Another Luxeon cooling option

WayneM

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Sorry if this topic has been "beat to death"...

Anyway, has there been any discussion of using heat pipes, as opposed to heat sinks, to cool those Luxeons. This may be a viable option, expecially with multiple LED and with the new 5 watt jobs. For some basic information, check out: http://www.cheresources.com/htpipes.shtml

WayneM
 

DonL

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Ya know, we've got these big tanks of LN2 here at the lab...
wink.gif
 

lambda

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For an easier cooling option, Holsfelt sells "the world's smallest fan" which just happens to perfectly fit the Luxeon heatsink............
 

moraino

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by WayneM:
Sorry if this topic has been "beat to death"...

Anyway, has there been any discussion of using heat pipes, as opposed to heat sinks, to cool those Luxeons. This may be a viable option, expecially with multiple LED and with the new 5 watt jobs. For some basic information, check out: http://www.cheresources.com/htpipes.shtml

WayneM
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wayne,

I read about it a long time ago when I was crazy about computer overclocking.

Untill a couple of years ago I bought a used IBM thinkpad 600 and found out there is a heatpipe right in there.

The reason it's used there must be the notebook is very thin so heatpipe will tranmit heat properly.

For practicality use, I would think that they are not not cheap if available. Hopefully someone here has some experience on it so we can learn how to apply the technology to our heatsinking application.
 

WayneM

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Maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but they look pretty low tech.

Some small diameter copper tubing, a cloth sleeve to line the inside, solder one end closed, fill with some denatured alcohol, then solder or crimp the other end shut.

Am I missing something?
 

PsycoBob[Q2]

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What, not technical alcohol? (might have gotten the name wrong- It's late. Pure isopropl alcohol, normally used for chemical or industrial applications, instead of for disinfecting your kid's skinned knees.)
 

Steelwolf

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I have had some experience with heat pipes for my engineering thesis where I attempted to cool a solar cell subjected to over 500 suns.

I think there is some possibility that using heatpipes are better than heatsinks, but unless built properly and designed well, they are no better than heatsinks but a little more heavy, bulky and fiddly. Probably best reserved for multiple LS lights which are subjected power very much higher than rated.

BTW, Methylated spirits work well too.
 

DonL

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Some of those chemicals have all different types and grades of the "base" product.

For example, under different "alcohols", my current Fisher Scientific reference catalog lists 4 different denatured, 2 Ethanol, and 11 2-propanol grades and variations.

Another example is whenever we order tanked nitrogen for our lab, we need to specify if we need the 95.000% welding grade, 99.000%, 99.500%, 99.995%, 99.998%, 99.999%, 99.9995%, or 99.99998% purity level gas.

There may be a specific grade or purity level of alcohol that's required for a reason, but I'd bet that whatever you're trying to cool off won't know the difference between a decimal place or two.
 
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