MakerBot Industries

Thanks!

I was hoping for a quick response… because I am installing right now. There is no wiki for this right? I have not seen an entry for it.

Nope none that I saw.

Thermal paste improves the evenness of the thermal contact between the plate and the heater. You will not see a difference in the time it takes to heat up because you're not measuring the temperature of the plate, only of the heater underneath. And you are not measuring how evenly the heat is being transferred either. When there is a spot that has no thermal contact the aluminum plate will still head fairly evenly because it has reasonable heat conductivity but you end up with a "hot spot" in the heater which may reduce its life span.

This is absolutely correct. Really the point that I wanted to make was I felt its unnecessary to apply thermal paste in this case because the aluminum plate is already in contact with the coils which are raised on the board. The plate is also constrained to the board fairly well already with the 6 screws. With the aluminum being as thin as it is already adding thermal paste underneath could actually hamper the heat transfer between the heater and the plate if not applied correctly.

Another thing to look at is that most computer based thermal paste's are rated to a max temp of right around where we run these boards give or take a few degrees. However they are intended for use in an environment MUCH lower then what we are running. Long term exposure to out of spec temperatures over time will break the compound down and effect the thermal transfer, not to mention make a mess of things.

If you do plan to use thermal paste don't cheap out on it get the good stuff like ArcticSilver and double check the Long Term exposure temperatures to make sure its at least marginally within the temperatures that you run your HBP at.