JP2001255962A - Portable information equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a personal computer in a water proof structure, using a non-waterproof type cooling fan. SOLUTION: A drive part 9 of a cooling fan is housed in a sealed personal computer case body, and an air blowing part 10 is formed outside the case body. The outside part of the case body is blown with air is and air-cooled, so that the increase of the temperature of portable information equipment is reduced. A protective cover 13 for protecting the air blowing part is arranged, so that the case body part whose temperature is high can be prevented from coming into direct contact with a hand. This structure can be applied to field portable information equipment which can used outdoors or inside of a car.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic device such as a notebook personal computer, a portable information device, etc., which is characterized by being robust and waterproof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional notebook personal computer, an electric component such as a CPU, a chip set, and a power supply component generates heat to prevent the component from exceeding a heat-resistant temperature, or heat transfer increases the temperature on the surface of the device. Various measures have been taken to reduce the temperature in order to prevent discomfort.

As a conventional example 1, as shown in FIG. 4, heat is transferred from a CPU 52 mounted on a printed circuit board 51 to a heat radiating portion separated from a heat generating portion by using heat conduction using a metal heat radiating plate 53 of copper, aluminum or the like. To reduce the temperature. Although this method can easily take a closed structure as a device, it can be applied only to a CPU with low power consumption and a relatively small amount of heat generation because the amount of heat radiation to the outside is small. There is also a method in which the housing of the electronic device is made of metal and the metal housing is used as a heat radiating unit. However, in this case, there is a problem that the housing temperature rises.

As a second conventional example, as shown in FIG. 5, a method of discharging hot air in a device by using a cooling fan 61 or radiating heat from the device by using a cooling fan and a heat radiating plate is used. Is becoming commonplace. Although this method can cope with a case where the heat generation amount is relatively large, it is necessary to provide the cooling fan 61 in the housing. For this reason, it is necessary to cut out the housing to provide the intake port 62 and the exhaust port 63,
There is a drawback that a waterproof structure cannot be obtained.

In recent years, with the progress of wireless communication technology and the expansion of the use of personal computers, the market has demanded a rugged, highly waterproof and high-performance field personal computer for use not only indoors but also outdoors. However, as described above, if the conventional heat radiating mechanism has a waterproof structure, there is a limit in heat radiation, so that a CPU having a large heat value cannot be used.

[0006]

A personal computer, which is called a field personal computer and is mainly used outdoors or in a car, has a robustness to withstand drops and collisions, a waterproof property to withstand rain and liquid, and is the same as a normal personal computer. There is a demand for mounting a high performance CPU.

[0007] The present invention provides a robust, waterproof, high-performance CPU.
The purpose is to provide a structure that satisfies the requirements of

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve this problem, the present invention provides a cooling fan in which a drive portion is housed in a sealed personal computer housing and a blower is provided outside the personal computer housing. It is. A large heat dissipation effect can be obtained by forming a part of the personal computer housing with a metal plate and using this metal plate as a heat sink. According to the present invention, a commercially available small motor can be made to have a waterproof structure by accommodating a motor drive unit in a sealed housing and exposing only the rotating blades to the outside of the housing.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is directed to a housing having a through-hole formed of a metal plate, an electronic component housed in the housing, the metal plate, A heat conductor for thermally connecting the electronic component; a fan driving unit built in the housing; and a blower provided outside the housing, wherein the blower passes through the through hole. The fan drive unit is connected to the fan drive unit by a rotation shaft and is protected by a cover having a ventilation hole. Furthermore, a small, thin, lightweight, and waterproof cooling fan that can be mounted on a small electronic device such as a personal computer is not commercially available. In order to make this a waterproof fan, it is necessary to make the electric circuit and the coil part into a molded structure, and it is technically difficult to reduce the size. However, according to the present invention, a commercially available non-waterproof fan is used. Thus, a portable information device having a waterproof structure can be obtained.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the metal plate forms a bottom surface of the housing, and the bottom surface is covered by a heat insulating cover that covers the entire bottom surface. Since the entire bottom surface can be used as a heat radiating plate, the heat radiation effect is large, and since the entire bottom surface is covered with the cover, it is not hot when touched by hand.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the blowing means is a rotary blade,
The rotating blade has a rotating diameter of 40 mm to 200 mm. Since the rotating diameter of the rotating blade is large, the rotating speed of the rotating blade can be reduced. As a result, wind noise can be reduced, resulting in low noise.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4, taking a portable notebook personal computer as an example.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a plan view and a side sectional view of a notebook personal computer according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a housing, 2 is a side wall surface of the housing 1, made of metal, 3 is a printed board, 4, 5, and 6 are heat-generating components, 7 is a metal plate, 8 is a heat pipe, and 9 is a heat pipe. A fan drive unit, 10 is a blower blade, 11 is a through hole provided in the housing wall surface 2, 12 is a rotating shaft, 13 is a protective cover for the blower blade 10,
Reference numerals 14 and 15 denote openings provided in the protective cover 13, and reference numeral 16 denotes a battery for driving the fan drive unit 9.

The heat generating components 4, 5, and 6 mounted on the printed circuit board 3 are a CPU, a chip set, a coil, and the like.
It is not uncommon for the temperature to exceed 100 ° C. due to heat generation during operation. The heat generated by the heat generating components 4, 5 and 6 is transmitted to the metal plate 7, and the heat of the metal plate 7 is transmitted to the metal housing side wall surface 2 by the heat pipe 8.

