The present invention relates to a protection structure for vapor chamber, and more particularly, to a protection structure for protecting a fluid-adding and air-evacuating pipe structure provided on a vapor chamber.
A vapor chamber is a very popular heat dissipation element. Conventionally, the vapor chamber is formed of an upper plate member and a lower plate member, which are closed to each other to define a sealed chamber in between them. In the sealed chamber, a wick structure and a working fluid are provided and air is evacuated to complete the manufacturing of the vapor chamber.
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There is also provided a third conventional vapor chamber 5 having a protection bar 53 transversely extended across the notch area 52, as shown in
Further, the provision of the protection bar 53 at the notch area 52 would form a hindrance that interferes with the working fluid adding and the air evacuation via the pipe 6, causing inconvenience to workers who handle these operations.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved protection structure that protects the fluid-adding and air-evacuating pipe structure provided on a vapor chamber and eliminates the disadvantages in the conventional pipe protection structures for vapor chambers.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a protection structure that can protect a fluid-adding and air-evacuating pipe structure provided on a vapor chamber, so as to solve the problems in the prior art vapor chamber.
To achieve the above and other objects, the protection structure for vapor chamber according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a main body and a protection element.
The main body is divided into a working zone and a sealing zone. The sealing zone is located around an outer periphery of the working zone and is provided with a notch area, to which a fluid-adding and air-evacuating pipe is connected. The protection element is correspondingly mounted to the notch area to contact with the sealing zone of the main body.
According to the present invention, a protection element not integrally formed with a vapor chamber is used to protect a fluid-adding and air-evacuating pipe on the vapor chamber against collision and impact during transporting or installation of the vapor chamber, so as to avoid the occurrence of vacuum and working fluid leakage of the main body and to save a large amount of cost of manufacturing the vapor chamber. And, the arrangement of the protection element does not interfere with the use of the pipe to add working fluid and evacuate the air into and from the main body.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
The present invention will now be described with some preferred embodiments thereof and by referring to the accompanying drawings. For the purpose of easy to understand, elements that are the same in the preferred embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals.
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The main body 1 is a vapor chamber, which is divided into a working zone 11 and a sealing zone 12. The sealing zone 12 is located around an outer periphery of the working zone 11 and is provided with a notch area 13, to which a pipe 3 for working fluid adding and air evacuation is connected. The main body 1 is formed by correspondingly closing an upper plate member 1a and a lower plate member 1b to each other, such that a sealed chamber 14 is defined in between the closed upper and lower plate members 1a, lb. In the sealed chamber 14, a wick structure 15, bosses or plated layers and a working fluid 16 are provided. The sealed chamber 14 is formed in the working zone 11, and the sealing zone 12 is located around outer edges of the sealed chamber 14. That is, the sealing zone 12 is an area at where the upper and lower plate members 1a, 1b are hermetically connected to each other. The pipe 3 is clamped to between the upper and the lower plate member 1a, 1b to form a part of the main body 1 and communicate with the sealed chamber 14. An outer end of the pipe 3 is a free end, which is sealed after the vapor chamber is completed.
The notch area 13 has a first side 13a, a second side 13b and a third side 13c. The second side 13b and the third side 13c are located at and connected to two opposite ends of the first side 13a; and the pipe 3 is extended through and connected to the first side 13a.
The protection element 2 is correspondingly mounted to the notch area 13 with at least one end of the protection element 2 being in contact with the sealing zone 12 of the main body 1. More specifically, the protection element 2 has a first end 21 and a second end 22, which are pressed against the second side 13b and the third side 13c of the notch area 13, respectively. In the illustrated first embodiment, the protection element 2 is connected to the main body 1 by pressing the first and the second end 21, 22 against the second and the third side 13b, 13c of the notch area 13, respectively. However, the protection element 2 can also be connected to the main body 1 by way of snap-fit, riveting, gluing, welding or tight-fit. The protection element 2 can be made of a copper material, an aluminum material, a nickel material, a pure titanium material, a stainless steel material, a polymeric material, or a ductile material.
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In the above embodiments, the main body 1 and the protection element 2 are not integrally formed with each other, and the protection element 3 serves as a protection structure for the pipe 3. A main advantage of the above-described non-integrally formed protection structure for vapor chamber according to the present invention is to protect the pipe 3 against collision or impact during transporting or installation of the vapor chamber and accordingly, avoid the occurrence of vacuum and working fluid leakage of the main body 1. The present invention also advantageously saves a large amount of cost of manufacturing the vapor chamber and it does not interfere with the use of the pipe 3 to add the working fluid and evacuate the air into and from the main body 1 during the manufacturing process of the vapor chamber.
Further, compared to the conventional integrally formed protection structures for vapor chamber that require a relatively higher manufacturing cost and a plurality of molds and dies, the non-integrally formed protection structure for vapor chamber according to the present invention can save the mold and die design cost and can therefore be manufactured at a relatively lower cost.
The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.
The present application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/842,851, filed on Dec. 14, 2017.
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6276444 | Li | Aug 2001 | B1 |
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20130153175 | Lin | Jun 2013 | A1 |
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Search Report dated May 7, 2018 issued by Taiwan Intellectual Property Office for counterpart application No. 106140957. |
Search Report dated Feb. 22, 2019 issued by China National Intellectual Property Administration for counterpart application No. 2017112433182. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20210071969 A1 | Mar 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15842851 | Dec 2017 | US |
Child | 17069865 | US |