Green Laser 3D Printing for Pure Copper Heat Sinks: ADDIREEN and VoxelDance Collaborate on a Fully Localized Manufacturing Solution

As devices such as smartphones, computers, and electric vehicles evolve toward higher performance and miniaturization, the challenge of heat dissipation has become increasingly critical. With components getting smaller and more densely packed, traditional cooling methods struggle to meet the demands of high heat flux and compact form factors. In this context, 3D-printed pure copper heat sinks—renowned for their superior thermal conductivity, structural flexibility, and manufacturing efficiency—have begun to see widespread adoption across industries and continue to expand their application footprint.

Now, domestic innovation is breaking through long-standing technical bottlenecks in pure copper 3D printing. Leveraging self-developed high-power green lasers, ADDIREEN has overcome major challenges such as high reflectivity, thermal conductivity, and oxidation during the printing process. Together with VoxelDance, the two companies have launched a localized solution tailored to the demands of consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and aerospace—offering a new, cutting-edge path to high-efficiency thermal management.

Key Applications for 3D-Printed Heat Sinks

* Electronics Cooling:

  As computing power increases, the demand for effective heat management in computers and smartphones rises dramatically. 3D printing enables optimized structural designs for heat sinks that reduce weight and space while enhancing cooling performance—ideal for CPUs and compact electronic assemblies.

* Electric Vehicles:

  Batteries and motors require robust thermal solutions to ensure both safety and performance. With excellent heat conduction and form factor flexibility, 3D-printed copper heat sinks meet the stringent requirements of EV thermal management systems.

* Aerospace:

  Lightweight, high-performance heat dissipation is vital in aerospace, where reliability and efficiency are paramount. 3D printing enables the creation of complex internal geometries that were previously impossible to manufacture, improving thermal regulation.

* Data Centers & HPC:

  Heat loads in servers and supercomputers are immense and constant. 3D-printed heat sinks offer highly efficient, compact cooling solutions to support stable operation under heavy computational demands.

By solving the limitations of traditional manufacturing—particularly in complex geometries and high surface-area designs—3D-printed pure copper heat sinks are becoming a strategic direction for future thermal management.

Technical Challenge: TPMS Structures in Copper Printing

Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) are increasingly used as the structural backbone of modern heat sink designs. Their intricate geometries offer lightweight forms with high thermal transfer efficiency. However, these same advantages create significant challenges in CAD modeling, path planning, and actual fabrication.

Traditional CAD tools struggle with TPMS modeling, often resulting in poor stability and low design efficiency. Additive manufacturing path planning faces risks such as uneven fill patterns and localized stress concentrations. On top of that, pure copper is notoriously difficult to print due to its low absorption of conventional near-infrared lasers (approx. 3%) and high thermal conductivity, which can impair energy transfer and part formation.

Thus, the industry’s breakthrough hinges on two fronts: how to design TPMS structures efficiently, and how to overcome the inherent difficulties of printing pure copper.

Integrated Solution by VoxelDance & ADDIREEN

A Seamless Digital Workflow for Pure Copper TPMS Heat Sinks

VoxelDance Additive is a CAx industrial platform developed by VoxelDance, integrating every step of the additive manufacturing process—from design and simulation to toolpath planning and print management. The platform successfully handled the entire workflow for TPMS copper heat sink design, including modeling, preprocessing, and slicing—eliminating the need for multi-software data transfers.

Its design module, VoxelDance Design (VDD), leverages implicit modeling to generate parametric, real-time TPMS structures based on equations, simulation results, or user-defined parameters. This drastically shortens design cycles and allows for nonlinear, feature-driven design variations—providing precise control over surface curvature, geometry, and material behavior.

Once designed in VDD, users can switch directly to VoxelDance Manufacturing (VDM) for slicing—no need to export STL files. The system outputs formats like CLI and SLC and executes advanced path planning algorithms that reduce stress concentrations and improve accuracy and part integrity.

Green Laser PBF: Unlocking Pure Copper’s Potential

ADDIREEN, China’s first company dedicated to green-laser metal AM, has developed high-performance GL-PBF (Green Laser Powder Bed Fusion) systems equipped with proprietary single-mode green fiber lasers. These are especially effective for reflective, refractory, and precious metals—including copper, aluminum, gold, silver, and more.

Copper absorbs only 3% of energy from near-infrared lasers (1064 nm) but up to 40% from green lasers (532 nm). This drastic improvement in absorption enables a more stable melt pool, better energy efficiency, and improved printability for pure copper—especially critical for complex, high-precision applications.

ADDIREEN’s laser system achieves a minimum spot size of 15μm, offering excellent resolution and thermal control. When combined with VoxelDance’s optimized toolpaths, this ensures high-density, dimensionally accurate, and structurally stable TPMS parts.

In this case, a pure copper liquid-cooling plate with wall thickness of just 0.5 mm was successfully printed. Surface finish, fine details, and dimensional accuracy were all top-tier. Water pressure testing showed zero leakage at 8 MPa for five minutes, with part density exceeding 99.8%. Traditional issues like porosity, cracking, and surface irregularity were effectively eliminated—maximizing copper’s thermal potential.

ADDIREEN’s green laser-printed pure copper TPMS heat sink (source: ADDIREEN)

The Rise of Domestic Additive Manufacturing

The ADDIREEN and VoxelDance collaboration represents a milestone in China’s metal AM development—offering a complete solution from implicit design to high-precision copper printing. Their joint innovation enables scalable production of ultra-thin, 0.5 mm wall TPMS heat sinks—advancing both domestic CAx software and laser-based AM capabilities.

This breakthrough comes at a pivotal time, as demand surges in sectors like new energy, high-performance computing, and aerospace. As representatives of China’s next-generation AM ecosystem, ADDIREEN and VoxelDance are poised to lead the charge toward higher efficiency, greater performance, and increased localization in thermal management and beyond.