HEAT PIPE STRUCTURE

A heat pipe structure includes a tubular body and a mesh body. The tubular body has a chamber. The chamber has a first side and a second side. A working fluid is contained in the chamber. The wall faces of the first and second sides are respectively formed with a first channel set and a second channel set. A first contact section and a second contact section are respectively formed at the junctions between the first and second channel sets and the wall faces of the first and second sides. The mesh body is disposed in the chamber and attached to the first and second contact sections. Accordingly, the thickness of the heat pipe is greatly reduced and the manufacturing cost of the heat pipe is lowered.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a heat pipe structure, and more particularly to a thinner heat pipe structure manufactured at lower cost.

2. Description of the Related Art

A heat pipe has heat conductivity several times to several tens times that of copper, aluminum or the like. Therefore, the heat pipe has excellent performance and serves as a cooling component applied to various electronic devices. As to the configuration, the conventional heat pipes can be classified into heat pipes in the form of circular tubes and heat pipes in the form of flat plates. For cooling an electronic component such as a CPU, preferably a flat-plate heat pipe or thin heat pipe is used in view of easy installation and larger contact area. To catch up the trend toward miniaturization of cooling mechanism, the heat pipe has become thinner and thinner in adaptation to the cooling mechanism.

The heat pipe is formed with an internal space (chamber) as a flow path for the working fluid contained in the heat pipe. The working fluid is converted between liquid phase and vapor phase through evaporation and condensation and is transferable within the heat pipe for transferring heat. The heat pipe is formed with a sealed void (chamber) in which the working fluid is contained.

The heat pipe is used as a remote end heat conduction member. The heat pipe is fitted through a radiating fin assembly. The working fluid with low boiling point is filled in the heat pipe. The working fluid absorbs heat from a heat-generating electronic component (at the evaporation end) and evaporates into vapor. The vapor working fluid goes to the radiating fin assembly and transfers the heat to the radiating fin assembly (at the condensation end). A cooling fan then carries away the heat to dissipate the heat generated by the electronic component.

The heat pipe is manufactured in such a manner that metal powder is filled into a hollow tubular body by means of a mandrel of a tool. Then the metal powder is sintered to form a capillary structure layer on the inner wall face of the tubular body. Then the tubular body is vacuumed and filled with the working fluid and then sealed. Alternatively, a mesh capillary structure body is placed into a tubular body and sintered to form a capillary structure layer on the inner wall face of the tubular body. Then the tubular body is vacuumed and filled with the working fluid and then sealed. On the demand of the electronic equipment for slim configuration, the heat pipe must be made with the form of a thin plate.

In the conventional technique, the heat pipe is flattened into a flat-plate form to meet the requirement of thinning. After the metal powder is filled into the tubular body and sintered, the tubular body is flattened into a flat plate. Then the flat plate is filled with the working fluid and finally sealed. Alternatively, the tubular body is first flattened into a flat plate. Then the metal powder is filled into the tubular body and sintered. However, after flattened, the internal chamber of the flat plate is extremely narrow. Under such circumstance, it is quite hard to fill the metal powder into the chamber. Moreover, the capillary structure in the heat pipe must provide both support force and capillary attraction for the heat pipe. In such a narrow space, the effect provided by the capillary structure is limited.

Furthermore, the vapor passage inside the heat pipe is so narrow that the vapor-liquid circulation is affected.

According to the above, the conventional technique has the following shortcomings:

1. It is quite hard to process the thin heat pipe.

2. The capillary structure in the heat pipe is likely to be damaged.

3. The manufacturing cost of the thin heat pipe is relatively high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a thinner heat pipe structure manufactured at lower cost.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing method of a thinner heat pipe structure to lower the manufacturing cost of the heat pipe structure.

To achieve the above and other objects, the heat pipe structure of the present invention includes a tubular body and a mesh body.

The tubular body has a chamber. The chamber has a first side and a second side. A working fluid is contained in the chamber. The wall faces of the first and second sides are respectively formed with a first channel set and a second channel set. A first contact section and a second contact section are respectively formed at the junctions between the first and second channel sets and the wall faces of the first and second sides.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer toFIG. 1, which is a perspective sectional view of a first embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention. According to the first embodiment, the heat pipe structure1of the present invention includes a tubular body11and a mesh body12.

The tubular body11has a chamber111. The chamber111has a first side111aand a second side111b.A working fluid2is contained in the chamber111. The wall faces of the first and second sides111a,111bare respectively formed with a first channel set112and a second channel set113. A first contact section114and a second contact section115are respectively formed at the junctions between the first and second channel sets112,113and the wall faces of the first and second sides111a,111b. The first and second channel sets112,113axially extend along the wall faces of the first and second sides111a,111b.

The chamber111further has a third side111cand a fourth side111d.The first and second sides111a,111bare opposite to each other. The third and fourth sides111c,111dare opposite to each other and connected with the first and second sides111a,111brespectively. The third and fourth sides111c,111dare free from the first and second channel sets112,113.

The mesh body12is selected from a group consisting of knitted structure body, cellular structure body and geometrical solid structure body. The mesh body12is disposed in the chamber111in direct contact and attachment with at least one of the first and second contact sections114,115. Preferably, the mesh body12is attached to the second channel set113of the second side111b. The mesh body12is a metal mesh or a fiber mesh.

The configuration of the channels of the first and second channel sets112,113is selected from a group consisting of triangular shape, semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape. In this embodiment, the configuration of the channels is, but not limited to, triangular shape.

Please now refer toFIG. 2, which is a sectional view of a second embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention. The second embodiment is partially identical to the first embodiment in structure and thus will not be repeatedly described hereinafter. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the configuration of the channels of the first and second channel sets112,113is selected from a group consisting of semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape. In this embodiment, the configuration of the channels is, but not limited to, Ω-shape.

Please now refer toFIG. 3, which is a sectional view of a third embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention. The third embodiment is partially identical to the first embodiment in structure and thus will not be repeatedly described hereinafter. The third embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the configuration of the channels of the first and second channel sets112,113is selected from a group consisting of semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape. In this embodiment, the configuration of the channels of the first channel set112is Ω-shape, while the configuration of the channels of the second channel set113is semicircular shape.

According to the first, second and third embodiments of the heat pipe structure of the present invention, the mesh body is used instead of the conventional sintered powder. This can greatly reduce the total thickness of the heat pipe to achieve thinner heat pipe. Moreover, the first channel set112serves as a vapor passage, while the second channel set113enhances the capillary attraction, whereby the efficiency of the vapor-liquid circulation is enhanced.

In addition, while being thinned, the heat pipe still keeps sufficiently large vapor passage so that the vapor-liquid circulation within the heat pipe can continuously take place without affection of the narrow space.

Also, after the liquid working fluid21in the chamber111is evaporated into vapor working fluid22, the first channel set112serves as a vapor passage, whereby the vapor working fluid22can spread within the first channel set112. Then the vapor working fluid22in the first channel set112or at the first and second contact sections114,115is collectively condensed into liquid working fluid21. Due to gravity, the liquid working fluid21drops onto the mesh body12and the second channel set113to repeat the vapor-liquid circulation.

The present invention has been described with the above embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the above embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.