U.S. patent application number 11/523313 was filed with the patent office on 2007-11-15 for fan cover.
This patent application is currently assigned to Inventec Corporation. Invention is credited to Linger Lin.
Application Number | 20070264119 11/523313 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38346722 |
Filed Date | 2007-11-15 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070264119 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Lin; Linger |
November 15, 2007 |
Fan cover
Abstract
A fan cover integrated with a heat dissipating fan having a
power line and a power line connector is disclosed. The fan cover
includes a body combined with and covered on a side of the heat
dissipating fan, and a fixing mount disposed on an outside region
of the body. The fixing mount has a clip unit for clipping to the
power line connector of the heat dissipating fan, allowing the
power line connector to be detachably attached to the fixing mount.
Therefore, the heat dissipating fan is detachable form the frame of
the server in single step and overcome the drawbacks of the prior
art.
Inventors: |
Lin; Linger; (Taipei,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
EDWARDS ANGELL PALMER & DODGE LLP
P.O. BOX 55874
BOSTON
MA
02205
US
|
Assignee: |
Inventec Corporation
Taipei
TW
|
Family ID: |
38346722 |
Appl. No.: |
11/523313 |
Filed: |
September 18, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
415/121.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F04D 29/703
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
415/121.1 |
International
Class: |
F01D 25/00 20060101
F01D025/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
May 15, 2006 |
TW |
095208261 |
Claims
1. A fan cover attachable to a heat dissipating fan having a power
line and a power line connector, the fan cover comprising: a body
combined with and covered on a side of the heat dissipating fan;
and a fixing mount disposed in an outside region of the body and
having a clip unit for clipping to the power line connector of the
heat dissipating fan, so as to allow the power line connector to be
detachably attached to the fixing mount.
2. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the fixing mount is
perpendicular to the body.
3. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein two opposed sides of the
fixing mount respectively has the clip unit.
4. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the clip unit includes a clip
for clipping to the power line connector and a spacer close to the
clip.
5. The fan cover of claim 4, wherein the fixing mount further has a
rib connected to the spacer.
6. The fan cover of claim 4, wherein the clip has two posts and two
hooks set on tops of the posts respectively, the hooks pressing a
side of the power line connector at a first direction, the posts
clipping two opposed sides of the power line connector at a second
direction which is perpendicular to the first direction.
7. The fan cover of claim 6, wherein the power line connector has a
projection for being located between the spacer and the clip at a
third direction which is perpendicular to the first and second
directions.
8. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the power line connector has a
hole, and the clip unit has a tenon corresponding to the hole.
9. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the power line connector has a
groove, and the clip unit has a fitting piece corresponding to the
groove.
10. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the power line of the fan is
located in the fixing mount.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to fan cover, and more
particularly, to a fan cover which can be detachably attached with
a power line connector of a heat dissipating fan.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Arts
[0004] Conventionally, a fan module for heat dissipating in a 1U
server has two or three fans, whereas the whole fan module must be
detached from the 1U server if one of these fans is malfunctioned,
thereby the server must be shut off for taking off the fan
module.
[0005] Heat dissipating fans can be respectively electrically
connected to and detached from a server in recent years. As shown
in FIG. 1, a server (not shown) has a fan frame 1 and a patch panel
7 having a plurality of electrical slots 70. The fan frame 1
includes a plurality of accommodation units 10 for a plurality of
fans 6 to be accommodated in respectively. The electrical slots 70
are used for electrically connecting to connectors 60 of the fans
6.
[0006] However, attaching the fans 6 to the fan frame 1 and
connecting the connectors 60 to the electrical slots 70 must be
done separately if the above structure is in use. Accordingly a
process of attaching the fans 6 to the fan frame 1 is much
complicate. Moreover, as the space of the 1U server is becoming
smaller and smaller, it is difficult for a user to perform the
connection of the fans 6.
[0007] Furthermore, a power line of any one of the fans 6 is held
between the fan frame 1 and the patch panel 7 without proper
arrangement, thereby knotted or disorder power line may block the
airflow to reduce the heat dissipating efficiency, and short
circuit may also be produced by the knotted power line.
[0008] As a result, the present subject to be solved is to overcome
the above mentioned drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] In views of the above-mentioned problem of the prior art, it
is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a fan
cover which is fixed to an air outlet of a heat dissipating fan for
clipping a connector of the heat dissipating fan, thereby the fan
is detachable form a frame of the server in single step.
