FAN ASSEMBLY STRUCTURE
A fan assembly structure is provided. The fan assembly structure comprises a fan, an air-flow guiding structure and a fixing component. The air-flow guiding structure has a plurality of air-flow guiding holes, a leaning portion and a plurality of first locking portions distributed on the leaning portion. The fixing component has a plurality of second locking portions. The fan is pivotally connected with the fixing component. The second locking portion is adapted to rotate by an angle with respect to the leaning portion to lock with the corresponding first locking portion. Thereby, the fan is disposed on the air-flow guiding structure by only the fixing component.
This application claims the benefit from the priority to Taiwan Patent Application No. 100135314 filed on Sep. 29, 2011, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONSNot applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fan assembly structure, in particular, a fan assembly structure for fixing an axial fan.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
Conventional cooling fan structures fixed in desktop computer hosts or power supplies are as shown in FIG. 1(a) of the specification of Taiwan Invention Patent No. 1259049, FIG. 3 of the specification of Taiwan Invention Patent No. 1327269 and FIG. 1 of the specification of Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M273941. Such a conventional cooling fan generally comprises a fan vane disposed in a fan frame. By threading a plurality of screws through holes in a computer host or the casing of a power supply into the fan frame, the cooling fan can be fixed in the computer host or the power supply. However, to save manufacturing costs by simplifying the structure of cooling fans, various improvement solutions have been proposed successively in the art, which will be detailed as follows.
For example, “a cooling fan module structure for an electric device” disclosed in Taiwan Invention Patent No. 1259049 comprises a fan vane formed with a plurality of screw holes in the central portion thereof. The fan vane is fixed in the electric device by threading a plurality of screws through holes formed in the casing of the electric device and then into the screw holes of the fan vane. However, using screws to fix the fan module structure often extends the time necessary for assembling the cooling fan module structure if small screws were lost inadvertently during the repair or maintenance of the cooling fan module structure, spare screws must be available used for replacement, which furthers extend the time necessary for repair or maintenance if the screws aren't readily available.
Furthermore, “an improved frameless fan fixing structure” disclosed in Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M273941 comprises a fan, a driving mount and a locking cover. The fan is rotatably connected with the driving mount, and a locking hook of the locking cover passes through a heat dissipating mesh of a power supply to lock with a locking groove of the driving mount so that the fan is fixed by means of the driving mount and the locking cover. However, the frameless fan fixing structure still requires the use of a plurality of fixing components to fix the fan. Furthermore, when the locking cover is detached for repair or maintenance, the fracture of the hook-shaped locking hook often occurs due to an improper removal direction or an improper applied force, thus, making it impossible to fix the fan completely.
Accordingly, an urgent need exists in the art to provide a fan assembly structure that requires the use of less fixing components and allows for the easy detachment and assembly of the fan.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAn objective of the present invention is to provide a fan assembly structure, which can fix a fan securely to the casing of an electric device by using only a single fixing component to improve the convenience in the assembly process.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention provides a fan assembly structure, which comprises a fan, an air-flow guiding structure and a fixing component. The air-flow guiding structure has a plurality of air-flow guiding holes, a leaning portion and a plurality of first locking portions distributed on the leaning portion. The fixing component has a plurality of second locking portions and a bushing portion. The bushing portion is disposed on the central portion of the fan and the fan rotatably connects with the fixing component by the bushing portion. The second locking portions correspond to the first locking portions respectively and rotate relative to the leaning portion by an angle to lock with the first locking portions. Thereby, the fan can be rotatably disposed on the air-flow guiding structure by the single fixing component.
The detailed technology and preferred embodiments implemented for the subject invention are described in the following paragraphs accompanying the appended drawings for people skilled in this field to well appreciate the features of the claimed invention.
A fan assembly structure 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Further, as shown in
It shall be appreciated that the number of the second locking portions 131 is equal to that of the first locking portions 123. In this embodiment, the number of the first locking portions 123 and that of the second locking portions 131 are both three; however, the number of the first locking portions 123 and that of the second locking portions 131 may be adjusted depending on the practical use necessary in other embodiments of the present invention.
