Heat sink question

[8 ball]

Just a quick question on the building of lasers, i was just wondering, when you attach the heat sink to the driver do you use any type of thermal paste. If not, would this be a good idea to help keep the laser run cooler for a longer time?
Cheers Sam

 

[daawood123]

Use common sense, if you dont attach something to the other thing it will fall off.

 

[8 ball]

Use common sense, if you dont attach something to the other thing it will fall off.

I am well aware of this law of physics I just wondered if people use thermal paste or just have the 2 components touching with no paste.

 

[daawood123]

yes, most people use arctic silver therma adhesive

 

[grainde]

Normally people heatsink drivers at high currents. This doesnt necessarily mean they are attached to the heatsink, but that they are glued to a chunk of metal (Cu or Al) which helps to dissipate the heat. The most common glues are Arctic alumina or Arctic silver. :beer:

Look at "hot option" from Jayrob or DTR in their build tutorials to find out more.

Edit: here are 2 examples from 2 of my builds. The Saik has the driver heatsinked to some copper and aluminium strips and then to the heatsink. In the second picture of a phobos host the driver was heatsinked to a piece of copper and then to the body of the host, not main heatsink. In both cases Arctic Silver was used.

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

I've heard of people doing both. Either tightly press fitting the diode into a sink, or if the fit is less tight adding some thermal adhesive. It can go either way.

 

[8 ball]

Thanks everyone this has helped me, I think I will use some paste just to be on the safe side