US20070264119A1

US20070264119A1 - Fan cover

Info

Publication number: US20070264119A1
Application number: US11/523,313
Authority: US
Inventors: Linger Lin
Original assignee: Inventec Corp
Current assignee: Inventec Corp
Priority date: 2006-05-15
Filing date: 2006-09-18
Publication date: 2007-11-15
Also published as: TWM299459U

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.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
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.
2. Description of Related Arts
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.
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.
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.
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.
As a result, the present subject to be solved is to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

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:

FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) is a sectional view of a 1U server disposed with a heat dissipating fan of the prior art;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a heat dissipating fan and a fan cover of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention;

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;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are two sectional views of the fan cover applied to two heat dissipating fan having different power lines; and

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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.