Patent Publication Number: US-2017354062-A1

Title: Heat pipe assembly and heat pipe structure

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 105117706, filed on Jun. 4, 2016. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Technical Field 
     The disclosure relates to a heat pipe assembly and a heat pipe structure. 
     Description of Related Art 
     Along with development of technology, current mobile electronic devices are all developed towards a trend of lightness, slimness, shortness and smallness, so that a problem of insufficient space is occurred due to the trend of compact in structural configuration. 
     For example, in order to achieve a required execution performance and a heat dissipation performance of a mobile electronic device, a designer often faces with the need to configure components required to achieve the aforementioned performances within a limited space, and meanwhile an overall structure has to be taken into consideration to avoid insufficient structural strength, which always causes a considerable trouble to the designer. 
     Therefore, how to provide a simple structure to make sure that the aforementioned components can all be properly configured in a housing of the mobile electronic device is an important issue considered by related technicians. 
     SUMMARY 
     The disclosure is directed to a heat pipe assembly and a heat pipe structure, which are adapted to provide a better space configuration when being assembled in a housing of an electronic device. 
     The disclosure provides a heat pipe assembly adapted to an electronic device. The heat pipe assembly includes at least one heat pipe, a bracket, and at least one fixing member. The heat pipe is disposed in a housing of the electronic device. The bracket is assembled to a portion of the heat pipe, and positions and suspends the heat pipe in the housing. The fixing member is fixed to the bracket by penetrating through the housing from an exterior of the housing, such that the bracket and the housing are fixed to each other. 
     The disclosure provides a heat pipe structure including a heat pipe and a bracket. A portion of the heat pipe is combined with the bracket to produce a deformation, and the deformed portion is closely fit to a part of a contour of the bracket. 
     According to the above description, in the heat pipe assembly, through collaboration of the bracket and the fixing member, after the bracket is assembled to a portion of the heat pipe, the bracket is fixed to the housing through the fixing member, such that the bracket and the portion of the heat pipe are positioned and suspended in the housing, where besides that the fixing member and the heat pipe are not interfered with each other due to the bracket, the bracket may also provide a positioning and fixing effect to the heat pipe. 
     Moreover, a portion of the heat pipe is combined with the bracket to produce a deformation, and the deformed portion is closely fit to a part of a contour of the bracket. In this way, during a manufacturing process of the heat pipe, manufacturing of the bracket is completed at the same time, such that the heat pipe can be easily fixed to a required position, and thus an assembly procedure is accordingly simplified. 
     In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the disclosure comprehensible, several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 1  is a partial schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a partial cross-sectional view of the electronic device of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a partial cross-sectional view of a heat pipe assembly according to another embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5  are cross-sectional views of a heat pipe structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 6  and  FIG. 7  are cross-sectional views of a heat pipe structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  is a partial schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.  FIG. 2  is a partial cross-sectional view of the electronic device of  FIG. 1 . Referring to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , in the present embodiment, the electronic device  10  is, for example, a notebook computer, which includes a heat pipe assembly  100 , a housing  200 , a heat dissipation assembly  300  and a heat source  400 , wherein the heat source  400  is, for example, a central processor or a display chip of the notebook computer. The heat dissipation assembly  300  includes a fan  310  and cooling fins  320 , and the heat pipe assembly  100  includes a heat pipe  110 , a bracket A 1  and fixing members  140 A and  140 B. 
     The heat source  400  contacts one end of the heat pipe  110 , and another end of the heat pipe  110  is connected to the cooling fins  320  by penetrating through the same, and through a phase transformation of a working fluid (e.g. the working fluid in liquid is transformed to vapor by absorbing heat, or the working fluid in vapor is transformed to liquid by dissipating heat, which are not shown here) in the heat pipe  110 , heat generated by the heat source  400  is conducted to the cooling fins  320  through the heat pipe  110 , and the fan  310  runs to dissipate the heat of the cooling fins  320  to achieve an effect of dissipating the heat generated by the heat source  400  to the outside of the housing  200  of the electronic device  10 . 
