Using steel control box as the heat sink G540

[jwt]

Has anyone tried or does anyone think that bolting the G540 directly to the side of a steel control box with a bit of thermal grease work as a nice big heat sink for the G540?

My control box (http://ie.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=1346506) is a solid steel box 500mm x 400mm x 200mm and weighs 12Kg.

Its painted but a quick blip of a sander where I want to mount the G540 would have a nice metal contact for the thermal grease.

Reference info
http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/G540%20Heatsink%20Experiment.pdf

John

[MetalHead]

Do you have the internal mounting plate for your case? I have also considered this option.

[jwt]

I do but I was going to mount the G540 to the sidewall on the hinge side and insert the populated* plate at an angle, feeding the hinge side in first then bringing the rest in and level.

I'll make sure that any high components that would foul the G540 are on the opposite side from the hinge.

Hope that makes sense.

John

*populated as in mounting plate has toroidal transformer, capacitor, rectifier, switches, fuses, etc etc already mounted on to it.

[bradm]

John, my G540 is mounted exactly like that; as you have probably noticed, it's design encourages that (computer and motor connectors on the outside, power and control signals on the inside), and Gecko even provides you the template for where to cut and drill. I didn't bother with the thermal grease.

As long as you either have no other large heat sources in the box, or you are providing some airflow through the box (computer fan exhaust, filter input hole), it seems fine.