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S-BOND BLOG

S-Bond Helping Convert Braking into Energy in Formula One Race Cars

Kimi_Raikkonen_2009_Belgium_3How do Formula One high performance cars covert braking energy, later into acceleration to conserve fuel and gain speed… using the The Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). Formula One race car makers have adopted this technology to improve racing performance. When braking, a fly wheel is activated to run a generator that charges on-board batteries.

1280px-Flybrid_Systems_Kinetic_Energy_Recovery_SystemAt the core of KERS is a power convertor and solid state electronics that requires effective thermal management devices. At the power convertor core are gated solid state transistors that generate a lot of heat that has to be dissipated to an aluminum heat spreader/heat sink, then to the air through a finned heat sink.

S-Bond Technologies has worked with Formula One race care teams to effectively bond the finned aluminum heat sink to the heat spreader, as seen on the image below.

 

DSCN8850The finned heat exchanger core is bonded to the aluminum heat spreader using S-Bond 220, a metallic Sn-Ag-Ti active solder that provides for fluxless, void free bonding of these components to provide excellent thermal contact.  By bonding with S-Bond alloys, the thermal interface resistance is reduced by a factor of 10 compared to other epoxy or grease-based thermal interface materials. This improvement in thermal conductivity helps optimize the KERS.

 

Contact Us to resolve your thermal management problems. If we can enable high performance race cars, imagine what S-Bond alloys can do in your applications.