     As described above, under the limited space of the housing  200 , how to balance the structural strength of the electronic device  10  and the component configuration within the housing  200  is an important issue required to be considered. 
     In the present embodiment, the bracket A 1  includes a main body  120 , and standoffs  130 A,  130 B, where the main body  120  is a sleeve member, which sleeves a portion of the heat pipe  110 , and the standoffs  130 A,  130 B are respectively disposed on two opposite surfaces of the main body  120 , and respectively extend towards an upper casing  210  and a lower casing  220  of the housing  200 . Here, the standoffs  130 A,  130 B are, for example, screw hole columns, and the fixing members  140 A,  140 B are, for example, screws. Therefore, the fixing members  140 A and  140 B may respectively penetrate through the upper casing  210  and the lower casing  220  of the housing  200  for being locked to the standoffs  130 A,  130 B, such that the main body  120  and the heat pipe  110  passing there through can be positioned and suspended in the housing  200  (i.e. between the upper casing  210  and the lower casing  220 ). In this way, not only the whole structure of the electronic device  10  may achieve a required strength due to the locking effect implemented by the standoffs  130 A,  130 B and the fixing members  140 A,  140 B, but also the heat pipe  110  may pass through the fixing members  140 A,  140 B without being influenced, which avails a space configuration within the housing  200 . In other words, a portion of the heat pipe  110  combined with the bracket A 1  is substantially located on an axial direction (for example, a center line shown in  FIG. 2 ) along which the fixing member  140 A or  140 B is fixed to the bracket A 1 , and the portion of the heat pipe  110  is not interfered with the fixing member  140 A or  140 B. 
     In the present embodiment, although two fixing members  140 A,  140 B and two standoffs  130 A,  130 B are illustrated, the disclosure is not limited thereto, and in another embodiment that is not illustrated, under the premise of satisfying the structural strength, only one fixing member and one standoff can be adopted to fix the bracket and the housing. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , in the present embodiment, the upper casing  210  is, for example, a casing structure of a palmrest in a host of the notebook computer, and the lower casing  220  is, for example, a bottom casing structure used for leaning against a platform in the host of the notebook computer. Therefore, the fixing member  140 B substantially penetrates through the lower casing  220  upward from the bottom of the housing  200  and is fixed to the standoff  130 B of the bracket A 1 , and the fixing member  140 A penetrates through the upper casing  210 , a hinge bracket  240  and a mainboard  500  downward from the top of the housing  200  and is fixed to the standoff  130 A of the bracket A 1 . Meanwhile, considering the upper casing  210  is substantially a main appearance member of the housing  200 , a cover  230  can be assembled to the upper casing  210  to shield the fixing member  140 A. Here, the cover  230  can be a cover used for covering a hard disk of the notebook computer, which is not limited by the disclosure. 
     Moreover, in the present embodiment, the main body  120  of the bracket A 1  and the heat pipe  110  can be mutually positioned and fixed through spot welding. In this way, the bracket A 1  may also serve as a heat dissipation structure of the heat pipe  110 , so as to increase a heat dissipation area to improve a heat dissipation effect of the heat pipe  110 . 
     On the other hand, the main body  120  of the bracket A 1  and the standoffs  130 A,  130 B can be an integral structure, or the standoffs  130 A,  130 B can be assembled to or welded to the main body  120 , which is not limited by the disclosure. 
       FIG. 3  is a partial cross-sectional view of the heat pipe assembly according to another embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to  FIG. 3 , different to the aforementioned embodiment, the heat pipe assembly  500  of the present embodiment includes a plurality of heat pipes  510 A,  510 B and  510 C, so that a height of a hollow contour of a main body  520  of a bracket A 2  can be correspondingly changed according to a thickness of the overlapped heat pipes  510 A,  510 B and  510 C, and standoffs  530 A,  530 B are the same to the standoffs of the aforementioned embodiment, so as to achieve the same fixing effect as that of the aforementioned embodiment. 
       FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5  are cross-sectional views of a heat pipe structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure, which are used for describing a forming process of the heat pipe structure. Referring to  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 , in the present embodiment, the heat pipe structure  600  includes a heat pipe  610  and a bracket, where the bracket can still be divided into a main body A 3  and a first standoff  630 C, a second standoff  630 B, where the main body A 3  and the heat pipe  610  are mutually combined. However, before the assembling, the main body A 3  substantially includes a first contact portion  630 A and a second contact portion  630 D separated from each other, and the first standoff  630 C and the first contact portion  630 A are an integral structure, and the second standoff  630 B and the second contact portion  630 B are an integral structure. 
     Then, referring to  FIG. 5 , the first contact portion  630 A and the second contact portion  630 D are driven to penetrate through a portion of the heat pipe  610  to lean against to each other (which are closely combined at a contact surface S 1  to serve as a main body A 3  of the bracket), and the portion of the heat pipe  610  is accordingly deformed, and the deformed portion is closely fit to a part of contours of the first contact portion  630 A and the second contact portion  630 D, such that the portion of the heat pipe  610  is separated into two portions  610 A and  610 B, and the working fluid therein can be maintained to normally flow and does not leak out from the portion. 
     In other words, in the present embodiment, the structure of the bracket is completed during a manufacturing process of the heat pipe  610 , and the heat pipe  610 , the main body A 3  of the bracket and the standoffs  630 B,  630  form an integral structure, such that the heat pipe structure  600  is adapted to be fixed on any object, for example, on the housing  200  of the aforementioned embodiment, so as to simplify a follow-up procedure for assembling the electronic device. 
     More importantly, when the fixing members (shown as the aforementioned embodiment, which are omitted in the present embodiment) are respectively fixed to the standoffs  630 B,  630 C to fix the bracket and objects (for example, the upper casing  210  and the lower casing  220  of the aforementioned embodiment) of the present embodiment as that does in the aforementioned embodiment, since the first contact portion  630   a  and the second contact portion  630 D may lean against each other at the contact surface S 1  (shown by double arrow symbols at the contact surface S 1  of  FIG. 5 ), a fixing (locking) force of the fixing members can be freely transferred through the contact surface S 1  without being obstructed by the heat pipe  610 , so as to provide a better combining force to improve the structural strength. 
       FIG. 6  and  FIG. 7  are cross-sectional views of a heat pipe structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure, which are used for describing a forming process of the heat pipe structure. Referring to  FIG. 6  and  FIG. 7 , the present embodiment is similar to the aforementioned embodiment, the heat pipe structure  700  of the present embodiment also includes a heat pipe and a bracket, though the heat pipe is substantially combined with the bracket through a squeezing manner. As shown in  FIG. 6 , a main body  720  of the bracket has a recess R 1 , and the heat pipe  710 A before shaping is disposed in the recess R 1 , and then a squeezing force (shown by an arrow of  FIG. 7 ) is exerted to squeeze and shape the heat pipe  710  in the recess R 1 , and meanwhile the main body  720  and the heat pipe  710 A can be stably combined together. The deformed heat pipe  710 B is substantially fit to a contour of the recess R 1  closely. Moreover, standoffs  730 A,  730 B and  730 C are configured on the main body  720  as that does of the aforementioned embodiment to complete the heat pipe structure  700 . Similarly, the bracket and the heat pipe can be manufactured together, so as to effectively decrease a time required for assembling the electronic device, and the quantity of the standoffs  730 A,  730 B and  730 C and positions thereof on the main body  720  are not limited by the embodiment. 
     In summary, in the aforementioned embodiments of the disclosure, through collaboration of the bracket and the fixing members of the heat pipe assembly, after the bracket is assembled to a portion of the heat pipe, the bracket is fixed to the housing through the fixing members, such that the bracket and the portion of the heat pipe are positioned and suspended in the housing, where besides that the fixing member and the heat pipe are not interfered with each other due to the bracket, the bracket may also provide a positioning and fixing effect to the heat pipe. 
     Moreover, a portion of the heat pipe is combined with the bracket to produce a deformation, and the deformed portion is closely fit to a part of a contour of the bracket. In this way, during a manufacturing process of the heat pipe, manufacturing of the bracket is completed at the same time, such that the heat pipe can be easily fixed to a required position, and thus an assembly procedure is accordingly simplified. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.