I love the idea. How great would it be to get copper foam in 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick sheets? Cut a strip and wrap around a p60 pill and press it into the light's head? I can think of dozens of ways it'd be useful. Incredible idea!
Maybe build a flashlight with a big sheet of this stuff wrapped around the outside of the head and body of the light. Should give decent airflow and tons of surface area for dissipating heat. Cleaning it could be a pain though…
Lots of surface area is good, but small pore size is bad when air velocity is low or non existent.
Im thinking the important aspect of this is the afro styling, for much more air contact area.
You also need some sort of air flow for this to work.
Well to remove the heat from the pill to the body of the flashlight, ANYTHING is better than air…because inside the head of the light, the air is stagnant and isn’t moving, but your hand can even be a heatsink once it moves from the emitter, thru the pill, to the head of the flashlight
Wrapping a P-60 pill in aluminum foil REAAALY helps…the copper foam stuff would probably be just as effective
I guarantee the body of the flashlight has MUCH more surface area to radiate the heat away than the pill surrounded by air does 
That computer uses,
Intel quad-core i7-4785T 2.2 GHz processor @ 35w
Integrated NVIDIA GTX 760 graphics, from 100w to 150w, depending on make and how hard driven, (actual card from Nvidia is 170w)
It is keeping 185w down to 50c at the surface.
6” x 4” x 1.5” = 36 cubic inches plus the copper plate it is fastened to.
185 / 36 = close enough to 5, so 1 cubic inch for every 5w
If the flashlight is a moderate 10w, it would require 2 qubic inch of the “foam” soldered to an all copper one piece pill/head with a copper star,
This is just to get it down to 50c which is considered a bit warm for flashlight use.
And every little knock or bump will compress the “foam” reducing its efectiveness.
Just think, a multi emitter, say 6x at 3A per, 10w each = 60w, 12 cubic inch of foam minimum :bigsmile:
Soldering the “foam” to the copper head would be entertaining for any onlookers J)
Cheers David
Now…I will say “potting” a pill by adding thermal mass might be a good way to go
Old Lumens once used diced up wire to literally FILL a head on a flashlight in order to make it soak up more heat…maybe the copper foam stuffed in there and then filled with solder or some other viscous material would allow the pill/head to soak up more heat before the emitter temperature started to rise
Biggest problem with that theory though is if you keep pumping the heat from either large emitters or multiple emitters at high currents it will eventually heat saturate and get hotter and hotter and hotter, and STAY hotter longer
Heat is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed…only “moved and/or converted”
Aka from battery (chemical to electrical energy) to emitter, emitter as light and heat, heat to the star, star to the pill, pill to the body of the light, convection to the air or into your hand
I can see the computer turning black (tarnished) really fast, especially at warm temperatures.
+1
Without a forced airflow I can’t see how this would be working well. Trapped air is a very good insulator!
You have to remember that the foam is not closed cell. Air will travel through it by mere convection. In a PC situation you won't need a fan to force air through it. Simply having vents in the pc housing will allow the airflow needed for air in the sponge to flow through naturally and escape.
Now I was imagining this like a foam sponge, including having some springiness to it. Wrapped around a P60 pill there would be some natural shock absorbsion and the copper would stay pressed against the inside of the head.
If it is merely foamy copper that crushes when pressed upon without springing back at all then it might not be a good idea for a P60. In a light with a screw on pill it would still be great for wicking heat away from sections of the head.
When I read that article yesterday my first thought was using a kitchen pot scrubber & thermal paste. Talk about a heat SINK! J) Or what if you had some type of coolant flowing throw part of that. Supper Chiller! Neat how it uses no power like fans. Just a modified heat sink.
The air may naturally flow on the surface or for 1-2mm deep but no more IMO.
To have a good cooling efficiency you need a big surface and a strong air flow. Natural convection will be very slow in that “sponge”. Maybe that I’m wrong, but my physics knowledge tells me this won’t be very efficient. Time will tell.
copper sponge vs filling void with AS5 or other TIM of choice. AS5 is not electrically conductive!
The Cu foam is hollow, it works via convection. Heat rises, cooler air flows in at lowest entry point. Only works if you have air space around the foam and exhaust & inlets in the case. It might work in a lantern style light but not so well in a handheld torch.
Hmm interesting. I have an unlimited supply of “copper mesh” from my work place that looks very much like this. maybe i should give it a try in some experiments.
what happens when it fills with dust?
also will the copper not tarnish or is it an alloy that is not as thermally conductive?
Ya know the gesture from Western movies, where the shooter casually turns up the barrel of the pistol and blows across it to clear the smoke away?
Now we can do that with the flashlight after a turbo moment, to cool the heat radiator
I’ve been seeing aluminum heat sinks that look like round collars with fins coming out.
This might work as a flashlight head, for example:
Or a few like some of these, with the LED on one side and the driver on the other, somehow connected through to the lens and battery case.
But they’d be fragile and bulky.
The copper ‘foam’ ought to give more surface area than those — and better heat dissipation.
I think solid copper from the pill and driver out to the edge of the light, and the copper “foam” on the outside, maybe between ridges/fins for protection, where the air can circulate through it ….
Here’s something that could be used that way: http://www.fdiecasting.com/images/products/201162283737408w1000h1000ufdiecasting/aluminum-profile-led-heat-sink.jpg
Blowing on the hot flashlight makes sense. Heck, spit on it and see if it boils off as steam ….
hank wrote:
Blowing on the hot flashlight makes sense. Heck, spit on it and see if it boils off as steam ….
Um, . . . oh never mind.
Just photoshop the revolver out and a flashlight into the picture:
