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TEC cold plates

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efreet_69

New Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2003
Has anyone used or heard of somebody using pyrolytic graphite as a cold plate? Please email me if you have.
 
I've heard of pyrolitic graphite. There's a minor problem with using it as a cold plate.
Metal conducts heat well in three dimensions. Pyrolitic graphite conducts heat well in two dimensions, but poorly in the third dimension.
Pyrolitic graphite has been the subject of many discussions around here. It's expensive, and it doesn't really perform any better than copper or silver.
Save yourself the trouble and just get some copper.
 
I'm getting the furnace, melting bowl, and ingot mold to make my own. Silver is one of my possible materials but it might take me melting down quarters to do it.
 
Yeh I agree with them that you should just save yourself the time, trouble and money and get a copper or silver. Copper is running about $10 now and silver is probably about $25.

Thank You,
Daniel
 
Use PG for...?

I've been using PG for a waterblock. I'm a bit uncertain of it's performance though. The designing part is a bit awkward since you have to think really hard about the 2D heatspreading only. That rules out some good WB designs. It's probably better than an replica made from copper or silver, but probably not better than a White Water block.

Anyways, as a coldplate for TEC use it's a total waste since it's so brittle and soft. You can't strap it hard enough. Sure you can counter it with some hard frames and stuff, but the net gain isn't worth it.
Then you have the 2D mess to solve. You might be transfering heat in a direction where there isn't anything to remove it, or, you're transfering the cold to a place where it isn't needed. To collect all heat and cold into one place you need two stacked pieces of PG and the net effect is zero thanks to that extra thermal junction.

Anyway a PG WB is doable, but if it will beat a WW block I doubt, since you have your designing hand tied up to the 2D problem.
I have a few designs I'd like to mill, but, time is stopping me dead.

PG preforms exellent otherwize. It's light, so it reacts quickly to changes. About that 2D heat thing: I've been trying to figure out which two dimensions of my block does the magic but haven't pinned them down for sure.
Even though there is suppose to be a huge difference between the sides I'm not really sure.

I've been trying to think up different methods to decide which side is what.
So far, I've been touching it with my finger, if it feels cold it must be dissapating heat good, if it gets warm it must be isolating.
Thing is, my peice has different stuctures on every side, that might corrupt my senses. I.E The really flat and smooth side will feel cold, since lots of it makes contact on my finger, rougher sides will make less contact, feel less cold.

Another method would be to dip one end in a hot bath and measure the time before the opposite end reaches value "X".
Then there could be loads of things disturbing that measurement.
Contact of temp probe, initial temp of PG peice, just holding it will affect temps. It turns warm in a hand really really quick. Just holding it for a few sec's and voilá it's 30 something C. That won't happen with a chunk of copper!

So.. I'm not done with PG yet!
Wonder if it can be measured with an OHM meter?? got to try that one :D
 
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