Electronic apparatus having a cooler
A cooler is applied in an electronic apparatus. The electronic apparatus comprises a shell. The shell comprises a cooling opening. The cooler comprises a case and a cooling fan. The case has a connecting opening. The four walls around the connecting opening comprise at least one joint for jointing the cooling opening in a jointing direction. The cooling fan is located in one side of the walls and eliminates the heat in the shell in a cooling direction. The cooling direction is vertical to the jointing direction.
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(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cooler, and more particularly to a cooler jointed to an electronic apparatus in a jointing direction different from the direction of the stress occurred during cooling operation.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
As electronic apparatus become more powerful, the internal elements also are more complicated. Many of them generate a great amount of heat during operation. If the heat is not dispersed properly, the performance of the elements will be affected, even the lift span of the elements will be shortened. When the internal temperature of the electronic apparatus is too high, the operation of the electronic apparatus is impacted and has to stop.
To resolve the aforesaid problem, many electronic apparatus include a cooler. The cooler generally is a fan to generate air circulation to lower the temperature inside the electronic apparatus.
However, installing the fan on an electronic apparatus, whether outward blowing or inward blowing, often results in increasing of noise. The noise mainly is generated by the elements during operations. The rotating vanes of the fan during operation also generates noise. Referring to
Nowadays, advances of fabrication techniques for the vanes and assembly have significantly reduced the noise caused by the rotation of the fan. However, the loosening problem between the fan and the shell caused by the stress resulting from rotation of the vanes is not yet resolved. There is still room for improvement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a cooler to eliminate the impact between the stress caused by the rotation of the vanes and the jointing stress occurred to the shell. By means of the invention, loosening of the cooler and the electronic apparatus does not occur even the vanes have operated for a prolonged period of time. Thus the noise generated by the cooler may be reduced
In one aspect, the cooler according to the invention is adopted for use on an electronic apparatus. The electronic apparatus includes a shell which has a cooling opening. The cooler includes a case and a cooling fan. The case has a connecting opening formed by four walls that have at least one joint to couple with the cooling opening. The cooling fan is located on one side of the case in a direction perpendicular to the joint.
In another aspect, the cooler according to the invention is adopted for use on an electronic apparatus which has a shell. The shell has a cooling opening and an inner wall. The cooler has a fastening means and a cooling fan. The fastening means includes a first side and a second side that are perpendicular to each other. The cooling fan is located on the second side to couple with the cooling opening, while the first side is fastened to the inner wall of the shell.
As the cooling fan is mounted on a position perpendicular to the direction of the joint with the electronic apparatus, the stress generated by the fan during rotation does not affect the joint. Hence no loosening occurs even the cooler has been installed and operated for a prolonged period of time. The noise generated by the cooler may be reduced to minimum.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe present invention will now be specified with reference to its preferred embodiments illustrated in the drawings, in which
The cooler according to the invention aims to provide an improved structure to eliminate the effect between the stress direction of the joint of the cooler and an electronic apparatus (namely the jointing direction) and the stress direction of a cooling fan during operation (namely the cooling direction). In other words, the invention aims to disorient the jointing direction of the cooler on the shell and the cooling direction of the cooler during cooling so that the cooling direction is not parallel with the jointing direction.
Refer to
The cooler 20 includes a case 202 and a cooling fan 204. In the first embodiment,
The cooling fan 204 is located on one side of the case 202, such as a wall 2012 shown in
When in operation, if the cooling fan is an inward blowing fan, airflow passes through the cooling opening and the connecting opening into the case, and is channeled into the shell through the cooling fan. If the cooling fan is an outward blowing fan, the airflow flows in the reverse direction, namely from the interior of the shell through the cooling fan, the connecting opening and the cooling opening and is discharged outside the shell. For the bi-directional fan, The rotation direction of the fan may be altered as desired to become an inward blowing or outward blowing fan. The cooling opening and the connecting opening may be designed separately. To facilitate air ventilation, the cooling opening and the connecting opening may be designed with the same dimension.
The joints of the shell and the case, besides the screws, may have other selections.
Besides housing the cooler in a case and installing in a shell of the electronic apparatus, one side of the case where the cooling fan is mounted may also serve as a fastening means to enable the cooling fan to be installed on a different location of the shell according to varying rotational direction of the cooling fan.
In the third embodiment, the cooler 50 has one side of the case extended to fasten to the shell 60. The extended case, i.e. the fastening means 502, is formed in L-shape. Therefore the first side 5022 may be fastened to the inner wall 604 through screws to enable the screwing direction not interfering with the rotational direction of the cooling fan. Thus the screws do not loosen because of the rotation of the cooling fan, and the fastening means may be coupled and fastened securely to the inner wall for a long period of time.
By means of the invention, the stress generated by the operation of the cooling fan does not affect the joints of the cooler and the shell. The joints of the cooler and the shell can last longer without loosening. And the noise may also be reduced.
While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the present invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A cooler for an electronic apparatus which has a shell and a cooling opening on the shell, comprising:
- a case having a connecting opening bordered by four walls which have at least one joint to connect to the cooling opening in a jointing direction; and
- a cooling fan located on one side of the case for discharging heat energy from the interior of the shell in a cooling direction not parallel with the jointing direction.
2. The cooler of claim 1, wherein the joint has at least one screw hole, the shell having at least one aperture corresponding to the screw hole to receive at least one screw to fasten the case and the cooler in the jointing direction.
3. The cooler of claim 1, wherein the connecting opening and the cooling opening have a same dimension.
4. A cooler for an electronic apparatus which has a shell and a cooling opening on the shell, comprising:
- a case having at least one joint connecting to the cooling opening in a jointing direction; and
- a cooling fan located in the case for discharging heat in a cooling direction not parallel with the jointing direction.
5. The cooler of claim 4, wherein the joint has at least one screw hole, the shell having at least one aperture corresponding to the screw hole to receive at least one screw to fasten the case and the cooler in the jointing direction.
6. A cooler for an electronic apparatus which has a shell and a cooling opening on the shell, comprising:
- a case having a connecting opening bordered by four walls which have at least one joint to connect to the cooling opening in a jointing direction; and
- a cooling fan located on one side of the case for discharging heat energy from the interior of the shell in a cooling direction perpendicular to the jointing direction.
7. The cooler of claim 6, wherein the joint has at least one screw hole, the shell having at least one aperture corresponding to the screw hole to receive at least one screw to fasten the case to the cooler in the jointing direction.
8. The cooler of claim 6, wherein the connecting opening and the cooling opening have a same dimension.
9. A cooler for an electronic apparatus that has a shell which has a cooling opening and an inner wall, comprising:
- a cooling fan; and
- a fastening means having a first side and a second side perpendicular to the first side, the cooling fan being located on the second side corresponding to the cooling opening, the first side being fastened to the inner wall.
10. The cooler of claim 9, wherein the first side has at least one screw hole, the inner wall having at least one aperture corresponding to the screw hole to receive at least one screw to fasten the shell and the fastening means.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 23, 2005
Publication Date: Sep 29, 2005
Applicant:
Inventor: Chang-Hung Lee (Yuan Lin Hsien)
Application Number: 11/088,012