First off, I’m pretty new to all this. I haven’t seen or read anything about if which type of reflector is best for removing heat generated from the emitter.
On one hand the tir is plastic and has much worse thermal conductivity than aluminum. It does displace air that would be between the reflector and has a better conductivity than air.
Reflectors are often aluminum which should help dump heat. Some like the convoy tube lights seem to stretch out to fill the voids behind the reflector. On the few lights I’ve disassembled there is still an air gap on the back, an insulator and centering device on the bottom and then the cone of air between the reflector.
Is there really enough of a difference for it to matter? (Probably not)
Has anybody tested it? Could somebody with the equipment do some tests?
My guess is also “probably not”, but I am interested in what the true answer is.
I don’t know if anyone has ever tested this before, and I don’t have any equipment for doing the test.
Almost all of the heat gets removed from the emitter through the (copper) MCPCB and then to the flashlight head/body.
The reflector is usually not touching the emitter/MCPCB directly as it could short out electrical pathways.
Insulated stars existed for ages 'til DTP (direct thermal path) stars started popping up.
The emitter is bonded right to the star, and the star to the shelf.
Make a nice thick shelf to be able to wick away heat to the tube, and reduce thermal resistance along the way, and the tube will get nice and hot (vs cooking the emitter).
Reflector vs TIR lens vs air makes almost no difference at all.
