Noctua explains why it takes so long to produce a 'black' version of their PC CPU fan.
Noctua, a manufacturer of CPU coolers, offers black fan products that use carbon black pigment. While it may seem like just another color variation, Noctua shared the story behind how difficult it is to actually produce black fans.
Why does it take so long to release black fan versions? | Noctua
Noctua offers black fan products under the brand name 'chromax'.
Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black.swap, Premium Silent Fan, 4-Pin Connection (120mm, Black)
They also offer a chic brown fan, but Noctua says the manufacturing costs for brown and black fans are vastly different.
Fan manufacturing involves a process where plastic is melted, pressed into a steel mold, and then cooled and hardened to create a specific shape. This process requires meticulous calculation of everything down to the degree of temperature difference and milligrams of material, and it is necessary to perfectly balance the flow rate, cooling time, and pressure. However, applying colored pigments can disrupt this delicate balance.
This isn't a major issue in fan designs that use plastics like glass fiber reinforced
The problem here lies with black pigments. Brown pigments use metal oxides, and their particles are large, so their influence is weak. However, carbon black, a black pigment that uses carbon, has much smaller particles and a significantly larger total surface area, resulting in stronger interactions with the molten material. This interaction can drastically alter the viscosity, endothermic properties, and crystallization behavior of the molten resin.
When creating a mold for a new high-performance fan for the first time, multiple tuning processes are required until parameters such as shape and cooling performance are completely stable. Furthermore, producing a black version requires additional adjustments, which apparently adds both time and cost.
Noctua only began producing molds for black products after mass production of brown products had stabilized, meaning that black products are released at least six months after similar brown products. In fact, at the time this information was shared, they were about to release a black version of a product called ' NF-A12x25 G2, ' but it was released about 10 months after the brown version.
Noctua stated, 'We hope you understand that this is actually one of the fastest possible options.'
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in Hardware, Posted by log1p_kr