- Sep 14, 2011
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I'm posting this in the CPU section in the hopes some cooler mfgr or someone thinking about getting into manufacturing them, would get wind of this post.
i'm surprised no mfgr has offered an air cooled unit fabricated from carbon fiber - n0ns3ns3 responded to this statment in another thread and somehow it got shut down as it was originally a 2 year old thread.
But CF (carbon fiber) carries heat almost as fast as copper carries electricity, literally. I worked with it on a few products and were amazed at how it performed in terms of transferring heat. We took a pc of 12 oz CF cloth (think in terms of fiberglass cloth), draped it over a vise and took a torch to it. It took forever to get a hot spot glowing red, same as you'd see with metal - and you had to hold the torch at the perfect distance so the hottest part of the flame was hitting the cloth. Once you got a hot spot glowing, about the size of a quarter (approx3.0 to 3.5CM diameter), the instant you pulled the torch away, and i mean the instant the flame lost contact with the cloth, the glow would go away, and within 1.5 seconds you could touch that very spot with your bare finger.
We manufactured what for all intents and purposes was an exhaust gas muffler - similiar to a car muffler but operating much closer to the heat source than a car's muffler. The same tube shaped "muffler" fabricated in aluminum ran 175 degrees Farenheit. Fabricating the outer tube in carbon fiber (and leaving the internal baffles fabbed in aluminum) it ran 114 degrees - and this was in an environment with the ambient temp of 94 degrees F. Additionally, the unit cooled down enough to handle it within 1 - 1.5 minutes, while the aluminum unit took 15-17 minutes. Both units contained the identical amount of interior baffles, about 15 ounces of aluminum baffles serving as heat banks.
I'm as surprised intel hasn't used CF for it's IHS shell - it would definitely do a better job of transferring the heat out - stainless steel, which appears to be what they're currently using, is actually a heat insulator - slow to accept heat and even slower to give it up to the atmosphere. That same tube muffler with only the outer body fabricated in stainless took 30 minutes to cool enough to handle.
For those curious on this subject, of the alloys, Brass, copper and aluminum have the highest rate of thermal conductivity, with Brass having the highest, copper 2nd and aluminum 3rd. But Aluminum is the cheapest so that's why you see it used so commonly. Of the elements, carbon has the highest rate of thermal conductivity.
Someone could offer replacement IHS covers, if folks will delid to enhance heat transfer, why not a replacement IHS? On the air coolers, even if the base block that holds the heat pipes pressed against the IHS, that could be fabbed easily from CF and show a marked improvement and a slight change in design to encompass the heat pipes entirely - when the CF accepts heat faster than copper, why bother putting the copper heatpipes in contact with the IHS?
CF can be purchased laid up or injected in rod or bar form, it's gotten that common and is machineable using diamond grinding cutters.
anyway, hoping someone from the air cooling industry sees this post. I'm retired so i'm out of the manufacturing field
Oh, the only negative to CF, is it is expensive, but it's cost is manageable, and if you can show a 35%+ increase in cooling efficiency, the market would accept the additonal cost
i'm surprised no mfgr has offered an air cooled unit fabricated from carbon fiber - n0ns3ns3 responded to this statment in another thread and somehow it got shut down as it was originally a 2 year old thread.
But CF (carbon fiber) carries heat almost as fast as copper carries electricity, literally. I worked with it on a few products and were amazed at how it performed in terms of transferring heat. We took a pc of 12 oz CF cloth (think in terms of fiberglass cloth), draped it over a vise and took a torch to it. It took forever to get a hot spot glowing red, same as you'd see with metal - and you had to hold the torch at the perfect distance so the hottest part of the flame was hitting the cloth. Once you got a hot spot glowing, about the size of a quarter (approx3.0 to 3.5CM diameter), the instant you pulled the torch away, and i mean the instant the flame lost contact with the cloth, the glow would go away, and within 1.5 seconds you could touch that very spot with your bare finger.
We manufactured what for all intents and purposes was an exhaust gas muffler - similiar to a car muffler but operating much closer to the heat source than a car's muffler. The same tube shaped "muffler" fabricated in aluminum ran 175 degrees Farenheit. Fabricating the outer tube in carbon fiber (and leaving the internal baffles fabbed in aluminum) it ran 114 degrees - and this was in an environment with the ambient temp of 94 degrees F. Additionally, the unit cooled down enough to handle it within 1 - 1.5 minutes, while the aluminum unit took 15-17 minutes. Both units contained the identical amount of interior baffles, about 15 ounces of aluminum baffles serving as heat banks.
I'm as surprised intel hasn't used CF for it's IHS shell - it would definitely do a better job of transferring the heat out - stainless steel, which appears to be what they're currently using, is actually a heat insulator - slow to accept heat and even slower to give it up to the atmosphere. That same tube muffler with only the outer body fabricated in stainless took 30 minutes to cool enough to handle.
For those curious on this subject, of the alloys, Brass, copper and aluminum have the highest rate of thermal conductivity, with Brass having the highest, copper 2nd and aluminum 3rd. But Aluminum is the cheapest so that's why you see it used so commonly. Of the elements, carbon has the highest rate of thermal conductivity.
Someone could offer replacement IHS covers, if folks will delid to enhance heat transfer, why not a replacement IHS? On the air coolers, even if the base block that holds the heat pipes pressed against the IHS, that could be fabbed easily from CF and show a marked improvement and a slight change in design to encompass the heat pipes entirely - when the CF accepts heat faster than copper, why bother putting the copper heatpipes in contact with the IHS?
CF can be purchased laid up or injected in rod or bar form, it's gotten that common and is machineable using diamond grinding cutters.
anyway, hoping someone from the air cooling industry sees this post. I'm retired so i'm out of the manufacturing field
Oh, the only negative to CF, is it is expensive, but it's cost is manageable, and if you can show a 35%+ increase in cooling efficiency, the market would accept the additonal cost
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