Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-23
2003-07-01
Chervinsky, Boris (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S690000, C165S080300, C415S213100, C174S016100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06587342
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a snap coupling cooling fan module adopted for use on computer systems, and particularly a snap coupling module for anchoring fans onto a server system without using screws.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Servers are widely used in network systems to provide services for terminals at the client ends, such as disk storage or printing services for users. The most commonly used servers are file servers and printer servers. A large server system is generally a system including many servers. The demand for large server systems has continuously grown in recent years. As users do not want to allocate too much space to house computers, the demand for large servers increases constantly.
The server system is a high level system in computer systems. The biggest issue in the computer systems is heat dissipation. As the server systems have to process a great number of tasks, their reliability is more critical than general computer systems. In order to maintain the normal operation of the server systems, heat must be dissipated effectively. To meet this end, one of the approaches usually adopted is to increase the number of cooling fans. A modular design has been developed, as shown in FIG.
1
. The cooling fan is mounted onto a fan opening
21
of an anchor dock
20
. A plurality of bolts
12
are used to run through anchor holes located at the periphery of the fan
11
and the anchor dock
20
and to engage with nuts
13
to fasten the fan
11
to the anchor dock
20
. A fan guarding grid
14
may be disposed at the inner side to prevent external articles from entering into the blade section of the fan
11
or the computer or server systems to avoid damage. They are installed at desired locations of the server systems.
While this design is simple and does not cost very much in terms of material consumption, it is only suitable for general computer systems that have one or two cooling fans. For server systems that must use four, or five or even more cooling fans, installation becomes troublesome. For instance, a general cooling fan requires four bolts to anchor and install, so four cooling fans require sixteen bolts for fastening. This creates a big challenge for installation. Moreover, the server systems generally operate twenty-four hours a day. Fans are prone to malfunction and require frequent repairs, maintenance and replacements. The increasing number of components and tedious fastening cause a lot of waste in manpower and operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention aims at providing a snap coupling cooling fan module to resolve the problems mentioned above. The snap coupling design of the invention does not need screw bolts for fastening and can save assembly time and the cost of components.
The primary object of the invention is to provide a snap coupling fan module adopted for use on computer systems, and particularly to server systems that require many cooling fans. The cooling fan module of the invention includes a frame, at least one fan lid and a board extending from the frame. The frame includes a connector to establish electric connection with a computer system. The board is extended from the frame and has a plurality of fan openings. The fan lid has one side pivotally engaged with the frame and another side selectively engaged with the board such that a housing space is formed between the fan lid and the board for holding a plurality of cooling fans. The board around the fan opening has anchoring stubs and the fan lid has corresponding coupling stubs to clamp and anchor the fans. Thus the cooling fans may be installed or disassembled quickly without using screws.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5557499 (1996-09-01), Reiter et al.
patent: 5562410 (1996-10-01), Sachs et al.
patent: 5822186 (1998-10-01), Bull et al.
patent: 5963424 (1999-10-01), Hileman et al.
patent: 6040981 (2000-03-01), Schmitt et al.
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Chervinsky Boris
Inventec C'orporation
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