Why such an expensive heatsink in this flashing led beacon?

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Flyback

Well-Known Member
Why has this flashing LED beacon got such an expensively made aluminium heatsink?
-You can see that the heatsink has a special shape with fins all over it.
This must have been expensive to manufacture.
However, this heatsink does not emerge outside of the plastic enslosure, and so has nowhere to convect hot air currents away to.

So why bother to spend so much money making a heatsink which obviously cannot work well?

**broken link removed**
 
I think you may be mistaking the reflective/dispersive portion of the police cruiser beacon as a "heat sink".
 
think you may be mistaking the reflective/dispersive portion of the police cruiser beacon as a "heat sink".
Click to expand...
...no the ribs you can see are ribbed aluminium pleats, expensively shaped.....they are not reflectors. they are above the leds, they dont affect the led light.
 
You must not be familiar with precision aluminum casting and forming techniques. That fancy looking aluminum heatsink probably costs about $2 to make.
 
Flyback said:
...no the ribs you can see are ribbed aluminium pleats, expensively shaped.....they are not reflectors. they are above the leds, they dont affect the led light.
Click to expand...

I suppose that could be, but I don't believe the manufacturer ( not the UNECE who set up the standards) would logically place heat sinks inside a sealed lens...
 
I suppose that could be, but I don't believe the manufacturer ( not the UNECE who set up the standards) would logically place heat sinks inside a sealed lens...
Click to expand...

..i see your point, but i dont think they have any choice, they must mount the led pcbs on aluminium sheet so as to take the immdiate heat out of the led, but making it an elaborate shape is a complete waste of time..surely?
 
That's the most logical conclusion. And it looks like aluminium.

The shape is obviously designed to look attractive and high tech, so it's a value adding feature of the product. The product is aimed at big budget customers, ie govt agencies and large commercial entities.
 
It's plastic lol. Squirrels and big spenders have one thing in common. They like shiny things - don't care how it is shiny, but its shiny. It looks like that shiny plastic you find inside a cheap torch
 
The parabolic reflector (?) in common bulb flashlights / torches was made of brilliant nice looking plastic material. The glass-made ones disapeared long time ago. Lights for cars exactly the same.

I can say that because after discharging some hundreds of trailers and machinery, lights break from time to time. The material always look more or less the same.

I doubt you could get bright surfaces in aluminium unless applying a fancy / expensive process.

(Wondering where in world is Carmen Sandiego and what I could use to check my spelling...?)
 
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BioniC187 said:
It's plastic lol. Squirrels and big spenders have one thing in common. They like shiny things - don't care how it is shiny, but its shiny. It looks like that shiny plastic you find inside a cheap torch
Click to expand...

Are we talking about different things? The aluminium heatsink is on top of the circle of LEDs, and is darker and matte/frosted looking.

It's not shiny, nor in a position to reflect any of the light.
 
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