Mixing Valve
General Atomics requested our NAU Capstone Team to design a mixing valve to be used in one of their products.
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General Atomics Statement Below:
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) builds high-energy lasers which all employ a mixing valve in the cooling system to provide temperature-controlled water to temperature-sensitive components. The current mixing valve is a GA-EMS modified commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) component which replaces the COTS flanges with smaller fittings, reducing the overall weight from 144 lbs to 108 lbs. However, some programs have a need for lighter weight designs to meet system level requirements. A preliminary trade study identified that a custom GA designed valve could provide 60 lbs in weight savings, thus producing a lightweight mixing valve that could be used as the standard for all future laser programs.
