From concept to consumer-the commercialization of technology heatpipes

摘要

The path leading to the commercialization of technology islittered with far more unsuccessful projects than is generallyappreciated. The odds on the success of a given project have beenlikened to those of wildcatting in the oil or gas industry: perhapsone-in-three to one-in-five within a previously established field andfrom one-in-six to one-in-ten in a new field. This paper examines thecommercialization of heat pipe technology as seen through the eyes ofthe authors, who themselves helped to make it happen. It covers theperiod from August 1962 to the present. This is the time span from theinitial concept of the heat pipe, as reinvented by Dr. George M. Groverof the Los Alamos National Laboratory, to the present day production atDTX of more than 4000 heat pipes per day. The initial application,Government-sponsored nuclear power in space, has not prospered. Thepresent volume market lies in the cooling of CPU chips in notebookcomputers. The paper explores the personal, engineering, facilitationand market aspects of this transition