Copper CuCrZr is a highly conductive copper alloy for 3D printed metal parts that move heat or carry electric current. Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) builds cooling channels, coil turns and thin fins into one part, so assemblies once brazed from several pieces print as a single part with no brazed joints. After printing, heat treatment sets each part for the highest conductivity, or for extra strength where it also carries pressure or load. It suits rocket engine chambers and injectors, compact heat exchangers and cold plates, and induction coils.
How Copper CuCrZr is manufactured
Copper CuCrZr is manufactured using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) on EOS metal systems, where a laser melts fine copper alloy powder layer by layer in an argon atmosphere. Cooling channels, coil turns and thin fins form inside a single part, with no brazed joints between them, and support structures anchor each part to the build plate. After printing, an EOS ageing cycle brings the alloy to its final conductivity and strength.
Upload CAD files to Forge Labs Steam for Copper CuCrZr quotes and live manufacturability feedback, and fix issues before production.
Upload CAD files to Forge Labs Steam for Copper CuCrZr quotes and live manufacturability feedback, and fix issues before production.
DMLS parts generally exhibit a slightly rough, matte finish due to the laser sintering process, resulting in a uniform surface texture. While this natural finish is sufficient for many functional applications, Forge Labs offers several post-processing options to enhance aesthetics, accuracy, and performance.
Support structures are carefully removed, and parts undergo shot peening to create a uniform, matte surface and help relieve residual stresses. Critical features may receive light machining for tighter tolerances.
Precision machining and polishing processes enhance surface quality, achieving tighter tolerances and smoother finishes for critical applications.
Automotive-grade coating that enhances aesthetics and durability. Each part is hand-finished with professional-grade equipment for exceptional adhesion and custom color matching.
Copper CuCrZr is the DMLS material for parts whose main job is to move heat or carry current. Printing lets cooling channels follow the shape of a chamber, coil or exchanger instead of the straight paths a drill can reach, so heat leaves the part where it is generated, and assemblies once brazed from several pieces become one part.
Heat treatment tunes the alloy to the part. The conductivity-optimized cycle gives the highest conductivity for heat exchangers and induction coils, while the tensile-optimized cycle roughly doubles yield strength for parts that also carry pressure or mechanical load, at some cost in conductivity.
Forge Labs pairs DMLS with machining, so bores, threads and sealing faces are finished to the drawing once the part is printed and heat treated.
With no tooling or minimum order, a single development chamber or a batch of coils prints from the same file, so thermal designs can change between test campaigns without new fixtures or brazing setups.
Space & Aerospace
Chamber liners and injectors with cooling channels inside the wall, from a shop already printing propulsion hardware.
Clean Tech & Energy
Compact heat exchangers and cold plates with fine internal channels, at 88% IACS after heat treatment.
Automotive & Industrial
Coil turns and coolant passages printed as one part, shaped to the part being hardened.
Space & Aerospace
Launch and propulsion teams use Copper CuCrZr for combustion chamber liners, injectors and nozzle sections, where cooling channels run inside the chamber wall and carry propellant past the hottest surfaces. Forge already prints combustor swirlers in runs of 35, a radial fuel-pump impeller and pitot rakes for propulsion test stands in steel, titanium and aluminum DMLS alloys, and copper extends that work to the hot-gas side of the engine.
Clean Tech & Energy
Energy and power electronics teams use Copper CuCrZr for compact heat exchangers, cold plates and heat spreaders, where fine internal channels and thin fins pack more surface into less space. After the conductivity-optimized heat treatment, it reaches 88% IACS. Forge already prints separator grids in runs of 150, evaporator plates and aluminum heat spreaders for thermal management hardware, and CuCrZr is the step up when a part has to move more heat than aluminum allows.
Automotive & Industrial
Heat-treating lines use induction coils to harden shafts, gears and bearing seats, and each coil carries high current while coolant flows through it. Induction coils are a typical CuCrZr application. DMLS forms the coil turns and coolant passages as one part, so the coil follows the shape of the part being hardened without bent tubing or brazed joints, and heat treatment raises its conductivity more than threefold over the as-manufactured state.
Values from EOS CopperAlloy CuCrZr datasheets for the EOS M 290 1kW and EOS M 400-1 (80 µm), tested to the standard listed with each property.
Mechanical performance
Copper CuCrZr trades some strength for conductivity, so the condition a part ships in matters more than it does for steel. The first rows give EOS M 290 values as manufactured and heat treated; the conductivity-optimized and tensile-optimized rows show how far each EOS heat treatment moves strength, ductility, stiffness and hardness.
Every condition stays ductile, which suits coils, liners and thin-walled exchangers that see repeated thermal cycling. After the conductivity-optimized cycle, horizontal values run higher than vertical ones, so orient load paths along the build plate where strength matters.
Material makeup
Part density and the low defect percentage describe a near-solid copper part, which matters for pressure-tight channels and for conductivity, since porosity interrupts the path for heat and current. The minimum wall thickness sets the thinnest fin or channel wall the process builds.
Surface roughness depends on orientation: vertical faces are the smoothest, while down-facing surfaces grow much rougher as they flatten, so internal channels are best oriented steeply or sized with that in mind. The composition rows are the EOS powder limits, and solid parts match the powder chemistry.
Heat performance
EOS publishes the two ageing cycles behind the heat-treated values. Both run under an inert gas atmosphere and end with slow cooling, and the choice between them sets the balance of conductivity and strength in the finished part.
In copper alloys, thermal conductivity rises and falls with electrical conductivity, so the electrical rows are the guide to how well a part moves heat in each condition.
Functional performance
Electrical conductivity is the headline property of Copper CuCrZr, given in % IACS, relative to the International Annealed Copper Standard. As-manufactured parts conduct far less than heat-treated ones, so parts that carry heat or current should be aged after printing.
EOS measured these values with the eddy-current method of ASTM E1004-17 on sample cubes, reading each cube from five faces.
Compliance
EOS states that the chemical composition of CuCrZr corresponds to C18150 and European CW106C, the chromium-zirconium coppers already called out on drawings, so specifications can be checked against supplier data.
These entries describe chemistry rather than product certification. EOS does not develop or certify the powder as a medical device.
Datasheets, design guidance and supplier documentation for Copper CuCrZr.
Access the most recent datasheet and supporting documentation maintained by our engineering team.
Copper CuCrZr datasheetExplore printable geometry recommendations, wall thickness tips, and finishing playbooks for DMLS.
View DMLS design guide
Copper CuCrZr is manufactured using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) technology, building conductive parts with internal channels from a single development part to repeat production batches.
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