Heat sink calculators

[Subbu68]

I came across some online heatsink calculators.

I presume they consider aluminium heatsink in their calcs. How one can size copper heatsinks.

Logically with higher thermal conductivity copper heatsinks should come out smaller?

 

[OM_2K19]

I believe the reason industry prefers Aluminum vs. Copper is it offers a better Cooling/Weight/Price ratio. Also, it dissipates heat faster than Copper and allows designers to experiment (Aluminum is easy to work with than Copper) with more radical heatsink designs. I haven't seen (Youtube dismantle videos) anyone using Copper heatsinks (I might be wrong here) for AV Appliances.

 

[Subbu68]

I believe the reason industry prefers Aluminum vs. Copper is it offers a better Cooling/Weight/Price ratio. Also, it dissipates heat faster than Copper and allows designers to experiment (Aluminum is easy to work with than Copper) with more radical heatsink designs. I haven't seen (Youtube dismantle videos) anyone using Copper heatsinks (I might be wrong here) for AV Appliances.

As you wrote it might be ultimately to keep the costs down Al is used.

When I searched the local Amazon to try get heatsink for a planned amp, found copper heatsinks too. Getting them and putting together in a smaller aluminium or steel cabinet or a DIY wooden cabinet seems to be easier for me than getting an extruded aluminium heatsink chassis.

Copper heatsinks seem to be made for micro processor heat dissipation. Yes, they are expensive.

Note sure how copper is tougher to work with. A lot of copper parts in complex shapes and designs, made to very high precision go into power network equipment.

 

[OM_2K19]

As you wrote it might be ultimately to keep the costs down Al is used.

When I searched the local Amazon to try get heatsink for a planned amp, found copper heatsinks too. Getting them and putting together in a smaller aluminium or steel cabinet or a DIY wooden cabinet seems to be easier for me than getting an extruded aluminium heatsink chassis.

Copper heatsinks seem to be made for micro processor heat dissipation. Yes, they are expensive.

Note sure how copper is tougher to work with. A lot of copper parts in complex shapes and designs, made to very high precision go into power network equipment.

Yeah, Copper is mainly used where we need to remove a large quantity of heat from a small space like Laptops. Aluminum can be extruded, but Copper can not. Most heatsinks are produced through aluminum extrusion resulting in significant cost savings. Copper heatsinks are machined and skived.