Thermal adhesive is a type of thermally conductive glue

Glue

This is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....

 used for electronic components and heatsinks. Thermal adhesive is similar to thermal paste in that it is used for transferring heat from one surface to another. It is commonly used to bond heatsinks to motherboard

Motherboard

In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...

 chipsets and video card

Video card

A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...

 processors where there are no mounting holes to clamp a heatsink down.

The glue is usually a two-part epoxy

Epoxy

Epoxy, also known as polyepoxide, is a thermosetting polymer formed from reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener". Epoxy has a wide range of applications, including fiber-reinforced plastic materials and general purpose adhesives....

resin.

Thermal adhesive is usually applied by the manufacturer of the part to which it is applied, although it is also sold to the general public.

External links

• Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive (devhardware.com)