SSR base material?

[nebulous]

Does anyone know what the base material is on a typical SSR? I've searched around but haven't been able to find anything specific. The two SSRs I have look like they are nickle plated but past that I'm not sure.
The reason I ask is I have some coollaboratory pro thermal paste which is awesome but will eat/brutally oxidize aluminum. Since my heat-sinks have copper bases I would prefer to use this but I don't want to damage the SSR base since I also have some articsilver on hand.

 

[BigFloppy]

Dunno what the base material is but Artic Silver works great

 

[P-J]

I'd suggest that you get the thermal grease offered by Auber Instruments:
Click this link

It is very reasonable and specifically made for the task. If you had ordered the SSR & heatsink from them, they would have also shipped it to you with the SSR.

P-J

 

[nebulous]

I'd suggest that you get the thermal grease offered by Auber Instruments:
Click this link

It is very reasonable and specifically made for the task. If you had ordered the SSR & heatsink from them, they would have also shipped it to you with the SSR.

P-J

I have a whole variety of thermal pastes on hand from building computers over the years. I just figured if I have the best why not use the best? the stuff from Aurber is just your generic silicon based thermal compound, ArticSilver5 has anywhere from 2-5 times the thermal transfer capability of most generic pastes, Coollabratory has about 8-10 times the thermal transfer of ArticStilver, it just cant be used on aluminum.
but there's no reason to trash a part when i have other options.

 

[mattd2]

I have a whole variety of thermal pastes on hand from building computers over the years. I just figured if I have the best why not use the best? the stuff from Aurber is just your generic silicon based thermal compound, ArticSilver5 has anywhere from 2-5 times the thermal transfer capability of most generic pastes, Coollabratory has about 8-10 times the thermal transfer of ArticStilver, it just cant be used on aluminum.
but there's no reason to trash a part when i have other options.

For this application I don't think the heat transfer coef of the grease makes much of a difference - you are transferring a small amount of heat over a large area (relative to say a CPU). Just go with the Artic Silver if you have it on hand.
Heck I don't even use any and have no issue for 3 years with my Chinese 25A SSR running at approx. 10A

 

[jpalarchio]

For this application I don't think the heat transfer coef of the grease makes much of a difference - you are transferring a small amount of heat over a large area (relative to say a CPU). Just go with the Artic Silver if you have it on hand.
Heck I don't even use any and have no issue for 3 years with my Chinese 25A SSR running at approx. 10A

I agree, I think you might be overthinking this a bit.

I'm all about over-complicating things but I suspect the difference is going to minimal between cheap thermal grease, Artic Silver, Coollaboratory and mayonnaise.

 

[nebulous]

I agree, I think you might be overthinking this a bit.

that and overestimating the problem.
I found a really good post after I started this thread (ssr-heat-output-#post1869292) on how much heat is generated by an SSR switching a 5500w element and it comes to about 37w of heat. For some reason I was under the impression I was going to be dealing with a lot more heat.
The heat-sinks I have are from an old proprietary IBM server which had CPU dies about the same size as an SSR and free is free. I now realize that these things at 600g a piece will be overkill. The choice in thermal-paste was more of a "because I potentially can" type thing not because I thought it would be necessary.
But hey if its worth doing, its worth over doing; right? :cross:

 

[jpalarchio]

But hey if its worth doing, its worth over doing; right?

Absolutely!

 

[jeffmeh]

The law of diminishing returns applies even to home brewing.

 

[Minbari]

that is alot of overkill, but does look be pretty cool!

I went with CPU coolers are well. The fan driven type. they are designed to dissipate 180 watts of heat, so for a ~40 watt load, they dont even get warm.