What about oil cooling?

Methods of cooling laser tubes

What about oil cooling?

Postby piman » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:40 am

Is anyone using something other than water? For some reason putting nigh voltage and water next to each outer seams like a bad idea. But lots of people are doing it with success on this forum.

My first thought would be to run mineral oil, it wont work quite as well but would be safer to use around electronics.

Any thoughts on this?
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H2O properties

Postby quadmasta » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:09 am

Pure water doesn't conduct electricity so if you're really worried about it, get some purified water and run it through the system. It shouldn't pick up enough "stuff" from the tubing or vessel to become conductive.
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Re: What about oil cooling?

Postby lasersafe1 » Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:29 am

I actually had a water line break (cheap Chinese tubing went brittle at the tube). It sprayed all over my various power supplies, including the high voltage supply. I shut down, unplugged it and let it dry. Lucky for me, nothing died. This still hasn't convinced me to change to oil.
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Re: What about oil cooling?

Postby macona » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:16 am

Water has nearly four times the thermal conductivity and three times the heat capacity as mineral oil. Water evaporates if spilled. Mineral oil would be a mess.

If you are worried about electrical conductivity use deionized water. As long as it does not become contaminated it is non-conductive. DI water passes over the terminals of many electrically hot equipment internals like in yag lasers and plasma cutters. They often keep a mesh bag of ion exchange resin in the tank to catch any dissolved contaminants.
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