US20080075581A1

US20080075581A1 - Fan cover

Info

Publication number: US20080075581A1
Application number: US11/525,324
Authority: US
Inventors: Jui Lin Chen
Original assignee: Inventec Corp
Current assignee: Inventec Corp
Priority date: 2006-09-22
Filing date: 2006-09-22
Publication date: 2008-03-27

Abstract

A fan cover fastened to a cooling fan having a plurality of openings includes a fan cover body, a plurality of fasteners formed on the fan cover body and fastened into the openings, and a gripping portion formed on the fan cover body and extended outward, such that the cooling fan can be hot-plugged by gripping the gripping portion, without using any tool.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fan cover and, more particularly, to a fan cover for a cooling fan inside an electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advances in integrated circuit (IC) design and manufacturing technology, integrated circuits are becoming more highly integrated. Taking a servo system with plenty integrated circuits as an example, in order to speed up data processing and make good use of space available, the servo system is usually equipped with multiple integrated circuits, such as a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU), installed in a crowded manner and generating high heat during operation. For protection against foreign body intrusion, the servo system is covered with a protective device, for example, a casing, and thus high heat generated by the integrated circuits in operation cannot be readily dissipated and therefore may jeopardize the operation of the servo system. In general, a cooling fan is an economical and efficient way to dissipate heat.
Referring to FIG. 1, which is a schematic view showing a conventional fan cover. A cooling fan 1 comprises fan blades 10. A fan cover 14 is mounted on an outlet side 12 of the cooling fan 1. The fan blades 10 are enclosed by a casing 18 of the cooling fan 1. The fan cover 14 is fastened to the casing 18 of the cooling fan 1 by four screws 16 so as to prevent the fan blades 10 from colliding with foreign bodies and thereby protect the fan blades 10 against damage which may otherwise even be done to an integrated circuit connected with the cooling fan 1.
Although the fan cover depicted in FIG. 1 protects the cooling fan, installation of the fan cover is laborious, expensive and time-consuming, where numerous cooling fans are installed in a servo system or any other device, and each cooling fan requires four fasteners, such as screws, for fastening a protective cover at an outlet. Dismounting the protective cover from the cooling fan entails using a tool, such as a screwdriver, and therefore is inconvenient.
Referring to FIG. 2, which is a schematic view showing another conventional fan cover. A fan cover 5 is mounted on an outlet side 22 of a cooling fan 2. The fan cover 5 is fastened to the cooling fan 2 by means of rivets 6 fastened into the pinholes 25 disposed in the cooling fan 2. The rivets 6 each comprise a first stop portion 60 and a second stop portion 61, for fastening the fan cover 5 and the cooling fan 2 together.
Mounting a fan cover on a cooling fan by means of rivets can be accomplished without using any tool, but it is always a laborious, difficult job for lack of a point of application of force. For this reason, the fan cover is typically made of tough metal and thereby incurs high costs.
Accordingly, it is an urgent goal to develop a fan cover that is cheap to manufacture, simple and labor-saving to mount, and convenient to hot plug a cooling fan.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In light of the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a fan cover for a cooling fan so as to facilitate hot plugging.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a fan cover for a cooling fan for easy mounting and dismounting.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a fan cover for a cooling fan for fast mounting and dismounting.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a fan cover which incurs low costs.
In order to achieve the above and other objectives, the present invention provides a fan cover.
The fan cover is fastened to a cooling fan having a plurality of openings. The fan cover comprises a fan cover body, a plurality of fasteners, and a gripping portion. The fasteners are formed on the fan cover body and fastened into the openings. The gripping portion is formed on the fan cover body and extended outward. Preferably, the fan cover body, the fasteners, and the gripping portion are combined to form a single integral piece.
Preferably, the fan cover is made of plastic. The fan cover body is installed with a plurality of openings. The fasteners each comprise a resilient portion and a fastening portion formed at an end of the resilient portion. The resilient portion is bar-shaped so as to penetrate one of the openings. The fastening portion is hook-shaped so as to be fastened into the one of the openings. The fan cover further comprises a reinforcing portion disposed at a junction between each of the fasteners and the fan cover body. Preferably, the reinforcing portion is a reinforcing rib. The gripping portion is designed to be of any shape, such as arch-shaped and L-shaped, for gripping the fan cover to be mounted on or dismounted from the cooling fan.
A fan cover of the present invention is resiliently mounted on or resiliently dismounted from a cooling fan, using a resilient component of the fan cover instead of a tool. For this reason, the present invention solves problems facing the screw-based prior art, that is, complicated mounting and dismounting, a laborious process, and infeasibility of mass production. As disclosed in the present invention, users can mount a fan cover on a cooling fan in a hot plugging manner, by gripping a gripping portion of the fan cover, without using any tool. Hence, the present invention solves old problems facing the prior art, namely time-consuming mounting and dismounting, and a lack of a point of application of force. Besides, a fan cover of the present invention is made of plastic and therefore is light and cheap, compared to fan covers made of metal.
Accordingly, a fan cover of the present invention overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art, facilitates tool-free mounting and dismounting, enables a simple and labor-saving assembly process, provides hot plugging, spares materials, parts and components, and protects a cooling fan better than a conventional fan cover does, and thus the present invention has high industrial applicability.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) is a schematic view showing how to assemble a conventional fan cover;

FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART) is a schematic view showing how to assemble another conventional fan cover;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a cooling fan in use with a fan cover of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the preferred embodiment of a fan cover of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing how to assemble the preferred embodiment of a fan cover of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing an assembled fan cover of FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention is herein illustrated with a specific embodiment so that one ordinarily skilled in the pertinent art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the disclosure of the invention. The present invention can also be performed or applied by other different embodiments. The details of the specification may be modified on the basis of different points and applications, and numerous modifications and variations can be devised without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
The following drawings include simple schematic diagrams intended to schematically describe the embodiment of the present invention. The diagrams, however, only illustrate the components relevant to the present invention but do not show their practical appearance. In practice, the quantity, shape and size of the components are selectively designed, and the layout of the components may be even more intricate.
FIGS. 3 to 7 are drawings showing the preferred embodiment of a fastening mechanism for a panel-like object in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a cooling fan in use with a fan cover of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the preferred embodiment of a fan cover of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing how to assemble the preferred embodiment of a fan cover of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing an assembled fan cover of FIG. 6.
Referring to FIG. 3, which is a schematic view showing a cooling fan 4 in use with a fan cover of the present invention, the cooling fan 4 comprises a plurality of openings 40.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, which are schematic views showing the preferred embodiment of a fan cover of the present invention, a fan cover 3 comprises a fan cover body 30, a plurality of fasteners 310, and a gripping portion 33. The fasteners 310 are disposed on the fan cover body 30 and fastened into the openings 40. The gripping portion 33 is disposed on the fan cover body 30 and extended outward.
The openings 40 are disposed in the fan cover body 30 so as to enable ventilation. Each of the fasteners 310 comprises a resilient portion 311 and a fastening portion 312. The resilient portion 311 perpendicularly extends from the fan cover body 30 and penetrates one of the openings 40. The fastening portion 312 is formed at an end extending from the resilient portion 311 and fastened into the one of the openings 40. Preferably, the resilient portion 311 is bar-shaped, for example. The fastening portion 312 is hook-shaped, for example, in this embodiment. The gripping portion 33 is designed to be of any shape, such as arch-shaped and L-shaped, for gripping the fan cover 3 to be mounted on or dismounted from the cooling fan. It should be noted that the size of the fan cover 3 may be modified to be suited to the cooling fan rather than governed by this embodiment. In addition, the fastening portion 312 is fastened into one of the openings 40 in a way not limited to a hook-based means; instead, any other equivalent technique whereby the fastening portion 312 is fastened into the one of the openings 40 is applicable to the present invention.
A reinforcing portion 32 is inwardly disposed at a junction between the resilient portion 311 and the fan cover body 30. The reinforcing portion 32 reinforces the fastening of the fasteners 310 and the fan cover body 30. Preferably, the reinforcing portion 32 is a reinforcing rib.
Referring to FIG. 6, to mount the fan cover 3 on an outlet side 41 of a cooling fan 4, a user grips the gripping portion 33, inserts the fasteners 310 into the openings 40 corresponding in position to the fasteners 310, and moves the fan cover 3 closer to the cooling fan 4 until the fastening portion 312 penetrates the openings 40 and fastens at the other end of the openings 40, thus completing the mounting of the fan cover 3 on the cooling fan 4, as shown in FIG. 7. Afterward, the user grips the gripping portion 33 and hot plugs the cooling fan 4.
