Cool Polymer公司 导热塑料.doc

原文： Heat sinks and other heat-removal applications are among the last areas where thermoplastics—inherent thermal insulators—have yet to replace metals. Until fairly recently, that is. Modifying plastics to improve their thermal conductivity is a burgeoning area of opportunity for a handful of compounders. They have taken up the challenge of using plastics to solve problems of heat build-up in electronics, appliances, lighting, automotive, and industrial products. Among the pioneers, whose heat-conductive compounds have gone commercial in just the last couple of years, are PolyOne Corp., Cool Polymers, LNP Engineering Plastics, RTP Co., and Ticona Corp. GE Plastics, DuPont, and A. Schulman have development programs under way. And last month, PolyOne entered into a joint-development agreement with Cool Polymers in order to utilize the latter’s capabilities in tool design, thermal-management testing, and injection molding of prototype applications. Thermally conductive compounds are generally not considered to be direct drop-in replacements for metals. Instead, they open up a broad range of new opportunities for “thermal management” applications. Parts molded out of this new generation of materials can replace metals and ceramics in some applications, and non-conductive plastics in others. Uses include custom-molded heat sinks on circuit boards, as well as tubing for heat exchangers in appliances, lighting, telecommunication devices, business machines, and industrial equipment used in corrosive environments. Heat sinks often involve plastic overmolded on a metal heat pipe. Lighting applications also include reflectors, laser-diode encapsulation, and fluorescent ballasts. Automotive headlamp reflectors are in development. In temperature sensors like thermistors, thermally conductive plastic encapsulation can help improve the response of the temperature sensor itself. Thermally conductive compounds are also used to encapsulate small motors and motor bobbins. A diesel f