Bored at work. Decided to make a thermal paste stencil

[EarthDog]

This is why you normalize the testing temperature to a specific degree C. Say 22C.... then if your room goes from 22-24C during testing, you take 2C off. THis is how its been done since Skinee did it.

And we're also not talking about compairing x CPU temp to y CPU temp. Your completely missed the point. It's about paste. That's it. A test with the same system.

What about the paste? Don't you need the temperature to measure the effectiveness of the paste/application?

 

[ShrimpBrime]

This is why you normalize the testing temperature to a specific degree C. Say 22C.... then if your room goes from 22-24C during testing, you take 2C off. THis is how its been done since Skinee did it.



What about the paste? Don't you need the temperature to measure the effectiveness of the paste/application?

Right. I don't think testing will be super accurate. Because if all other testing done before had is accurate enough.... then we already know the best pastes on the market.
Also in saying this, we also know what is the best way to apply thermal compound.

But a game changer???
That applicator though. Wanna see it in action.

edit: Testing just the applicators, we'd just use the same paste with different designs....
edit II: When I run naked processors, I use a spread method, mound in the middle (thick center, thin outer)

 

[bignazpwns]

You're going to need a stable testing environment.
As BTU is added to the room, the room temp can raise thus creating a warmer running system assuming say 10 pastes are running a burn in period before testing (as some pastes require). 4 degree Fahrenheit is a 2 Celsius raise in temps. My thermostat for the house has a 4 degree swing, pumps to 2 over desired temp and drops to 2 under before pumping again in example. This type of ambient action is difficult to regulate.
So if these tests are done in a small room, I'd want to see ambient temps before, during (multiple times if needed), and after.

These kinds of tests will be within a margin of error I'd have no doubt. So if 8 of ten pastes are with 2 degree Celsius of each other, I would be in no shock simply because the testing environment will likely fluctuate that much.
I have found one type of cooling that is actually very very stable when it comes to temperatures. It has nothing to do with atmosphere actually. No cpu BTU is dissipated with end results, fans.

If we saw a swing of 4-6 degree on a stable testing environment all things accounted for, that would be pretty awesome results. One of my biggest issues with TIM application and one being (THAT MUCH) better than another really does not justify the testing facility done with these thermal compounds. In short, I could make any thermal paste look better than another without an actual stable constant testing environment.

Super interested in the applicator design though. I really like it. Hope this works well!!

Subbed.

That's all on the people who do the testing. I'm just making the tool lol. But I do work in a place with a controlled environment. And we have climate controled test cells for ageing on some photodiode's we make. I'm just not going to do testing outside of my own personal test because it just takes way to much time to do those test. I'll leave that up to the guys who do that.

 

[Blaylock]

While waiting for my next project....

So I had a few minutes of down time this morning while my boss was tied up in meetings. Here's another concept for you to consider.

Another issue that may arise is keeping the paste from sticking to the stencil and peeling off during removal.

 

[bignazpwns]

So I had a few minutes of down time this morning while my boss was tied up in meetings. Here's another concept for you to consider.

Another issue that may arise is keeping the paste from sticking to the stencil and peeling off during removal.

View attachment 206920

Sticking to it should not be an issue. Same basic way they put solder paste on pcb's. And the solder paste consistently is pretty close to some thermal paste. I did test one with some NT-H1 and it turned out great. Coverage was 100% but had some excess on the edges. So I just gotta do some math figure out how big and how thick to make it. I just need to get more NT-H1 since that was the last of it.


Side note for polishing fiber's for fiber optics we have diamonds down to 1um. I might see how putting some of those in NT-H1 goes. I know the Coolermaster maker gel is 5um. You want them to be extremely consistent in size. So I'll get some dust and see how it goes. Just gotta figure out how much to mix in.


This is what happens when engineers get bored and have nothing to do. But I'll figure out roughly what percentage of the makergel is diamond then add that to some NT-H1 and see how it is. Just an experiment not expecting to make a diamond enfused NT-H1.

 

[trents]

We've all seen air cooler heat plates from the factory with TIM applied in strips. They must use something like this in industry.

 

[Zerileous]

Actually it looks remarkably like this:

The design seems to work well for them.

Shrimp he's just trying to eliminate one more variable in the tests, application method. Another way would be by weight of paste, but again some pastes might have differing densities so that wouldn't work well.

The one thing this does remove from the equation is ease of application. For example if one paste will spread easily when placed in a dollop on the center of the IHS and give good coverage and not too thick, while another spreads less easily, is more dry and pasty, or requires to be spread on for good coverage. Problem is ease of application might have more to do with real world performance than actual thermal conductivity given a perfect even spread. And also with current technology we can't easily print these templates.

 

[GreenSmoke]

Do multiple tests with the same compound, say 5 tests from start to finish with the same compound, cleaning the compound off and then starting fresh each run. Throw out the top and bottom and average the remaining 3. This would minimize some of the minute variances that may occur. If you find that there is not a difference enough to warrant this then the minutia is irrelevant anyway.

Of course, it might only be irrelevant on 3 out of 5 of the brands you test, so you would probably want to continue doing it the same way for each test.

 

[bignazpwns]

Actually it looks remarkably like this: View attachment 206973

The design seems to work well for them.

Shrimp he's just trying to eliminate one more variable in the tests, application method. Another way would be by weight of paste, but again some pastes might have differing densities so that wouldn't work well.

The one thing this does remove from the equation is ease of application. For example if one paste will spread easily when placed in a dollop on the center of the IHS and give good coverage and not too thick, while another spreads less easily, is more dry and pasty, or requires to be spread on for good coverage. Problem is ease of application might have more to do with real world performance than actual thermal conductivity given a perfect even spread. And also with current technology we can't easily print these templates.

Yeah thats what i was going after. I got a few other shapes but down till the SLA printers new LCD comes in on monday.