Most experimentally determined values of the thermal contact resistance fall between
0.000005 and 0.0005 m K/W (the corresponding range of thermal contact
conductance is 200,000 to 2000 W/m K). To know whether the thermal contact resistance is significant or not,  magnitudes of the thermal resistances of the layers are compared with typical values of thermal contact resistance. Thermal contact resistance is significant and may dominate for good heat conductors such as metals but can be neglected for poor heat conductors such as insulators.
Thermal contact conductance is an important factor in a variety of applications, largely because many physical systems contain a mechanical combination of two materials. Some of the fields where contact conductance is of importance are:
* Electronics
** Electronic packaging
** Heat sinks
** Brackets
* Industry
** Nuclear reactor cooling
** Gas turbine cooling
** Internal combustion engines
** Heat exchangers
** Thermal insulation
** Press hardening of automotive steels
* Flight
** Hypersonic flight vehicles
** Thermal supervision for space vehicles
* Residential/building science
** Performance of building envelopes