Laser beam melting is a well-suited technology for manufacturing highly complex, delicate parts and components that go beyond the boundaries of conventional production technologies. Laser beam melting is an additive manufacturing process for direct generation of metal components. Components are manufactured directly based on 3D CAD data from powdered materials such as hot work steel, aluminium, titanium, cobalt-chromium or nickel-based alloys and are built up layer by layer. The material is locally melted by a high-energy laser and reaches an almost 100 % dense microstructure after solidification without any additional steps. This unique additive manufacturing process can make way for new design approaches with different types of components. This paper focuses on heat transfer units and pointed out the superiority of laser beam melting to manufacture this type of metal parts. The paper describes several examples of heat transfer units made by laser beam melting, e.g. miniature heat exchangers and radiators. A detailed insight is given by a case study of an individual cooler unit for a resistor of an electric driven formula race car. Superior demands regarding shape, size, weight and efficiency did not allow the use of a standard component and additive manufacturing proved to give superior properties to the component compared to conventional manufacturing methods. It made a very complex and delicate design possible, which was optimized by means of computational fluid dynamics in order to achieve maximum efficiency. It also allowed a proper material selection to guarantee an effective heat transfer of the cooler unit by using an aluminium alloy. Starting with high-end applications like in motorsports and proving the superiority of the additive manufacturing approach, it is expected that laser beam melting will enter a wider industrial use.