[0010] It is another objective of the present invention to provide
a fan cover for fixing a power line of the heat dissipating fan
such that disorder power line may be avoided.
[0011] To achieve the above-mentioned and other objectives, a fan
cover is provided in the present invention. The fan cover is
integrated with a heat dissipating fan having a power line and a
power line connector and comprises: a body combined with and
covered on a side of the heat dissipating fan; and a fixing mount
disposed on an outside region of the body, and the fixing mount has
a clip unit for clipping to the power line connector of the heat
dissipating fan, allowing the power line connector to be detachably
attached to the fixing mount. Therefore, the heat dissipating fan
is detachable form the frame of the server in single step.
[0012] Compared with the prior art, the fan cover of the present
invention has a fixing mount for clipping to the power line
connector of the heat dissipating fan, thereby the heat dissipating
fan is detachable form the frame of the server in single step.
Accordingly, complexity and inconvenience of attaching the heat
dissipating fan to the 1U server in the prior art may be
improved.
[0013] The clip unit has different embodiments fitting to the power
line connector of the heat dissipating fan. For example, the power
line connector has a groove, and the clip unit has a fitting piece
corresponding to the groove; or the power line connector has a
projection, and the clip unit has a clip structure corresponding to
the projection.
[0014] Moreover, two opposed sides of the fixing mount respectively
has the clip unit, such that the power line of the heat dissipating
fan can be fixed in the fixing mount while the power line connector
is clipped to a side of the clip unit. Therefore, short circuit
caused by the knotted power line and reduction of heat dissipating
efficiency caused by the disorder power line can be avoided.
Furthermore, the fan cover can be applied elastically to heat
dissipating fans with different power line as the clip units are
set on both sides of the fixing mount.
[0015] As a result, the fan cover of the present invention can
overcome the drawbacks of the prior art, such that it has a high
use value in industry.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0016] The invention can be more fully understood by reading the
following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with
reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0017] FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) is a sectional view of a 1U server
disposed with a heat dissipating fan of the prior art;
[0018] FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a heat dissipating fan and a
fan cover of the preferred embodiment according to the present
invention;
[0019] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the heat dissipating fan
and the fan cover shown in FIG. 2 when attached to a fan frame;
[0020] FIGS. 4A and 4B are two sectional views of the fan cover
applied to two heat dissipating fan having different power lines;
and
[0021] FIG. 5 is a partly sectional view of the fixing mount of the
fan cover combined with the power line connector of the heat
dissipating fan of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] Please refer to FIG. 2, which is an exploded view of a heat
dissipating fan 2 and a fan cover 3 of the preferred embodiment
according to the present invention. The heat dissipating fan 2 has
a power line 21 and a power line connector 22 connected to one end
of the power line 21. The fan cover 3 is used to be integrated with
the heat dissipating fan 2. The fan cover 3 comprises a body 31 for
combining with and being covered on a side of the heat dissipating
fan 2, and a fixing mount 32 disposed in an outside region of the
body 31. The fixing mount 32 has two clip units 33 for clipping to
the power line connector 22 of the heat dissipating fan 2, allowing
the power line connector 22 to be detachably attached to the fixing
mount 32.
[0023] According to the preferred embodiment, the fan cover 3 is
combined to a side of the heat dissipating fan 2 having an air
outlet 23. However, the fan cover 3 can also be combined to another
side of the heat dissipating fan 2 having an air inlet.
[0024] The fixing mount 32 is perpendicular to the body 31. The two
clip units 33 are installed on two opposite sides of the fixing
mount 32 respectively. The body 31 has a square cross section. At
least a gap 35 is installed on a side of the body 31 for the power
line 21 of the heat dissipating fan 2 to pass through. Three holes
36 corresponding to three screw holes 29 of the heat dissipating
fan 2 are installed on three corners of the body 31. Accordingly,
the body 31 can be fixed to the heat dissipating fan 21 by passing
three bolts 37 through the holes 36 and engaging with the screw
holes 29. Certainly, an elastic hook for clipping the screw holes
29 can also be installed on one of the corner of the body 31, such
that the body 31 can be fixed to the heat dissipating fan 2.
