The History Of the Radiator
Silver and copper are the best thermally conductive materials, followed by gold and aluminum. But gold and silver are too expensive, so the current heat sink is mainly made of aluminum and copper. In comparison, both copper and aluminum alloy have their own advantages and disadvantages: copper has good thermal conductivity, but it is more expensive, difficult to process, heavy, and copper radiators have small heat capacity and are easy to oxidize . On the other hand, pure aluminum is too soft to be used directly. The aluminum alloy used can provide sufficient hardness. The advantages of aluminum alloy are low price and light weight, but the thermal conductivity is much worse than copper. Therefore, the following materials have also appeared in the development history of radiators：
1.Pure aluminum radiator
Pure aluminum radiator is the most common radiator in the early days, its manufacturing process is simple, and the cost is low. So far, pure aluminum radiator still occupies a considerable part of the market. In order to increase the heat dissipation area of its fins, the most commonly used processing method for pure aluminum radiators is aluminum extrusion technology. The main indicators for evaluating a pure aluminum radiator are the thickness of the radiator base and the Pin-Fin ratio. Pin refers to the height of the fin of the heat sink, and Fin refers to the distance between two adjacent fins. The Pin-Fin ratio is the height of the Pin (excluding the thickness of the base) divided by the Fin. The larger the Pin-Fin ratio means the larger the effective heat dissipation area of the radiator and the more advanced the aluminum extrusion technology.
2.Pure copper radiator
The thermal conductivity of copper is 1.69 times that of aluminum, so under the same other conditions, the pure copper radiator can quickly remove heat from the heat source. However, the texture of copper is a problem. Many advertised "pure copper radiators" are not actually 100% copper. In the list of copper, those with a copper content of more than 99% are called acid-free copper, and the next grade of copper is red copper with a copper content of less than 85%. Most of the pure copper radiators currently on the market have a copper content between the two. The copper content of some inferior pure copper radiators is even less than 85%. Although the cost is very low, its thermal conductivity is greatly reduced, which affects the heat dissipation. In addition, copper also has obvious shortcomings, such as high cost, difficult processing, and large heat sink quality, which hinder the application of all-copper heat sinks. The hardness of red copper is not as good as aluminum alloy AL6063, and some mechanical processing (such as slitting) performance is not as good as aluminum; the melting point of copper is much higher than that of aluminum, which is not conducive to extrusion and other problems.
3.Copper and aluminum bonding technology
The thermal conductivity of copper is 1.69 times that of aluminum, so under the same other conditions, the pure copper radiator can quickly remove heat from the heat source. However, the texture of copper is a problem. Many advertised "pure copper radiators" are not actually 100% copper. In the list of copper, those with a copper content of more than 99% are called acid-free copper, and the next grade of copper is red copper with a copper content of less than 85%. Most of the pure copper radiators currently on the market have a copper content between the two. The copper content of some inferior pure copper radiators is even less than 85%. Although the cost is very low, its thermal conductivity is greatly reduced, which affects the heat dissipation. In addition, copper also has obvious shortcomings, such as high cost, difficult processing, and large heat sink quality, which hinder the application of all-copper heat sinks. The hardness of red copper is not as good as aluminum alloy AL6063, and some mechanical processing (such as slitting) performance is not as good as aluminum; the melting point of copper is much higher than that of aluminum, which is not conducive to extrusion and other problems.
