Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-02
2001-10-30
Tolin, Gerald (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C165S104330
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310772
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enclosures for protecting and dissipating heat from electronic equipment such as telecommunications repeaters. More particularly, the invention relates to such an enclosure that effectively dissipates heat in a passive manner and that is lightweight, inexpensive, space efficient and durable enough to be used in any applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The ever-increasing use of the internet, wide area networks, and other networks has increased the demand for high-speed, high-bandwidth digital telecommunications services such as ISDN, DSL, and T1 services in homes and businesses. Because of signal propagation limitations, these digital services require the use of repeaters to repeat digital signals if the end users are too far from their provider's central office.
The repeaters used for these digital services are typically housed in protective enclosures that are mounted to telephone poles or placed next to buildings or in manholes. The enclosures must be designed to protect the repeaters from natural elements such as sun, rain, snow, and fire as well as damage from vandalism and attempted theft.
Just as importantly, the enclosures must be designed to dissipate excess heat generated by electronic components of the repeaters. All electronic components generate heat that must be dissipated to ensure optimum and reliable operation. Such heat dissipation has become increasingly more difficult as electronic components have become faster, more powerful, and smaller, and therefore hotter. Further compounding these heat dissipation problems is that telecommunications enclosures are typically not connected to electricity sources and therefore cannot rely on fans or other active cooling elements. The enclosures therefore must be designed to dissipate heat passively by conduction and convection to ambient air, which can frequently reach temperatures of well over 100° F., especially when the enclosures are exposed to direct sunlight.
In addition to weather protection and heat dissipation requirements, it is also desirable that telecommunications enclosures be lightweight, space efficient, and inexpensive.
Prior art telecommunication enclosures attempt to passively dissipate heat with heat sink methods. However, heat sinks are limited in their heat dissipation capabilities and are large and heavy, thus increasing the overall size and weight of the enclosures.
There is therefore a need for an improved telecommunications enclosure that protects repeaters and other electronics from exposure to weather conditions and damage from vandalism and that more effectively dissipates excess heat from the electronic components in a passive manner. There is also a need for such an enclosure that is relatively lightweight, space efficient, and inexpensive.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of telecommunications enclosures. More particularly, the present invention provides a telecommunications enclosure that protects repeaters and other electronics from exposure to weather conditions and damage from vandalism, that more effectively dissipates excess heat from the electronic components in a passive manner, and that is relatively lightweight, space efficient, and inexpensive.
The telecommunications enclosure of the present invention broadly includes: exterior walls defining a substantially enclosed chamber; at least one shelf positioned within the chamber for holding a plurality of repeater cards, the shelf including spaced apart top and bottom walls configured for receiving the cards therebetween and for making direct contact with the repeater cards to allow conduction of heat to the top and bottom walls from the repeater cards; a plurality of elongated heat pipes each having a first, proximal end coupled with the top or bottom wall for conducting heat to the heat pipe from the top or bottom wall, the heat pipes also each having a second, distal end; and at least one fin coupled with the second, distal end of each of the heat pipes for conducting heat to the fin from the heat pipes so that the heat may be convected from the fin to ambient air in and around the chamber.
In use, repeater cards or other electronic cards are placed on the shelf so that they make direct metal-to-metal contact with the shelf. As heat is generated by the electronics on the cards, the heat is dissipated to the card housings by conduction and/or convection, and is in turn conducted and/or convected to the shelf top and bottom walls. The shelf top and bottom walls then conduct the heat to the heat pipes, which in turn conduct the heat to the fins. The fins dissipate the heat through convection to the ambient air in and around the chamber. This combination of heat dissipation through conduction and convection effectively removes excess heat from the cards.
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Thermacore Inc. sales brochure, “heat pipes for electronics cooling applications”, 4 pages.
Thermacore Inc. Product Data Guide, “Miniature Heat Pipes,” Sep. 24, 1996, 1 page.
Thermacore Inc. brochure, “Common Questions About Heath Pipes,” Sep. 23, 1996, 2 pages.
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Hutchison Randy
Shiffbauer Robert
Hovey Williams Timmons & Collins
Special Product Company
Tolin Gerald
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