[0025] Refer to FIG. 3, which is a schematic diagram of the heat
dissipating fan 2 and the fan cover 3 when attached to a fan frame
4 of a server (not shown). The fan frame 4 has a plurality of
attaching portions 40 for holding a plurality of heat dissipating
fans 2. A patch panel 5 having a plurality of electrical slots 5
corresponding to the power line connectors 22 is disposed on a
housing of the server close to the fan frame 4. The power lines 22
are electrically connected to the electrical slots 50 respectively
while the heat dissipating fans 2 are attached to the fan frame
4.
[0026] Compared with the prior art that the attachment of the fans
6 to the fan frame 1 and the connection of the connectors 60 to the
electrical slots 70 must be done separately, the attachment of the
heat dissipating fans 2 to the fan frame 4 and the connection of
the power line connector 22 of the heat dissipating fans 2 of the
present invention can be completed in single step because each of
the fan covers 3 includes the fixing mount 32, which allows the
power line connector 22 of the heat dissipating fan 2 to be clipped
to. Accordingly, complexity and inconvenience of attaching the heat
dissipating fan to the 1U server in the prior art may be
improved.
[0027] Additionally, the current patch panel for the heat
dissipating fan has two types, and the difference between the two
types is that the electrical slot is opposite to each other,
accordingly different heat dissipating fan with different output
position of the power line must be used to fit to the electrical
slot of the patch panel. Please referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B, two
clip units 33 two are installed on two opposed sides of the fixing
mount 32 of the fan cover 3 respectively, such that the fan cover 3
can be rotated to fit to heat dissipating fan 2 with different
output position of the power line. Therefore, the fixing mount 32
of the present invention can be applied to different fans because
both sides of the fixing mount 32 can be clipped to the connector
22.
[0028] Please refer to FIG. 5. The clip unit 33 includes a clip 330
for clipping to the power line connector 22 and a spacer 332 close
to the clip 330. The power line connector 22 has a projection 28
for being located between the spacer 332 and the clip 330. The clip
330 has two posts 3302 connected to the fixing mount 32 and a hook
3301 set on the top of the post 3302. The hook 3301 presses a side
of the power line connector 22 for restricting the power line
connector 22 to move towards a first direction A, the posts 3302
clip two opposed sides of the power line connector 22 for
restricting the power line connector 22 to move towards a second
direction B which is perpendicular to the first direction A, and
the projection 28, which is located between the spacer 332 and the
clip 330, restricts the power line connector 22 to move towards a
third direction C which is perpendicular to the first and second
directions A and B. Therefore, the power line connector 22 can be
firmly clipped to the clip unit 33, and may not fall out as the
under force direction of the power line connector 22 is parallel to
the third direction C. The fixing mount 32 further has a rib 320
connected to the spacer 332 for enhancing the firmness of the
spacer 332 while the power line connector 22 is electrically
connected to the electrical slot. Additionally, the power line 21
of the heat dissipating fan 2 can be fixed in the fixing mount 32
while the power line connector 22 is clipped to a side of the clip
unit 33. Therefore, short circuit caused by the knotted power line
and reduction of heat dissipating efficiency caused by the disorder
power line can be avoided.
[0029] It should be noted that the clipping method of the clip unit
33 and the power line connector 22 is not limited to the present
embodiment. For example, the power line connector 22 has a groove,
and the clip unit 33 has a fitting piece corresponding to the
groove; or the power line connector 22 has a hole, and the clip
unit 33 has a tenon corresponding to the hole.
[0030] Therefore, the heat dissipating fan is detachable form the
frame of the server in single step by using the fan cover of the
present invention. Furthermore, the fan cover can be applied to
different heat dissipating fan with different output position of
the power line and fix the power line of the heat dissipating fan.
Additionally, the fixing mount is connected to the fan cover,
thereby fabrication process of the fan cover is simple because the
fixing mount can be molded together with the fan cover.
[0031] As a result, the fan cover of the present invention can
overcome the drawbacks of the prior art, such that it has a high
use value in industry.
[0032] In summary, the foregoing descriptions are only the
preferred embodiment and not restrictive of the technical scope of
the present invention. The essential technical contents of the
present invention are widely defined in the appended claims. All
embodiments or methods accomplished by others which are the same as
the definitions of the following claims or other equivalents should
be considered as falling within the scope of the claims.
* * * * *