosion or void formation under sustained thermal cycling.
Cost pressure in competitive manufacturing. For system integrators and laser OEMs, the thermal solution can represent a significant fraction of the laser head bill of materials. Vacuum brazing and diffusion bonding — while effective — carry premium costs driven by furnace time and low throughput. Friction stir welding reduces cold plate manufacturing cost by an estimated 30–50% compared to vacuum-brazed equivalents at comparable thermal performance, making the CP004 a commercially attractive option without engineering compromise.
The CP004's fluid channel seal is created by friction stir welding — a solid-state bond with near-parent-material strength at the weld zone. Unlike fusion welding, FSW produces no solidification defects — no porosity, no hot cracking, no filler metal interactions — eliminating the most common failure modes that lead to internal leaks in liquid cold plates. For laser system integrators, this translates to higher manufacturing yield and lower field failure rates compared to vacuum-brazed or fusion-welded alternatives.
The cold plate's internal flow path is formed from an extruded aluminum micro-channel structure. Extrusion allows tight control over channel geometry — fin height, channel width, wall thickness, and pitch — to optimize the balance between thermal performance and pressure drop for the system's specific coolant flow rate. Compared to machined channels (which remove material and generate waste) or brazed fin structures (which add cost), extrusion delivers consistent channel quality at lower per-unit cost, especially at production volumes.
The CP004's 59,392 mm² cold plate area accommodates multiple heat sources within a 3000W laser head — pump diodes, gain medium mounting plate, and drive electronics — on a single shared cold plate. This integration reduces the number of independent cooling loops, simplifies coolant routing, and frees internal laser head volume for optical alignment and beam delivery components. The 25 mm total thickness leaves generous clearance within standard industrial laser head enclosures.
The CP004 undergoes a degreasing process that removes machining oils, handling residues, and surface contaminants from both external surfaces and internal flow channels. In a liquid cooling loop, any residual contamination can migrate into the coolant and accumulate in pumps, valves, or heat exchangers, progressively degrading system performance. Degreasing ensures the CP004 integrates cleanly into the coolant circuit from day one, protecting downstream components and reducing the need for early coolant system maintenance.
At just 25 mm total thickness over a 256 × 232 mm area, the CP004 balances the need for a large thermal contact surface with the vertical space constraints of industrial laser head enclosures. The low profile allows the cold plate to be mounted directly beneath the gain medium and pump diode assemblies without interfering with beam path alignment or optical train components, preserving the tight mechanical tolerances that laser optical systems demand.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Model | CP004 |
| Type | Liquid Cold Plate |
| Core Technology | Friction Stir Welding (FSW) + Extruded Aluminum Heatsink |
| Dimensions | 256 × 232 × 25 mm |
| Contact Area | ~59,392 mm² |
| Surface Treatment | Degreasing |
| Application | Industrial Laser |
| Target System | 3000W Laser System |
| Construction Method | Solid-state FSW (no filler, no brazing flux) |
| Material | Aluminum Alloy |
The CP004 is designed to manage waste heat from 3000W-class industrial laser systems. Its thermal performance is characterized by three design priorities:
High-flow micro-channel architecture — The extruded aluminum channel array is engineered to maintain turbulent or transitional flow across the full cold plate surface at system coolant flow rates, maximizing the convective heat transfer coefficient between channel walls and coolant
Uniform heat extraction — The large 256 × 232 mm contact area distributes thermal load across a wide channel network, preventing localized flow saturation and hot spot formation even when the cold plate serves multiple heat sources simultaneously
Low thermal resistance bonding — The FSW joint between the channel plate and cover lid achieves near-parent-material thermal conductivity, ensuring that the structural seal does not become a thermal bottleneck
In a representative 3000W laser system configuration, the CP004 maintains laser diode junction temperatures and gain medium temperatures within manufacturer-specified operating ranges, enabling stable laser output and long diode lifetime under continuous production duty cycles.
3000W fiber laser cutting and welding systems
High-power diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laser pump chamber cooling
Direct diode laser (DDL) array thermal management
Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) system cooling
Industrial laser cladding and surface treatment equipment
High-power laser marking and engraving systems requiring liquid cooling
| Value Dimension | Description |
|---|---|
| Cost-Effective FSW | 30–50% lower manufacturing cost vs vacuum-brazed cold plates at comparable performance |
| Leak-Tight Solid-State Seal | FSW eliminates weld porosity and braze void defects for higher manufacturing yield |
| Large Contact Area | 256 × 232 mm (59,392 mm²) serves multiple heat sources on a single cold plate |
| 25 mm Low Profile | Fits within standard industrial laser head enclosures without beam path interference |
| Cleanroom-Ready | Degreased internal and external surfaces protect coolant loop integrity |
| High-Volume Compatible | Extruded construction + FSW process scales efficiently to production volumes |
Greatminds Thermal Technology provides comprehensive OEM customization for the CP004 platform:
Channel geometry optimization — Adjust fin pitch, channel width, and depth to match specific coolant types (water, water-glycol, dielectric fluids) and target flow rates
Footprint customization — Modify cold plate dimensions and mounting patterns for non-standard laser head enclosures
Multi-zone cooling — Partition the internal flow path into independent zones with dedicated inlet/outlet ports for lasers with spatially separated heat sources
Port configuration — Custom inlet/outlet port type, size, orientation, and placement (threaded, barb, compression fitting, O-ring face seal)
Surface treatments — Anodizing, chemical conversion coating, or passivation for specialized operating environments beyond the standard degreased condition
Integrated mounting features — Machined mounting bosses, threaded inserts, or locating features built into the cold plate structure
Contact our engineering team to discuss your specific 3000W laser system cooling requirements. Whether you need a custom footprint for a proprietary laser head, multi-zone cooling for a dual-wavelength system, or volume OEM pricing — we provide tailored liquid cooling solutions for industrial laser platforms.
FAQs
Q：Do you have your own brand? A：Yes. Our brand name is GREATMINDS. |
Q：Are you a manufacture or trading company？ A：We design and produce thermal products by ourselves. |
Q：Where is your plant? A：We have two plants. One is at Suzhou in eastern China, and the other is at Dongguan in southern China. |
Q：What thermal products do you supply? A：We have heatsink, fan, heapipe, vapor chamber, liquid cooling solution, and so on. |
Q：Which types of heatsinks do you supply? A：Our products cover many processes, extrusion, die casting, skived fin, zipper fin, soldering,friction stir welding, vaccum brazing, and so on. |
Q：What is the leadtime for prototype? A：It depends on different type of products. Usually it takes 2-3 weeks. |
Q：Do you have a NPI process in your company? A：Yes. Tooling samples and trial run will be strictly implemented before mass production. |
Q：What capabilities do you have in your plant? A：We have stamping, machining, and soldering production in house. |
