Heatsinks - Skivving?

[Peter D]

Alright, i was reading a review for a new heatsink im getting (SLK-900U :beer:) over at hardCOREware.net and they said in one part of the review;

As with Thermaltake's Volcano 11, I was a little disappointed that Thermalright didn't use the skivving process as we have seen that there is a small but significant performance increase. The quality and workmanship of the heatsink are amongst the best I've seen

My question is, what IS skivving and how does it relate to heatsinks and their construction? Thanks!

-Peter

 

[Goi]

Skiving is a metal manufacturing process commonly used for copper heatsinks, that involves shaving layers from a solid copper block and then bending them 90 degrees to form the fins of the heatsink, rather than attaching them afterwards by soldering/forging/pressing/etc. The advantage to this is that the fins are from a single block of copper, so thermal conductivity is at its max. Also, the fins have the potential to be very fine, thus increasing surface area. In general its an extremely good copper HSF manufacturing process.