To dismount the fan cover 3 from the cooling fan 4, the user grips the gripping portion 33 and hot unplugs the cooling fan 4, then pushes the fastening portion 312 to disable the fastening state and readily dismantles the fan cover 3 from the cooling fan 4.
Details about how the fan cover 3 of the present invention is fastened to the cooling fan 4 are as follows. Once the user grips the gripping portion 33 extending outwardly from the fan cover body 30 and moves the fan cover 3 closer to the cooling fan 4, the fasteners 310 and the cooling fan 4 will lock resiliently. With the resilient portion 311 passing each of the openings 40, the fastening portion 312 is subjected to compression. Once the resilient portion 311 penetrates each of the openings 40 completely, the compression is relieved, thus allowing the fastening portion 312 to be fastened into each of the openings 40. The fastening force of the fastening portion 312, coupled with the gripping of the gripping portion 33, enables the hot plugging of the cooling fan 4 to take place.
Unlike the prior art whereby a fan cover can only be mounted on a cooling fan by means of an additional component, the present invention discloses combining a fan cover body, fasteners, a fastening portion, and a gripping portion to form a single integral piece, thus allowing a user to grip the gripping portion of a fan cover easily, mount the fan cover on the cooling fan in limited space, and perform the hot plugging of the cooling fan.
Unlike the prior art whereby a fan cover is screwed or riveted to a cooling fan, the present invention discloses aiming fasteners at openings of a cooling fan, pushing the fasteners through the openings, thus fastening the fan cover on the cooling fan easily.
The present invention provides a fan cover fastening function by means of material resilience. In the preferred embodiment, minimum force is required to fasten the fan cover on the cooling fan, because the fasteners of the fan cover are perpendicular to the fan cover body. Hence, the present invention greatly reduces the force required to mount the fan cover on the cooling fan, compared to the conventional rivet-based fastening means.
The fan cover of the present invention has the following advantages: convenient mount and dismounting, little grip force required, minimum risk of damage to a fan cover during a mounting process, a fan cover made of plastic and thereby characterized by low costs and high resilience, better protection for a cooling fan when compared to a conventional fan cover made of metal.
In short, the fan cover of the present invention is easy, simple and convenient to install, and it incurs low costs, not to mention that it passes a falling test, and thus the present invention has high industrial applicability.
The foregoing embodiments are only illustrative of the features and functions of the present invention but are not intended to restrict the scope of the present invention. It is apparent to those skilled in the art that all equivalent modifications and variations made in the foregoing embodiments according to the spirit and principle in the disclosure of the present invention should fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A fan cover attachable to a cooling fan having a plurality of openings, the fan cover comprising:

a fan cover body;

a plurality of fasteners formed on the fan cover body and fastened into the openings; and

a gripping portion formed on the fan cover body and extended outward such that the cooling fan can be hot-plugged by gripping the gripping portion.

2. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the fan cover body is installed with a plurality of openings.

3. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the fasteners each comprises a resilient portion and a fastening portion.

4. The fan cover of claim 3, wherein the resilient portion is bar-shaped.

5. The fan cover of claim 3, wherein the fastening portion is hook-shaped.

6. The fan cover of claim 3, wherein the fan cover body, the fasteners, the fastening portion, and the gripping portion are combined to form a single integral piece.

7. The fan cover of claim 1, further comprising a reinforcing portion inwardly disposed at a junction between each of the fasteners and the fan cover body.

8. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the gripping portion is arch-shaped.

9. The fan cover of claim 1, wherein the gripping portion is L-shaped.

10. The fan cover of claim 1 being made of plastic.