Thermal/electric grease?

[Buck91]

Since I was playing with lights today, I figured I'd take my Q5 modded Ultrafire apart and get it ready for the replacement Q5 (FWIW, don't force a reflector down around an emitter which you didn't center properly :shakehead ) and I was thinking... due to the way which the pill installs, it would be IDEAL to have a grease with thermal and electrical conductive properties. Seems none of the arctic stuff does that; any ideas?

Right now I'm just using the copper anti-sieze (like for spark plug threads), but I surmize it doesn't conduct heat well...

 

[LukeA]

I know lubriplate makes electrically conductive grease.

Alternatively and if you never heeded to get the thing apart again, you could electroplate copper onto the aluminum parts, screw them together and flow some solder into the gap between the threads. That would be the best possible thermal and electrical connection, but would be nearly impossible to get apart.

 

[Torque1st]

Insulators are required with thermal grease to provide electrical isolation. The thermal grease should always be as thin as possible to get good heat conduction. Thick films or layers do not work for conducting heat. The thin layer does not provide electrical isolation. -Sometimes I wish it did provide isolation, since it would have made electronic packaging design much easier.

 

[chalo]

I've used low temp solders (pure indium for example) to get good heatsinking with good electrical conductivity. I've also mixed thermal epoxy with .999 silver filings.

Most of the time, I find it easier to use a wire jumper for the electrical part so the thermal compound can just do its one job. There are special conductive copper greases for electrical terminals, though.