Elastomerics Blog

Many industries need materials that can transfer heat. Broadly, this is known as thermal management. Applications can range from microelectronics, where powerful processing units require effective cooling, to heat presses that require thermally conductive silicone sponge to yield consistently superior results.

Thermal grease is often used for thermal management. However, anyone who has experience will testify – thermal grease can be a nightmare to work with! This material is a spreadable liquid that has a tendency to get everywhere. It can certainly be an effective thermal management solution, but it’s often a cleanliness disaster. Further, the nature of thermal grease can make it tough to know how much to apply without plenty of experience.

Thermally Conductive Gap Pad Demo

The video above demonstrates the efficient thermal transfer one can gain by using a thermal “gap filler” – also take note of the ease of handling and use. Imagine performing this same demonstration with a thermal grease! These thermal gap fillers are very conformable when compressed. This means that these products will fill small voids between interfaces that can often hinder thermal performance. However, prior to compression, they maintain their shape and can be easily handled, placed, and transported

Stockwell Elastomerics has a portfolio of thermal interface materials that can help alleviate the headaches of thermal grease without sacrificing the thermal performance. Thermal gap fillers such as those from Polymer Science and Saint-Gobain are superior material choices that can suit a variety of applications. See the table below and the Thermally Conductive Materials Data Sheets page for details.

Comparison of Saint-Gobain and Polymer Science Gap FIllers

For applications that do not require very high thermal conductivity, Stockwell Elastomerics also carries thermally conductive silicone sponge. This material has modest heat transfer with the benefits of silicone sponge, such as toughness and low compression set. Another key benefit of a thermally conductive silicone sponge is repeated-use characteristics – think of applications like a decal press. The gap fillers mentioned above are great for many applications, but they are mostly one-time use products. Thermally conductive silicone sponge finds a nice middle ground between thermal transfer and cyclic loading.

Get More Information or Request a Quote for Heat Transfer Products

Stockwell Elastomerics offers these materials and more thermally conductive silicone solutions to a wide customer base, when the application has a need for thermally conductive silicone, but without the mess and clean-up of thermal grease.

Contact a Stockwell Elastomerics Application Engineer for assistance with specific thermal management applications.