Patent Application
20060202474
The present invention relates in general to a extrusion-sealed structure of a heat pipe, and more particularly, to a device using extrusion-sealing process to form a sealing portion of a heat pipe, so as to reduce the processing time and procedure and enhance production speed of heat pipes.
Having the fast thermal conduction efficiency, the heat pipes have been broadly applied as heat dissipation devices to quickly dissipate heat generated by electronic products.
The conventional fabrication process of heat pipes starts with the tubular body cutting process and shrinking process at two ends of the tubular body. After the shrinking process, one of the shrunk ends is soldered, and working fluid is introduced into the tubular body from the other shrunk end. After the working fluid is filled in the tubular body, gas removal process is performed, followed by the process of sealing and soldering the shrunk end.
After the shrinking process, a gradually shrunk section 11 and an extrusion section 1B (as shown in
However, as the gradually shrunk section 1A and the extrusion section 1B are formed using gripper of a shrinking machine. The heat pipe is rotating during the gripping process. This method for shrinking tube consumes a long time and requires tedious process procedures; and therefore, reduces the production speed. Further, the pressed section 1B easily cause congestion of the wick structure, particularly the metal mesh wick structure.
A novel extrusion-sealed structure is provided allowing reduction in processing time and procedure, such that the production can be speeded up, and the production can be increased.
The extrusion-sealed structure is formed by utilizing the circuit elongate tubular body after the extrusion sealing process. The circuit tubular body has two free ends connected to conical shrunk tubular portions. One side surface of each conical shrunk tubular portions is pressed into a recessed portion (or in a slanted stilliform), while the other side surface of the conical shrunk tubular portion retains the shape of the tubular body and shrunk tubular portions (or arc shape). The sealing portion is located at the central axis (or perimeter) of the tubular body.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
Referring to
After cutting a heat pipe 1, a tube shrinking device (not shown) is used to perform shrinking process at two ends of the heat pipe 1. Thereby, two conical shrunk tubular portions 12 and 12′ are formed at the ends of the heat pipe 1. The shrunk tubular portion 12′ is soldered, while a working fluid is filled into the heat pipe from the shrunk tubular portion 12 at the other end of the heat pipe 1.
When the working fluid (not shown) is filled into the heat pipe 1 through the shrunk tubular portion 12, the heat pipe 1 is heated to perform gas removal process.
After the gas removal process, the heat pipe 1 is disposed into the extrusion device 2 to perform extrusion sealing process (as shown in
Referring to
The power generating devices 21 and 21′ include oil press tank, gas press tank, or motor with an external control to output force for pushing the mold to perform extrusion operation.
The mold 22 includes a first extrusion mold 221 and a second extrusion mold 221′. The first extrusion mold 221 has a convex extrusion surface 222 and the second extrusion mold 221′ has a concave extrusion surface conformal to the joint between the tubular body 11 and the shrunk tubular portion 12 of the heat pipe 1. Therefore, after being pressed by the first and second extrusion molds 221 and 221′, one side surface of the tubular body 11 and the shrunk tubular portion 12 of the heat pipe 1 have a recessed configuration 13, while the other side surface retains the original tubular body 11 and the shrunk tubular portion 12 (as shown in
Referring to
The power generating devices 31 and 31′ include oil press tank, gas press tank or motor for pushing the mold 32.
The mold 32 includes a first extrusion mold 321 having an extrusion surface 322 in the form of a slanted surface or stilliform, while the second side surface has a concave curved shape. Therefore, after performing the extrusion process by the extrusion molds 321 and 321′, the shrunk tubular member 21 is pressed into an inclined stilliform 13a, while the other portion between the tubular member 11 and the shrunk portion 12 has an arc shape. Thereby, the sealing portion 14 at the top end of the heat pipe 1 is located at the perimeter of the heat pipe 1.
After the gas removal process, by the extrusion process performed by the extrusion devices 2 and 3, the heat pipe 1 can be produced with reduced time and procedure.
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.
