Black paint testing added

torqueon

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Brushed motor armature, no place for the heat to go!! would painting it black help ??
 
Maybe the armature needs some vitamin C, so paint it orange instead. :lol:

Weird-Idea-Of-The-Week goes to torqueon! :mrgreen:
 
Paint will do the opposite of allowing something to shed heat.

BUT, racing stripes will make it faster
 
Reid Welch said:
Posted by: Reid Oct 16 2006, 06:53 PM
addendum: the least emissive "color" is polished silver.

If a bike motor is flushed by cooling air, silver is OK.
But for maximum cooling if it runs warm: a coat of thin black paint.

Paint-too thick- is like a blanket,
so keep it thin. Krylon semi-flat looks good,
is the thinnest sort of spray bomb paint.
It has no resistance to rubbing alcohol or other strong solvents
(mineral spirits won't hurt it). And it's not a tough paint.
But it is thin. And very fast to dry--no tack, like with an alkyd
enamel.

For a test, take two identical silver colored spoons.
Paint one flat black.

Heat them hot on a skillet.
See how much faster the black one returns to room temperature.
The effect is dramatic.

joke: Gee, now that I think about it, suppose I'll paint all the soup
spoons black.
No more puffing on the spoon's hot contents.

grins,
r.

Reid Welch knew his shit.

Study up, kids.
 
I searched and read a bunch.
Lotta theoretical stuff and no tests.

Give me tests and graphs and i will believe it!
Otherwise i see paint as being a barrier.. and black is known to attract heat
 
For a test, take two identical silver colored spoons.
Paint one flat black.

Heat them hot on a skillet.
See how much faster the black one returns to room temperature.
The effect is dramatic.

What color is your car's radiator?...I think he just wants you to try handling hot spoons. :lol:
 
I like the simple test idea with the painted spoons I will try sevaral colors and see how it goes
 
The fins on a radiator face each other, so increasing the emissivity of one fin only to radiate more heat just to be absorbed by its neighboring fin won't net any gain. The questions should be:
How hot does the armature get?
Where would the extra radiated heat go?

The paint would definitely not act as an insulator, because the rate of heat transfer to air is definitely less than the thermal conductivity of the paint.

FWIW, I painted my first hubmotor flat black from its original light grey with the intent of making it more emissive in an effort to try to get it to run cooler. I didn't notice any difference, which was probably due to the fairly low temperature and because now it can absorb more heat from direct sun.
 
I am hoping to borrow a infared thermomonitor, to check unit after a run. The brush cage is open so I can aim it at the armature and than check the motor can to see the difference's
I suspect there's quite a difference. Because after a hard run, the motor can is warm, recheck after 5 minute's or so and it a lot warmer. The only place the heat can go is through the air gap and bearings
If the painting the armature works, more heat will go to the magnets and can.
 
[/quote]What color is your car's radiator?...I think he just wants you to try handling hot spoons. :lol:[/quote]

I think most modern radiators and intercoolers are just a raw aluminium colour.

Kurt.
 
Hillhater said:
torque on said:
Brushed motor armature, no place for the heat to go!! would painting it black help ??

Like you said... " no place for the heat to go"... so you have first got to move the heat out of the motor.
Get some air moving through there first.
At some point i will do that, but paint is cheap, so worth a try, despite varying opinions
 
I expect if it were anodized black, it would work better than painted, as the paint will be likely a lot thicker than the anodizing.


Realistically, with the brushed powerchair motors I have, all of their outer casings are black, but they still retain most of their heat if operated under load with no airflow thru them. The heat has to get out of the coils and armature laminations, mostly by convection/radiation into the air inside the motor, and then from teh air into the magnets, and from the magnets to the thick steel housing, and then finally it can radiate/convect into the air. The only direct conduction it can have to the outside is via the thin motor shaft, into the bearings and casing (and gearbox).
 
Torqueon,

You don't want to send more heat to the magnets, because they typically can't handle anywhere near the temperature than the magnet wire can. If you have it open anyway, then some corrosion prevention couldn't hurt, and that would be in preparation for drawing outside air through the motor.

Unless you're already overloading the motor and overheating the rotor (smoke and smell come out when you stop), which you can only cure by a reduction in the gearing, then the real weakness of the motor is at the brushes and commutator. That's where brushed motors typically suffer failure. When you ventilate try to bring the fresh air in at that end.

I have one good quality high power brushed DC motor. It's a sealed motor and has big heat sink fins but only on the end cap close to the commutator and brushes. The finned end cap increased the manufacturer's power rating by 10% at 36V and also rated the motor for 48V use, another 33%.

Advice I feel compelled to give you though is, unless some budgetary concerns prevent a different direction, sell the brushed motor for whatever you can get for it unless you have some alternate use, and get yourself a BLDC motor. The reason is their only moving friction parts are the bearings. That means that other than a bearing change once a decade or so, they are good for life as long as they're not overloaded.

More specifically, I'd suggest the outrunner type, where the rotor containing the magnets is on ring outside of the stator that contains the windings. The reason for that suggestion is that they are more tolerant of power increases through increased voltage. That's because they are only hard limited by the rpm limits of the bearings and the physical strength of the steel ring holding the magnets.

Working to improve the performance of a brushed motor really is just polishing a turd, and your efforts to improve it are wasted. Many of us started the same route, including myself, and the time, money, and effort on brushed motors was wasted once we discovered BLDC motors.
 
Oh yeah brushless motors!! have read much and will go that route !! When i get a better understanding of these things work. Right now old brushed motors with good batteries make's me happy !!
 
Picture's of some test I made. Temperature readings are left to right in the picture title
The black spoon 125f unpainted 94 f. The aluminium angle painted black on one side. the black side 40 f hotter than the unpainted side, Check the picture's i posted if there not there please let me know.

I did a motor test which consisted of a hard 2.5 mile run with 3 check points for the temperature of the motor can and armature
1st Motor can at 76f the armature at 112f
2nd Motor can at 85f the armature at 155f
3rd Motor can at 100f the armature at 210f
The motor resting for 10 min. the can and armature temps equalize
All this tells me is that black paint on the armature may help move heat to the can ! and Black on the can will move heat out to the world.
The next test is unpainted and painted armature in oven, heated until stable, remove and see which one cools off first.
 

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