A fan driving unit 9 is provided inside the housing 1.
Is provided with a blower blade 10 outside. The fan driving unit 9 and the blower blade 10 are connected to the rotating shaft 1
They are connected by two.

A protective cover 13 is provided on the outer side of the housing side wall surface 2 to prevent the blower blades 10 from being directly touched by a hand. The protective cover 13 also has an action of preventing direct contact with the hand when the casing side wall surface 2 becomes hot. For this reason, the protective cover 13 is preferably made of a plastic molded product having a low thermal conductivity.

Openings 14 and 15 provided in the protective cover 13 are an intake hole and an exhaust hole.
An air flow in the direction indicated by the arrow is generated, and heat is exchanged by the air flow along the outer wall of the housing wall surface 2 to cool the housing wall surface 2. The hot air after the heat exchange is discharged from the opening 15. When the notebook computer is used in the field, the fan drive unit 9 is driven by the battery 16.

As the metal plate 7, a metal plate such as aluminum or copper, or a graphite sheet is suitable.
As the heat pipe 8, a combination of the heat pipe 8 with a metal plate or a graphite sheet is also effective. A metal such as an Mg alloy or an Al alloy having low specific gravity and high thermal conductivity is used for the housing wall surface 2.

In the present invention, the fan drive unit 9 is housed inside the housing 1, and only the rotating shaft 12 and the blowing blade 10 are taken out of the housing 9. For this reason, if the housing 9 has a hermetic structure, it becomes possible to obtain a waterproof notebook personal computer only by waterproofly sealing the rotating shaft 12.

Further, since the air flow can be easily formed along the entire surface of the housing wall 2, the heat radiation effect is large.

The housing side wall 2 is formed of a protective cover 1 made of resin.
3, when the side wall 2 of the housing is at a low temperature, the blower blades 10 are stopped, and heat can be released only by natural air convection through the openings 14 and 15. If the fan 16 is rotated by the battery 16 only when the temperature of the housing side wall 2 rises, the life of the battery 16 can be extended.

Further, if necessary, a sheet metal for rectification is provided so that intake air and exhaust gas are not mixed, thereby further lowering the heat radiation efficiency. (Embodiment 2) FIG. 2 is a plan view and a side sectional view of a notebook personal computer according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, the same reference numerals as those used in the first embodiment (FIG. 1) denote the same components or the same functions, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a bottom surface of the housing 1, which is made of a metal plate. Reference numeral 13 denotes a resin protective cover having openings 14 and 15 and a foot 22. The heat generating components 4, 5, and 6 are thermally conductive grease 2.
1 directly contacts the bottom surface 20. The fan drive unit 9 is housed inside the housing 1 and is driven by the battery 16 when used in the field. The blower blade 10 is provided outside the housing 1 and is protected by a protective cover 13. When the blower blade 10 is rotated, an airflow is formed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2, and the entire bottom surface 20 is air-cooled.

In the notebook personal computer according to the second embodiment, the heat conduction from the heat-generating components 4, 5, 6 to the bottom surface 20 is performed by a thin grease layer, and the area of the bottom surface 20 is larger than that of the side wall 2. Therefore, the heat radiation effect is greater than that of the notebook computer of the first embodiment. Therefore, since the heat radiation effect by natural convection is large, the life of the battery 16 can be further extended.

Further, by providing fin-shaped irregularities on the outside of the bottom surface 20, more efficient heat radiation can be achieved.

Further, as shown in FIG.
If the diameter of is increased, more efficient heat radiation can be achieved. That is, in the case of the second embodiment, the diameter of the blower blades 10 can be increased to the shortest dimension of the maximum housing bottom surface 20, so that when generating the same airflow, the number of rotations can be lower than that of a normal thing. . Normally, the diameter of the blowing blade 10 for a notebook computer is φ25 to φ36, and the rotation speed is 4000 to
Although it is about 8000 rpm, in the notebook computer according to the second embodiment, the diameter of the blower blade 10 can be increased to about 200 mm, so that the rotation speed of the blower blade 10 can be reduced. For this reason, the notebook computer according to the second embodiment has low wind noise.

Further, in Embodiments 1 and 2, it has been described that one surface of the housing is made of a metal plate, but the entire housing may be made of metal. In the case where the temperature of the metal case partially increases along the metal case, paint or the like may be applied to a metal surface that has not been subjected to forced air cooling to perform heat insulation treatment.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, robustness,
An advantageous effect that a personal computer having both waterproof properties and high performance CPU characteristics can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view and a front sectional view of a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view and a front sectional view of the personal computer according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a blower blade according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front sectional view of a personal computer according to Conventional Example 1.

FIG. 5 is a front sectional view of a personal computer in Conventional Example 2.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 housing 2 housing side wall 3 printed circuit board 4, 5, 6 heat generating component 7 metal plate 8 heat pipe 9 fan drive unit 10 blower blade 11 through hole 12 rotation axis 13 protective cover 14, 15 opening 20 housing bottom

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A housing having a through-hole formed of a metal plate on one surface, a heat-generating electronic component housed in the housing, and a heat conductor thermally connecting the metal plate and the electronic component. And a fan drive unit built in the housing, and a blower provided outside the housing, wherein the blower is connected to the fan drive by a rotating shaft passing through the through hole, A portable information device protected by a cover having a hole. 2. The portable information device according to claim 1, wherein the metal plate forms a bottom surface of the housing, and the bottom surface is covered by a heat insulating cover covering the entire bottom surface. 3. The portable information device according to claim 2, wherein the blower is a rotating blade, and a rotating diameter of the rotating blade is 40 to 200 mm.