Thermally Conductive Plastic Heat Sink

The plot demonstrates the impact of thermal conductivity on the cooling power of a heat sink under a natural convection cooling regime.

Thermally conductive plastic heat sink.

With electronic devices gaining power and losing bulk design engineers have really started to feel the heat. Henkel thermal adhesives create a mechanical attachment of a component to a heat sink with thermal transfer properties and without the need for additional fasteners. Modifying plastics to improve their thermal conductivity is a burgeoning area of opportunity for a handful of compounders. Polyone s thermally conductive compounds are used in automotive and e e applications such as led lighting heat sinks and electronic enclosures.

But today s small hot electronics can benefit from new ways to keep cool like using thermally conductive plastics. High structural bond strength in severe environments. Bayer material science has announced makrolon polycarbonate as the latest addition to its family of heat resistant plastics designed specifically for led heat sink applications. Their free formability allows heat sink structures to be configured to provide precisely the required heat distribution.

Until fairly recently that is. And analysis showed that using a metal heat sink with a higher thermal conductivity would have only a minor impact on temperatures and heat management but would have a major influence on cost and weight. With a typical thermal in plane conductivity of 20 0w mk thermally conductive thermoplastics improve cooling and reduce temperatures at the heat source. Compared with aluminum this grade of makrolon polycarbonate conduct similar thermal performance while helping to reduce costs and enhance design freedom.

The heat sink can be produced from the thermally conductive plastic material by interjection molding of the thermally conductive plastic material optionally followed by applying a coating layer. Heat sinks and other heat removal applications are among the last areas where thermoplastics inherent thermal insulators have yet to replace metals. Thermally conductive plastics from ensinger come into their own in applications where metals have distinct drawbacks. Thermally conductive plastic for led heat sinks reduces lighting costs.

Lighter weight lower cost and greater impact strength moldability and customization are rapidly driving demand for thermoplastics that help keep electronics lighting and car engines cool. Thermal management once meant a few well placed fans vents and aluminum heat sinks. With identical geometry a tcpoly 3d printed plastic heat sink 6 w m k can perform within 5 c of an aluminum heat sink despite significantly lower thermal conductivity. Our first commercial product the ice9 thermally conductive filament is the world s highest thermal conductivity 3d printing plastic and can conduct heat 50x higher than traditional plastics.