LOR heatsinks mounted to wood ok?

[Jeremy Wiles]

I have several CTB16D's mounted to a piece of wood inside a metal enclosure. The wood gives me a surface to mount to and means I don't have to penetrate the enclosure. I've used them for years without problems, but I'm pushing up to 20 amps this year on some sides of the controllers.

Does the generated heat on the heatsink pose a fire risk? I have spaced the heatsinks 1 washer width away from the wood.

I know if it was mounted to the metal box it would have better thermal dissipation, but all I'm really worried about is fire risk...

Anyone out there have thier heatsinks in contact with wood?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Steven]

I remember hearing somewhere that when exposed to long-term elevated temperatures, wood will eventually combust, even if the temperature is relatively low (under 120° C).

I found this paper that seems to disprove this: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1980/schaf80a.pdf

[Tim Fischer]

Steven wrote:

I remember hearing somewhere that when exposed to long-term elevated temperatures, wood will eventually combust, even if the temperature is relatively low (under 120° C).

I found this paper that seems to disprove this: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1980/schaf80a.pdf

Just remember that water boils at 100C, so that would still be a very hot heatsink. I'm not sure how hot LOR sinks get when really driven hard -- we don't pull much per channel with ours. I probably don't even need heatsinks...

-Tim

[Jeremy Wiles]

I totally missed the C up there. I was starting to get a little worried. 120 F and 120 C are very different indeed...

J.

[LightORamaDan]

I would not be concerned about the wood burning BUT the wood will act as insulator and reduce the effectivness of the heatsinks. You can look at lifting the heatsink off the wood a little to get some air circuilation under them.