What are Manufacturing Techniques Used for Making Heat Sinks?

When it comes to reliability and stability of LEDs lights, be it a tube light, bulb, streetlight, bay light, or tunnel light, the heat sink is a determinant factor. The junction temperature should be contained within a temperature range for efficient working of LEDs over time, and to achieve, the profile or case of the LEDs lights includes an aluminum heat sink, a heat-conducting device, that draws heat away from the junction and printed circuit board and disperse it to the ambient surroundings.

Based on the type of LEDs lights, Aluminum profile manufacturers make three main types of heat sinks using different technology. Each design serves a different purpose and uses different methods to dissipate heat.

Flat Plates or Stamped Heat Sinks

Flat plate heat sinks are the most cost effective solution to heat dissipation and thermal management solution. The manufacturing process involves stamping a flat piece of aluminum into a sheet with the help of hydraulic presses. To enhance the efficiency of the heat sinks, they are typically painted that increases thermal radiation. In such designs, the heat is mainly dispersed, almost one third, by radiation—the dissipation of heat in the form of rays or waves.

Die-Case Finned

Aluminum profile manufacturers employ pressure die casting technique, also known as cold-chamber die casting, to construct finned Die Cast Heat Sink. In the process, molten aluminum is injected into the cold chamber machine, which by applying pressure pushes the metal into the die. Die-case finned heat sinks are expensive to make than flat heat sinks, however, they work a lot better in dispersing heat.

Extruded finned Heat Sinks

As the name suggests, such heat sinks are made by an extrusion process, a continuous manufacturing technique where the metal is forced through a die to give the definitive cross-sectional profile. Extruded Heat sinks dissipate heat by the combination of conduction and convection, which makes them highly efficient just die-case heat sinks.

Folded fin heat sinks

Aluminum sheets are folded into definite shapes and sizes to make folded fin heat sinks. The designs, however, is inefficient and thus rarely are used by Aluminum profile manufacturers in the making heat sinks for LEDs.