Abstract:
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.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     (1) Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     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.  
         [0003]     (2) Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     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.  
         [0005]     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.  
         [0006]     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  FIG. 1 , a conventional electronic apparatus has a shell  10  and a fan  12 . The fan  12  is mounted onto the shell  10  by fastening four screws  102 ,  104 ,  106  and  108 . As the screwing direction of the screws  102 ,  104 ,  106  and  108  is same as the rotational direction of the vanes  122  of the fan  12 , after the fan  12  has been installed and used for a period of time, the rotational vibration of the fan  12  could loosen the screws  102 ,  104 ,  106  and  108 . As a result, the fan  12  could hit the shell  10  during operation and generate even more noise.  
         [0007]     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 INVENTION  
       [0008]     Accordingly, 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  
         [0009]     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.  
         [0010]     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.  
         [0011]     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 DRAWINGS  
       [0012]     The present invention will now be specified with reference to its preferred embodiments illustrated in the drawings, in which  
         [0013]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a conventional electronic apparatus and a fan;  
         [0014]      FIG. 2A  is a schematic view of the present invention showing the shell of an electronic apparatus housing a cooler;  
         [0015]      FIG. 2B  is a schematic view of the cooler and the shell to be installed according to  FIG. 2A ;  
         [0016]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the joint; and  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  is a schematic view of a third embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0018]     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.  
         [0019]     Refer to  FIGS. 2A and 2B  for a first embodiment of the present invention. The cooler  20  of the invention is installed in a shell  30  of an electronic apparatus. The shell  30  has a cooling opening  304  to facilitate air ventilation. The cooling opening  304  may be formed on a selected location of the shell  30  as desired. It is to be noted that the electronic apparatus mentioned in the invention means any electronic device that has internal elements generating heat energy, such as a projector, personal computer, notebook computer, or the like.  FIG. 2A  is based on a projector to serve as an example.  
         [0020]     The cooler  20  includes a case  202  and a cooling fan  204 . In the first embodiment,  FIG. 2B , the case  202  is a hollow rectangular box with a connecting opening  2022 . The case may also be formed in other shapes such as cubical or the like The connecting opening  2022  is bordered by four walls that have joints  2024 ,  2036 ,  2028  and  2010  to connect to the cooling opening  304  of the shell  30 . The joints may be selected from a wide variety of coupling elements, such as the ones shown in  FIG. 2B  that include four screws  402 ,  404 ,  406  and  408 , coupling with apertures  3022 ,  3024 ,  3026  and  3028  formed on the shell  30  and corresponding screw holes  2032 ,  2034 ,  2036  and  2038  formed in the joints  2024 ,  2036 ,  2028  and  2010 . Such a construction can facilitate disposing of the cooler  20  into the shell  30  from outside and fastening thereafter. The shell  30  and the case  202  may be made from a desired material, such as ABS or other plastics for a general electronic apparatus, or aluminum magnesium alloy or the like for a high price product.  
         [0021]     The cooling fan  204  is located on one side of the case  202 , such as a wall  2012  shown in  FIG. 2B . The purpose of mounting the cooling fan  204  onto such a location aims to prevent loosening of the joints  2024 ,  2026 ,  2028  and  2030  during operation of the cooling fan  204 . The cooling direction of the cooling fan  204  is perpendicular to the jointing direction of the joints  2024 ,  2026 ,  2028  and  2030  (namely, the screwing direction). Of course, the cooling fan  204  may be located on any wall desired. The cooling fan  204  also may have many selections, such as outward blowing fans, inward blowing fans or bi-directional fans. The cooling fan  204  is formed in the case  202  in an integrated manner, thus it does not need additional fastening with screws.  
         [0022]     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.  
         [0023]     The joints of the shell and the case, besides the screws, may have other selections.  FIG. 3  illustrates a second embodiment. The joints includes four sets of coupling structures  2042 ,  2044 ,  2046  and  2048 . Each of the coupling structures has a male latch hook on the case  202  and a female latch trough on the shell  30  that may be wedged and coupled together to fasten the case  202  to the shell  30 . All other elements are substantially same as the ones previously discussed.  
         [0024]     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.  FIG. 4  shows a third embodiment for this purpose. A cooler  50  is provided for use on an electronic apparatus which has a shell  60 . The shell  60  has a cooling opening  602  and an inner wall  604 . The cooler  50  includes a fastening means  502  and a cooling fan  504 . The fastening means  502  has a first side  5022  and a second side  5024  that are perpendicular to each other. The cooling fan  504  corresponds to the second side and a cooling opening for channeling airflow outwards or inwards. The first side of the fastening means  502  is coupled and fastened to the inner wall  604  of the shell  60  through screws and screw holes as the first embodiment does.  
         [0025]     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.  
         [0026]     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.  
         [0027]     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.