What is an extruded aluminum heat sink?

Aluminum extruded heat sinksare one of the most popular types because they are economical, easy to manufacture in bulk, and require very little secondary processing. The extrusion process is widely used in other industries, such as window frames and door plugs, pipes and ducts, and foods like spaghetti and French fries. The extrusion process is simple, and it is easy to take advantages of this technology in the thermal management industry.

Extruded Heat Sinks

I don't know if you know the game Play Dough. The production process of an extruded heat sink is somewhat similar to this game, where you put a large handful of material into what looks like a garlic press and pull down a lever. The pressure applied to the dough squeezes out this crazy shape in front of it, forming a long strip with the same shape in the cross-section. Only in the material do we use aluminum instead of dough. a multi-ton hydraulic press replaces a manual level, and an extrusion die replaces the crazy-shaped plastic drill bit.

Extrusion process

In aluminum extrusion, the metal in billet form is heated until it is soft enough to squeeze through the extrusion die but not so soft that it will just drip out where it melts. A hydraulic press pushes a plunger into the billet, which forces the aluminum through a carefully designed extrusion die. The die is a long extrusion with a cross-section or aluminum extrusion profile.

Engineers have carefully designed the extrusion dies to produce the desired shape but still withstand the pressure of the aluminum billet pressing on it without breaking. This is especially true for heat sink chips, as there are many fin gaps that could come off the chip. Too much aluminum pressed against the thin fins can easily break them off and damage the die.

Before the aluminum is straightened and cooled along the pulling table, it is extruded. When initially manufactured, these strips may be hundreds of feet long. For ease of shipping and fabrication, the enormous lengths are cut to more manageable ones, usually about 8 feet.

From the raw bar to the extruded heat sink

From here, these aluminum profiles are cut to lengths suitable for the applications they will be used. Any machining, holes, or other features are machined into the extrusions to customize them as needed. This is also done when the heat sink is finished, such as anodized or painted.

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