Products & Services
Microchanneled plates
Plates of thickness from 0,2 to 5 mm and from few centimeters to 850 mm width and 3000 mm lenght size of stainless steel (including nuclear grade), inconel, aluminum, titanium and copper with grooves of various shapes and dimensions (width from 0,4 up to 6 mm/depth from 0,2 up to 3 mm), including manifolds and holes for plate-to-plate fluid connection, made with chemical etching.
Chemical etched heat exchanger plates
Your channel geometry. Large format. Produced in-house.
Microchannel Devices manufactures heat exchanger plates by chemical etching — the same process that underlies its own PCHE production, performed entirely in-house with the same facility, the same team and the same DEKRA-certified quality management system. Plates are supplied as semi-finished components ready for assembly or subsequent diffusion bonding.
Chemical etching of metals is the founding competence of Microchannel Devices.
The company was built on the decades-long expertise of STV Group in metal surface treatment, developing precision etching for advanced industrial applications: before manufacturing complete PCHE, MCD manufactured plates.
The process was built on dedicated etching lines, with equipment optimised for the specific chemistry involved, and with direct investment in operator safety and environmental impact reduction.
The practical result for customers sourcing plates as a semi-finished component: channel geometry guaranteed across the full length of the sheet, not just on the qualification sample. Dimensional tolerances controlled internally, with traceable and documented process parameters under ISO 9001.
Years of collective experience
Our strenghts
Fully integrated process
Chemical etching, diffusion bonding, post processing and testing take place in a single production facility, with direct control over every critical parameter: geometrical, diffusion bonding process, performance, cleanliness.
Full process control with no dependency on external treatment enables our zero defect policy.
Custom design and manufacturing
We engineer with you, not just for you.
Every device is bespoke. Our engineers work alongside your team to develop the most efficient solution —including architectures an integrated process makes possible: multistream PCHE, hybrid PCHE, cold plates. And because the full chain is ours, we move at a speed others cannot match.
Fast & flexible
High performance
We etch plates larger in width and length than any competitor — up to 850 × 3000 mm — and build PCHE cores engineered for extreme conditions: pressures above 900 bar, temperatures from −200 °C to +900 °C, hydrostatic testing up to 2000 bar, including lethal service in Oil & Gas.
Diffusion bonding turns the stacked plates into a single monolithic block with the strength of the parent material: no brazing, no gaskets, no external welds. Maximum performance in minimum space — up to 85% smaller and lighter than traditional heat exchangers, with ~98% thermal efficiency.
Certified quality
Microchanneled plates
From Drawing to plate.
Development of a new geometry starts from the client’s technical specification — or, when it is not yet defined, from a technical call with MCD’s engineering team.
Critical parameters are discussed directly: material, thickness, channel width and depth, cross-section profile, manifold position and dimensions, required tolerances, surface treatments, qualification documentation.
Before series production, MCD runs a qualification cycle on a sample: the etched geometry is dimensionally verified, tolerances are documented and the sample is approved with the client. Series production begins only after that sign-off.
It is the same approach MCD applies to its own PCHE: co-engineering from specification, not adaptation of a standard product.
Large-format capability — single plates up to 3000×850 mm — that very few European manufacturers can offer, reducing the number of plates required for a given core, the number of inter-plate joints and the complexity of final assembly.
Whether it is a prototype for a test campaign, a small series for an R&D project or a recurring supply for series production, the Microchannel Devices engineering team evaluates technical and manufacturing feasibility from the first enquiry.
our process
Etched in-house
In large formats.
The result is a plate no catalogue can match: burr-free, stress-free channels with repeatable tolerances guaranteed across the full sheet — not just on the qualification sample — documented under an ISO 9001 system certified by DEKRA; five available materials including nuclear-grade stainless steel; and channel geometries co-engineered with your technical team.
The same plates, the same process and the same quality standard µCD relies on for its own PCHE.
Chemical etching: the process.
Chemical etching is a wet-process metalworking technique that selectively removes material from a metal surface through the controlled action of chemical agents. Channel geometry is defined by a photographic mask — which is why heat exchangers built from etched plates are called “printed circuit” heat exchangers — determining with precision the position, width, depth and profile of every channel on the sheet.
Unlike mechanical milling, chemical etching introduces no residual stress into the material, produces no burrs, does not degrade surface mechanical properties, and allows complex geometries — curves, bifurcations, integrated manifolds — to be replicated across large-format plates with consistent, repeatable dimensional tolerances. On materials such titanium, where mechanical machining is slow and costly, chemical etching is often the only technically and economically viable route.
Available materials
- Stainless steel (including nuclear-grade)
- Aluminium
- Titanium
- Copper
Dimensions
- Thickness: 0.2 – 5 mm
- Width: up to 850 mm
- Length: up to 3000 mm
Channel geometry
- Channel width: 0.4 – 6 mm
- Channel depth: 0.2 – 3 mm
- Cross-section profiles fully customisable to client technical specification
- Manifolds and plate-to-plate fluid connection holes available on request
Applications
Microchanneled plates applications
for demanding industries.
PCHE and compact heat exchanger manufacturers
Etched plates can be delivered to system integrators and OEM as a qualified semi-finished component for subsequent diffusion bonding.
Channel geometry is defined with MCD’s engineering team through co-design: dimensions, profile, manifold position, connection holes.
The customer receives a stack-ready component with full process documentation and material certification.
R&D and research laboratories
Development of advanced thermodynamic cycles — Allam cycle, sCO₂ systems, hydrogen-based processes — requires prototype plates with channel geometries that do not exist in any catalogue and that change between test iterations.
MCD produces single prototypes and small series under the same process and the same documentation as full production runs: there is no separate “prototype process.” Research institutions working with MCD — including Politecnico di Torino and IIT — work on this basis.
Fluidic and process applications
Chemical etching produces more than heat exchanger plates: microfluidic reactors, flow distributors for electrolysers and fuel cells, gas separation components, precision dosing system plates.
In all these cases, channel geometry is the critical parameter — and it is defined around the client’s specific process requirements, not adapted from a catalogue.
Nuclear and regulated applications
Nuclear-grade stainless steel is available on request. For SMR programmes and primary/secondary circuit applications in next-generation reactors, MCD supplies plates with material and process traceability documentation consistent with the required application qualifications.
ISO 9001 certification and the DEKRA-certified quality management system form the baseline for subsequent sector-specific qualifications.
