woah, I've just learned what "heatsink fin skiving" is,, I wonder if that is common knowledge??

[tsmspace]

So, I was really surprised to learn about how the fin skiving machines work, I wondered often how they made the heat sink fins, but I didn't know it was sliced with a blade (instead of cut with a saw or grinder) 

 

 

[LAwLz]

Never seen it before either. 

If the camera had been stationary this would have been top /r/oddlysatisfying material. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

48 minutes ago, tsmspace said:

So, I was really surprised to learn about how the fin skiving machines work, I wondered often how they made the heat sink fins, but I didn't know it was sliced with a blade (instead of cut with a saw or grinder) 

 

 

This actually makes sense now that I've seen it. Even cutting with a blade it'll be pretty hard to get the fins so thin and tightly packed together. The width of the plate that would be required to slice a block of aluminum as thick as a heatsink would probably be way too thick. Then there's the cost since skiving would produce far less wasted material if any. I'm just surprised those fins can still be that sturdy after being bent like that. 

 

Learned something new today. 

[mariushm]

It's common knowledge for those that are curious or those in the profession. It's not a requirement to know. It's a cool process.

 

For completeness, two other ways to make heatsinks are through extrusion or by forging 

 

Forging is cool but requires heavy (as in tons) machinery and high pressures... basically you squeeze the aluminum into the shape you want