Products & Services
Printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHE).
PCHE engineered for your process.
Manufactured entirely in-house.
Microchannel Devices engineers and manufactures PCHE entirely in-house — from chemical etching of the plates through diffusion bonding of the core to ASME U certification and final test documentation. One facility, one engineering team, direct control over every stage of the production process.
Every PCHE we deliver is born and completed in a single facility near Turin, Italy: plates are chemically etched, stacked and diffusion bonded, machined, tested and documented for ASME U certification within one integrated process. No critical stage is outsourced — which means channel geometry, material traceability and final quality answer to one engineering team, and to no one else’s supply chain.
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
Printed circuit heat exchangers
One monolithic block. No gaskets, no brazing, no leak paths.
A Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger is built from chemically etched plates joined by diffusion bonding — a solid-state joining process that fuses the stacked plates into a single monolithic core, with joints as strong and ductile as the parent material.
No gaskets, no brazing alloys, no external welds along the channels: the core is gas-tight by design, not sealed by components that can age, degrade, or fail over time.
This is what allows a PCHE to operate where conventional heat exchangers cannot: pressures above 900 bar, operating temperatures ranging from cryogenic service to very high-temperature applications, and heat-transfer effectiveness of up to ~98% in a core up to 85% smaller and lighter than a traditional heat exchanger.
µCD units are designed and certified according to PED or ASME Sec. VIII, as the application requires — including the “L” lethal gas service option.
And because µCD chemically etches its plates in-house, the channel pattern is never a catalogue item: each core is bespoke, engineered around the client’s process requirements — including multi-stream configurations that integrate multiple process loops into a single unit, replacing several exchangers with one compact block.
Production Process
- Chemical etching with fully customisable channel geometry to client technical specification
- Diffusion bonding: solid-state high-temperature welding — no gaskets, no mechanical joints
- Fully leak-proof monolithic core, helium leak-tested and hydrostatically pressure-tested
Available materials
- Stainless steel
- Titanium
- Aluminium
Dimensions
Custom multiple cores up to 4 x 1.5 x 0.8 m – larger dimensions possibleCertifications
- ASME U, Section VIII Div. 1 — with lethal service (“L”) option
- PED 2014/68/EU
- ISO 9001:2015 · ISO 14001:2015 · ISO 45001:2023
Printed circuit heat exchangers applications
PCHE applications
for demanding industries.
The quality of a PCHE ultimately depends on the quality of the two key processes used to manufacture it: chemical etching and diffusion bonding. When either process is outsourced to a subcontractor operating with equipment and process parameters outside the manufacturer’s direct control, channel dimensional tolerances can accumulate, bonding repeatability may vary, and compliance with project specifications becomes less predictable.
Microchannel Devices performs both processes entirely in-house, within the same facility, by the same engineering team and under a single DEKRA-certified quality management system.
This approach ensures full traceability of every critical manufacturing parameter, including channel geometry, diffusion bonding thermal cycles, hydrostatic testing, and helium leak testing.
All records are generated internally and traceable to a single certified production process, eliminating dependence on external suppliers for critical manufacturing operations.
Hydrogen cooling
Microchannel Devices multistream PCHE are used for intercooler cooling of multi-stage H₂ compressors — from 2 to 4 stages managed within a single unit. The multistream configuration handles multi-stage compression cooling within the same core, reducing overall system footprint and the number of fluid connection points. The same PCHE are used in refuelling dispensers compliant with the SAE J2601 standard, where compactness and absolute leak-tightness are non-negotiable design requirements.
Oil & Gas
Sub and Supercritical CO₂
CO₂ utilisation processes frequently operate under sub- or supercritical conditions: elevated pressures and phase transitions that impose leak-tightness and structural resistance requirements incompatible with any conventional technology. The monolithic diffusion-bonded structure and microchannelled geometry of the PCHE eliminate every critical sealing point, making it the natural technical solution for these processes.
Nuclear — SMR
For primary and secondary circuits of Small Modular Reactors — and for decay heat management — Microchannel Devices is developing PCHE for next-generation nuclear applications.
MCD design and manufacturing expertise enables requested quality controls and safety improvement.
