Compact Heat Sink

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An advanced variation of the standard single-strength heat sink, the compact heat sink takes up half the space but weighs one-half more.

Description[edit]

After the initial Clan Invasion and with the increasing use of lighter, but more bulky, structural components such as XL engines, ferro-fibrous armor, endo steel chassis, and massive Gauss rifles in Inner Sphere BattleMech designs, designers found that while they still had weight to spare, they were often left with less space to install other equipment.[1][2] Unable to match the size reduction of Clan-tech double heat sinks, and Inner Sphere versions only adding to the problem, researchers in the Federated Commonwealth instead turned to reducing the size of standard heat sinks. By 3058, the New Avalon Institute of Science had developed prototypes of a so-called "compact heat sink", with two single-strength compact heat sinks able to fit into the space of one standard model. Unfortunately, much like the compact engine and gyro, the use of denser but more compact materials increased the weight of each compact heat sink by half, generally restricting their use to heavier 'Mechs with weight to spare.[1][2] By 3079, compact heat sinks entered limited production and were re-rated as advanced technology.[3][4]

Compact heat sinks are more exclusive to the Inner Sphere, with the Clans' reductions in the bulk of advanced armor, engines, and chassis components making the situation much less critical for them.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Tactical Operations, p. 316, "Compact Heat Sink"
  2. 2.0 2.1 Maximum Tech (Revised), p. 87, "Compact Heat Sinks"
  3. Technical Readout: Prototypes, p. 107, "Compact Heat Sinks"
  4. Interstellar Operations, p. 42, " Universal Technology Advancement Table"

Bibliography[edit]