Best aluminum for LED heatsink?

[Jared Stenoien]

I have a flashlight idea I've been wanting to make for awhile now and just got the setup to do it. I'm going to be casting the head assembly out of aluminum and was wondering what types of aluminum would be best for heatsinking.
Thanks.
Jared Stenoien

 

[modamag]

Hi Jared,

Welcome to CPF.

Of the three common aluminum alloy that I'm familiar with
AA2024 is the best thermal conductor @ 190 W/m-K
AA6061 is not far behind @180 W/m-K
AA7075 is the worst of the three @ 130 W/m-K

Now to keep things in perspective, your thermal conductivity of your epoxy is 8 W/m-K.

Have fun with your new light.
Jonathan

 

[Jared Stenoien]

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. Now to go find some ingots

 

[highorder]

you dont want ingots, you need bar stock.

I do business here:

http://www.alro.com/welcome.html

 

[Jared Stenoien]

For casting a lot of the time ingots are MUCH cheaper, you're not paying for extra machining operations. Thanks for the link though.