Question about Safety – Thermal Paste Beovision Lx4500 & Beomaster 5000

[Kilian Goderis]

Hey,

I was working on my beomaster 5000, Beovision Mx4000 and beovision lx4500 last week, but lefted them asside for a few days because they made me a bit scared. I became sceptic about the thermal pastes those were present in these devices and was wondering if someone could give me an answer on the following question.

I found out there was a beryllium oxide cooling paste in the past, some said the aluminium/silicone was introduced in the 90s. And now I’m wondering if they really used the beryllium paste in de B&O devices? I already separated a transistor from the cooling element of the beovision Lx4500, without any mask/gloves. Also the transparant capacitor cover in the beomaster 5000 scraped a bit of the thermal paste off, which I couldn’t avoid :/.

 

Thanks in advance,

Kilian

 

 

[lausvi]

Never heard of it before, quickly read couple of threads (links below) and the general consensus seems that unless it’s in breathable partciles/ingested, it shouldn’t be that dangerous. I don’t think any thermal paste I’ve ever removed was anywhere close to being a powder.

Also the last link suggests that it would’ve been banned by the 90’s, and only been used in larger volumes up to 1970’s.

 

https://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=409107

https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/how-toxic-is-old-thermal-paste-beryllium-oxide.1245809/

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/which-thermal-paste-heat-sink-compound.760692/page-2#post-15556437

[Kilian Goderis]

Hey,

Sorry for my delayed answer, I realy appreciate your detailed post!

Indeed, I’m afraid there is also not a lot of (objective)information about it.

I believe that the thermal paste I handled also wasn’t dried out. When i removed the pressure clip of the transistor. The paste kept the transistor nicely pressed against the cooling plate. I’m not sure if this is a good refference.

Thanks again,

Kilian

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