Leave Your Message
News Categories
Featured News

Die cast heat sinks

2024-09-25

Die cast heat sinks can be made in zinc or aluminum. Zinc is the easiest to die cast. Its tooling and unit costs are lower than those of aluminum. Zinc is also stronger, stiffer and tougher than aluminum. Die cast zinc heat sinks do not require plating, or plating can be done easily. Zinc is heavier than aluminum but provides the feel of high quality. On the other hand, aluminum is lighter and some aluminum alloys have higher thermal conductivity than zinc alloys.

 

Benefits of Die Cast Heat Sinks

Compared with other manufacturing methods, die casting offers the following benefits:

  • Produce complex 3D shapes that are not possible in extrusion or forging
  • Heat sink, frame, housing, enclosure and fastening elements can be combined in a single casting
  • Holes can be cored in die casting
  • High production rate and low cost
  • Tight tolerances
  • Dimensionally stable
  • Secondary machining not required
  • Provide exceptionally flat surfaces (good for the contact between heat sink and source)
  • Corrosion resistance rates from good to high
  • Excellent EMI an RFI shielding

What materials are best for manufacturing a die casting heat sink?

As a die casting heat sink is required to transfer heat from the casted components, therefore the material for the heat sink should be a conductor. The following materials are used in the manufacturing of the aluminum heat sink.

Copper

Copper has the highest thermal conductivity as compared to other ideal materials for heat sinks. It shows a conductivity of 223 BTU. This makes it suitable for the production of heat exchanging devices.

Aluminum

Aluminum has a very low conductivity when compared to copper but still has a high conductivity i-e 118 BTU. Aluminum also makes up a good heat dissipater. The aluminum alloy which is mostly used in the production of the heat sink is A356.0. This alloy provides improved thermal properties.

Brass

Brass has even lower conductivity than aluminum. With a thermal conductivity of only 64 BTU, brass is still used for producing heat sink. Brass heat sink conducts heat in an efficient manner.