The structures and the locking mechanisms of the first locking portions 123 and the second locking portions 131 will be further described in detail hereinbelow. Referring to
Referring to
The structure of the air-flow guiding structure 12 will be further described in detail hereinbelow. Referring to
A fan assembly structure 2 of the second embodiment according to the present invention is shown in
In detail, please refer to
Accordingly, the second locking portions 231 will correspond to the first locking portions 223 respectively and rotate relative to the leaning portion 222 to lock with the first locking portions 223. The bushing portion 232 may be disposed on a central portion 211 of the fan 21, and the fan 21 rotatably connects with the fixing component 23 by the bushing portion 232 so as to be disposed on the air-flow guiding structure 22 by the fixing component 23. To fix the fixing component 23 securely onto the air-flow guiding structure 22, a rotating direction R2 of each of the second locking portions 231 rotating relative to the leaning portion 222 is opposite to a rotation direction of the fan 21.
In this embodiment, the number of second locking portions 231 is equal to that of the first locking portions 223. In this embodiment, the number of the first locking portions 223 and that of the second locking portions 231 are both three; however, in other embodiments of the present invention, the number of first locking portions 223 and that of the second locking portions 231 may be adjusted depending on practical use.
In this embodiment, referring to
Referring to
In addition, in order to assemble the fan assembly structure of the present invention more conveniently, the fixing component 13 of the first embodiment according to the present invention comprises a plurality of locating holes 134 as shown
According to the above descriptions, as compared with the conventional fan fixing structure, the fan of the fan assembly structure according to the present invention can be fixed on the air-flow guiding structure in a rotatably locking way directly by means of only a single fixing component. This can not only simplify the assembling process to decrease the manufacturing cost, but also make the fan assembly structure easier and more convenient to assemble so that the user can replace the fan easily by himself.
The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended.
Claims
1. A fan assembly structure, comprising:
- a fan;
- an air-flow guiding structure, having a plurality of air-flow guiding holes, a leaning portion and a plurality of first locking portions, the plurality of air-flow guiding holes being distributed at a periphery of the leaning portion, and the plurality of first locking portions being distributed on the leaning portion; and
- a fixing component, having a plurality of second locking portions and a bushing portion;
- wherein the bushing portion is disposed on a central portion of the fan, the fan rotatably connects with the fixing component by the bushing portion, and the second locking portions correspond to the first locking portions respectively and rotate relative to the leaning portion by an angle to lock with the first locking portions, and thereby the fan is disposed on the air-flow guiding structure by the fixing component.
2. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein a rotating direction of each of the second locking portions rotating relative to the leaning portion is opposite to a rotation direction of the fan.
3. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein the air-flow guiding structure is disposed on a sidewall of a casing.
4. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 3, wherein the casing has a plurality of wind-collecting plates disposed around a periphery of the air-flow guiding structure.
5. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 4, wherein the air-flow guiding structure has a plurality of ribs disposed around the leaning portion to define the air-flow guiding holes, and the leaning portion connects with the casing by the ribs.
6. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 5, wherein the fixing component further comprises a wiring groove extending from a periphery of the fixing component.
7. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 6, wherein the first locking portions and the second locking portions are three first locking portions and three second locking portions respectively.
8. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 7, wherein a connecting line between a center of the leaning portion, each of the first locking portions and the adjacent first locking portion forms an included angle of 120 degrees.
9. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 8, wherein the fixing component has a plurality of locating holes.
10. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 9, wherein each of the second locking portions is a protrusion formed on a surface of the fixing component, and the protrusion and the surface together define a gap.
11. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first locking portions are distributed at a periphery of the leaning portion and the second locking portions are distributed on the fixing component corresponding to each of the first locking portions respectively.
12. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first locking portions are distributed in a central region of the leaning portion and the second locking portions are distributed on the fixing component corresponding to each of the first locking portions respectively.
13. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 11, wherein each of the first locking portions is a groove, and when the second locking portion is located at an end of the first locking portion and a locking surface of the groove is located in the gap, the fixing component rotates relative to the leaning portion, so that the second locking portion slides along the locking surface from the end of the first locking portion to the other end of the first locking portion.
14. The fan assembly structure as claimed in claim 12, wherein each of the first locking portions is a groove having a hole formed on a locking surface of the groove, and when the second locking portion is located at an end of the first locking portion and the second locking portion passes through the hole to locate the locking surface of the groove into the gap, the fixing component rotates relative to the leaning portion, so that the second locking portion slides along the locking surface from the end of the first locking portion to the other end of the first locking portion.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 29, 2012
Publication Date: Apr 4, 2013
Inventors: Hung-Chang HSIEH (Taoyuan-Hsien), Chi-Chang Teng (Taoyuan-Hsien), Min-Cheng Tseng (Taoyuan-Hsien)
Application Number: 13/433,825
International Classification: F04D 19/00 (20060101);