Patent Publication Number: US-7713025-B2

Title: Assembling member

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of Invention 
   The present invention relates to an assembling member, and more particularly to an assembling member jointed to a heatsink fan frame and used for assembling a heatsink fan on a fixed frame. 
   2. Related Art 
   With the rapid development of high-tech industries such as computer information and the wide expansion of the application range, the requirements for data processing speed of electronic elements within the computer, such as Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Hard Disk Drive (HDD) are correspondingly increased. The volume of the electronic element tends to be miniaturized, and the intensity per unit area is increasingly higher. As the calculation speed of the computer increases, the heat generated by the relevant electronic elements also increases. If the heat is not dissipated in time, the temperature becomes excessively high, thus electron ionization, heat stress and the like occur for the electronic elements, thereby severely influencing the stability and efficiency of computer operation, and reducing the life time of the electronic element. Therefore, a heatsink fan must be mounted within the computer, in order to dissipate heats for electronic elements in the computer and reduce the temperature. 
   A conventional heatsink fan has a fixing hole on each of the four corners respectively, and the heatsink fan is locked on the computer case by passing screws through the fixing holes. When the heatsink fan is maintained or assembled, the screws must be detached one by one, which is rather complicated and time-consuming. Especially, as for the computer equipments used in industry, such as server/work station, there is large number of electronic elements, and the heat generated therein is far higher than that of a common personal computer (PC), such that a plurality of heatsink fans must be assembled for heat dissipation. If the heatsink fans are fixed with screws, the assembling process is more time-consuming as the number of screws significantly increases. When the heatsink fans need to be maintained and replaced, the operation of the server must be stopped and the whole server must be detached, thereby influencing the operation efficiency of the server. 
   In order to solve the above problem, a fixing device for fixing a fan within a base of an electronic device is disclosed in Publication No. M285896 of Taiwan Patent Gazette filed on Jan. 11, 2005 and entitled Mounting Apparatus for Fans, wherein a fixing part is mounted on the fan to fix the fan on a mounting frame of the base. The fixing part is provided with an operating part and a stopper respectively, wherein the stopper is clipped to a clipping hole corresponding to the mounting frame to be fixed on the mounting frame. If the fan is intended to be detached, it only needs to press the two operating parts internally to generate a flexible deformation, such that the stopper of the fixing part is disengaged from the clipping hole of the mounting frame, and then the operating parts are pulled upwards, thus, the fan is detached from the mounting frame and it can be taken out without any other tools. 
   As for the fan fixing device disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. M285896, although the complicated process for assembling the heatsink fan is simplified, and the assembling and detaching time for mounting or replacing the heatsink fans is reduced, there are still some inconveniences in mounting the heatsink fan. The restriction lies in that, the specification of the fixing part for the heatsink fan must be matched with that of the heatsink fan, otherwise, the heatsink fan cannot be fixed on the fixing part smoothly. The tolerance error generated during the manufacturing process also becomes a factor for negatively influencing the mounting of the heatsink fan, and if the specification of the heatsink fan and the mounting part are not matched with each other, the two cannot be jointed and fixed with each other. 
   Another problem of the fan fixing device disclosed in the prior art lies in that, the appearance of the fixing part is a symmetric rectangular structure, and the appearance of the heatsink fan is similar to that of the fixing part, thus, when a user fixes the heatsink fan on the fixing part, he/she must focus on the mounting direction of the heatsink fan, that is, if the end surface of the heatsink fan having blades is disposed towards a wrong direction, the heat dissipation effect cannot be achieved at all. 
   The fan fixing device in the prior art has a mounting part directly protruding from the fixing part to be fitted with the fixing hole of the heatsink fan. However, since the fixing part has no space for flexible adjustment, the mounting part is not easily detached from the fixing hole, and the fixing part is tightly jointed with the operating part, such that the flexibility margin of the fixing part is poor. As a result, when the heatsink fan is displaced or maintained, a lot of time is wasted on detaching the fan fixing device fixed on the heatsink fan, and if a force is applied improperly, the fixing part of the fan fixing device is likely to be broken and damaged, which is quite inconvenient. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an assembling member, which is used for alleviating the limitations and defects in the prior art that the heatsink fan and the fixing part cannot be fixed to each other since their specifications are not matched with each other, and that the heatsink fan is easy to be disposed towards a wrong direction since the heatsink fan and the fixing part have similar appearance and structure. 
   The assembling member disclosed in the present invention is disposed on two opposite sides of a heatsink fan in pairs, and the heatsink fan is detachably disposed on a fixed frame. The assembling member disclosed in the present invention comprises: a jointing part having at least one flexible end disposed on one side for providing a flexible deformation range for the jointing part; an operating part, formed by extending and bending one side of the jointing part, wherein a gap is opened at one end of the operating part, so as to provide a space for fingers to pass through and grasp; and a plurality of fastening pins, formed by extending the jointing part, wherein a protruding shaft is disposed on one end of a fastening pin to be hooked in an assembly hole corresponding to the fan frame. 
   In the assembling member disclosed in the present invention, the flexible end of the jointing part has a guide slot. When the jointing part is disposed in the fixed frame and is pressed, a flexible space is provided, thus when the heatsink fan is mounted on fixed frames with different sizes, a flexible deformation range is provided, such that the heatsink fan can be mounted on the fixed frame smoothly. 
   In addition, the fastening pins provide the assembling member fixed on the heatsink fan with a bonding strength. Since the fastening pins are formed by extending the jointing part, they can be flexibly adjusted, such that the assembling member fixed on the heatsink fan is easily detached, thus alleviating the defect in the prior art that the fan fixing device is not easily detached from the heatsink fan. 
   Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
       FIG. 1A  is an enlarged view of one side of an assembling member according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 1B  is an enlarged view of another side of an assembling member according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is an exploded schematic view of the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  is an assembled schematic view of the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The assembling member disclosed in the present invention is mounted on a heatsink fan to fix the heatsink fan in a fixed frame of an electronic element. The above-mentioned electronic element includes, but not limited to, PC, Server, and the like. In the detailed description of the present invention below, the fixed frame of a server is taken as the most preferred embodiment in the present invention. However, the accompanying drawings are provided only for reference and demonstration, but not to limit the present invention. 
     FIG. 1A  is an enlarged view of one side of an assembling member  100  according to the present invention. As shown in the  FIG. 1A , the assembling member  100  comprises a jointing part  110 , an operating part  120 , and a plurality of fastening pins  130 . The jointing part  110  has an appearance of a long plate-shaped structure made of plastic materials, and at least one flexible end  111  is disposed on two opposite long sides of the jointing part  110  respectively, for providing the jointing part  110  with a flexible deformation range. The operating part  120  is formed by extending and bending a short side of the jointing part  110 , and a gap  121  is opened at the operating part  120  to provide a space for fingers to pass through and grasp. The plurality of fastening pins  130  is formed by extending the long side of the jointing part  110  towards the bending direction of the operating part  120 , and a protruding shaft  131  is disposed at one end of the fastening pin  130 . As for the fastening pins  130  disclosed in the present invention, four opposite fastening pins  130  are extended from two long sides of the jointing part  110 . Those skilled in the art can also make modifications of extending a plurality of fastening pins  130  from the jointing part  110 , which is not limited to this embodiment. 
   As shown in  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 2 , the heatsink fan  200  is formed by disposing a fan blade  202  within a fan frame  201 . The assembling member  100  disclosed in the present invention is disposed on two opposite sides of a heatsink fan  200  in pairs, so as to detachably dispose the heatsink fan  200  on a fixed frame  300 . A display lamp socket  113  and a snapping slot  114  are disposed on one side of the jointing part  110  for the assembling member  100  corresponding to the heatsink fan  200 . The display lamp socket  113  is used for accommodating a display lamp (not shown) of the heatsink fan  200 , and the snapping slot  114  is used for snapping an electronic element (not shown). The protruding shafts  131  on one end of the plurality of fastening pins  130  formed by extending the jointing part  110  are used for being hooked at a set of assembly holes  210  on opposite sides of the fan frame  201 , such that the assembling member  100  fixed in the heatsink fan  200  has a bonding strength. The fastening pins  130  are formed by extending the jointing part  110 , such that they have the characteristic of flexibility, thus, the assembling member  100  is easily detached from the heatsink fan  200 , and both the bonding strength of the assembling member  100  and the convenience for the user to detach the assembling member are considered. Moreover, the purpose for designing the fastening pins  130  lies in that, when the assembling member  100  is mounted on a heatsink fan  200  with a different size, a part of the errors in mounting size is tolerable. The protruding shaft  131  disposed on the fastening pins  130  is of a semicircular shape with an inclined surface, and when it is mounted in the assembly hole  210 , some size errors are also tolerable. 
   The fixed frame  300  may be a fixed frame  300  of a server or a PC, but not limited to this. The two assembling members  100  disposed on the heatsink fan  200  in pairs have different sizes, such that the heatsink fan  200  having the pair of assembling members  100  only can be disposed in the fixed frame  300  in a fixed direction, thus avoiding the circumstance that the user places the heatsink fan  200  towards a wrong heat dissipation direction of the fan, and as a result, the heat dissipation effect cannot achieved for the heatsink fan  200 . 
   As shown in  FIG. 1A ,  FIG. 2 , and  FIG. 3 , the heatsink fan  200  having the assembling members  100  is disposed within the fixed frame  300  in a fixed direction. The assembling member  100  has a guide slot  112  at the flexible end  111 . When the jointing part  110  is pressed due to the size differences between the heatsink fan  200  and the fixed frame  300  resulted from different specifications or tolerances there-between, the guide slot  112  provides a flexible space for the jointing part  110 , such that the jointing part  110  has a flexible deformation range, and the heatsink fan  200  can be mounted in the fixed frame  300  smoothly. The operating part  120  is provided with two symmetric grooves  140  on both side-cutting edges, and the grooves  140  contracts towards the direction of the jointing part  110  in shape to form a neck portion  150 , such that the operating part  120  has desirable flexibility and deformation characteristics. An embedded block  122  is further disposed on the neck portion  150  of the operating part  120  corresponding to one side of the fixed frame  300 , and is embedded with an embedded hole  310  corresponding to the fixed frame  300 , such that the heatsink fan  200  is bonded on the fixed frame  300 . 
   When the heatsink fan  200  is to be detached from the fixed frame  300 , it only needs to pull the operating part  120  for the pair of the assembling members  100  disposed on the heatsink fan  200  towards upward, such that the flexible operating part  120  is flexibly deformed. As a result, the embedded block  122  of the neck portion  150  is disengaged from the embedded hole  310  of the fixed frame  300 , thereby the heatsink fan  200  is taken out of the fixed frame  300 . 
   The efficacy of the present invention lies in providing a mounting margin for the heatsink fan, preventing the user from disposing the heatsink fan in a wrong direction, and making the assembling member be easily detached. 
   The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.