CN103098570B - Fan unit and its installation - Google Patents

Abstract

In a method of installing a cooling air fan (2) in an electronic equipment unit (3), which electronic equipment unit (3) has a unit front (4), a unit rear (5) and unit sides (6, 7), and where the cooling air fan/fans generates a cooling Air Flow (AF) directed from the unit front to the unit rear, the cooling air fan is attached to a flexible cooling air fan carrier (8) introduced via a slot (3A) in the unit front and is advanced along a non-linear path (9). The cooling air fan carrier is advanced along a first generally straight path section (9A) from the unit front and substantially to the unit rear, further via a second curved path section (9B), and via a third generally straight path section (9C) extending along the unit rear, whereby the cooling air fan is positioned along the unit rear.

Description

Fan unit and its installation

technical field

The present invention relates generally to cooling of electronic equipment, and in particular to cooling fans installed in electronic equipment units.

Background technique

Most electronic equipment units require proper internal cooling to function properly. An example of this is most rack-mounted electronics units comprising a cabinet or housing enclosing various electronic components and intended for use eg in the field of telecommunications. There are different cooling standards in different regions of the world for such electronic telecommunication equipment units. In particular, in some areas it is acceptable to perform cooling by providing sideways cooling airflow (in other words, cooling airflow from one side of the unit to the other). Also, the input side can be different in such regions. Instead, all significant regions (including the US, EU, and Asia) receive front-only cooling (in other words, front-to-rear cooling airflow).

It is also a general fact that electronics units with different cooling fundamentals should not be mixed. Therefore, it is very true that in order to provide common cooling to most areas, the direction of cooling airflow must be from the front to the rear of the unit.

To provide such front to rear cooling airflow with existing solutions, a fan can be mounted directly on the front of the unit to force the cooling airflow from the front to the rear of the unit. Alternatively, a fan may be mounted at the rear of the unit to draw cooling airflow from the front to the rear of the unit. Front mounting has the attendant disadvantage that a significant portion (up to approximately 25%) of the front space is taken up by the fans. This significantly reduces the space available for the front connectors. Rear mounting of the fans typically requires easy access to the fans from the rear of the unit during normal operation. In the alternative, the entire unit would need to be powered down and disconnected before the fan could be replaced. This in turn would lead to a longer interruption of operation, which would be a very undesirable result.

Contents of the invention

The general aim of the invention is to provide a solution to the described problems.

A specific object is to provide an improved method of cooling fans installed in electronic equipment units.

Another specific object is to provide an improved cooling fan assembly for cooling electronic equipment units.

Yet another specific object is to provide an improved electronics unit with front to rear cooling air flow.

These and other objects are met by the embodiments defined by the appended patent claims.

The present invention generally relates to an electronic equipment unit having a unit front, a unit rear, and unit sides. A cooling airflow is directed from the front of the unit to the rear of the unit by at least one cooling fan installed in the unit. In the basic configuration, an application-dependent number of cooling fans are attached to a flexible fan carrier introduced via the front of the unit. The carrier then follows a non-linear path, namely along a first straight segment from the front of the unit to the rear of the unit, further via a second curved path segment, and via a third straight path segment along the rear of the unit. move, thereby positioning the fan/fans along the rear of the unit.

This basic inventive configuration presents the following advantages:

- Fast, easy and effective cooling fan installation and replacement;

- Minimize operational disruption caused by fan replacement;

- Cooling fan replacement does not require rear access; and

- Takes virtually no front space.

Advantages offered by the invention, in addition to those already described, will be readily understood upon reading the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention.

Description of drawings

The present invention, together with further objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a prior art electronics unit of a common type with front to rear cooling airflow;

Figure 2 is a partial and schematic perspective view of an embodiment of the cooling fan assembly of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic top view of the electronics unit of the present invention for use with the cooling fan assembly of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a front view of the electronics unit of Figure 3; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of the electronic equipment unit of the present invention, in which the installation of the cooling fan assembly as shown in FIG. 2 is illustrated.

detailed description

The cooling fan assembly of the present invention and the installation of the cooling fan assembly in the electronic equipment unit will be explained with reference to the exemplary embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 2-5 of the accompanying drawings. It is emphasized that these illustrations have the sole purpose of describing exemplary embodiments of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention to its details. The described embodiments relate to the application of the inventive solution to electronic equipment units of the type commonly used in the field of telecommunications, but can be similarly applied to electronic equipment units used in other fields.

An example of such a general rack-mounted type electronics unit 103 is outlined in FIG. 1 , which is described in the introduction and to which the invention may be applied. Briefly, such a prior art electronics unit 103 consists of a housing with a unit front 104 , a unit rear 105 and unit sides 106 , 107 . Traditionally, the unit front 104 has a plurality of front connectors 120 of selectable types, suitable for the application and power supply connector 121 of the particular unit 103 . The illustrated prior art electronics unit 103 is of the conventional front-to-rear cooling type, wherein the cooling fan assembly 101 includes a fan 102 mounted The louvers 102A provided in to draw cooling air. In operation, cooling air is introduced into the unit 103 by the fan 102 and via corresponding louvers 102A to provide the desired front to rear cooling airflow AF. It will be clear from FIG. 1 that such a cooling fan assembly 101 configuration will significantly affect the connector space available in the front 104 of the unit. Such a front mounted fan assembly 101 configuration has been used very commonly, but as discussed above, an alternative configuration with a rear mounted fan has also been quite common. The rear mounted fan configuration suffers from the disadvantages initially discussed, namely the need to reach the rear of the unit 105 in the event a fan replacement is required during operation.

The present invention aims to solve the problems briefly discussed above and in the introduction. Such problems relate to the combination of achieving a suitably efficient cooling of the electronics unit and ensuring its best practice use. To overcome the disadvantages and problems associated with traditional cooling fan configurations, a new concept for installing fans in the unit is proposed. An essential feature of this solution is the provision of a path through the unit for introducing the fan from a very limited opening in the front of the unit and to a working position along the rear of the unit.

This inventive concept enables the practical and efficient use of substantially the entire front of the unit for the required type and number of connectors. Furthermore, this concept additionally enables practical and quick fan replacement from the front of the unit. Fan replacement is permitted during equipment operation but does not require access to the rear of the unit during such operation. It is currently estimated that removal of the used fan and installation of a new fan will take less than 1 minute.

An exemplary embodiment of a general electronic equipment unit 3 of the type described above, to which the basic idea of the invention has been applied, is illustrated in FIGS. 3-5 . In particular, this embodiment of the electronics unit 3 has been configured to house the cooling air fan assembly 1 shown in part in detail in FIG. 2 . The cooling air fan assembly 1 is intended for providing front to rear cooling airflow AF in an electronics unit 3 and comprises a cooling air fan 2 supported on an elongated flexible cooling air fan carrier 8 having a partition An open attachment 11 is used to accommodate an optional number of said cooling air fans 2 in a row along the partial carrier 8 . The actual carrier 8 consists of an elongated strip of suitable elastic or flexible material. It may preferably but not exclusively be formed from standard PCB substrate materials.

In the illustrated embodiment, the fan attachments 11 each contain a fan inlet opening 11A aligned with the fan rotor 2B, and through which fan inlet openings 11A draw cooling air that will pass through the fan in the rear 5 of the unit. Outlet perforation 2C (see Figure 5) discharges. Each fan attachment 11 also comprises a plurality of holes 11B (here four) for accommodating fasteners (not specifically shown) with which the fan 2 can be fixed to the carrier 8 . The fasteners may be screw type fasteners or any other type of fastener commonly used in this type of environment. The fan 2 is attached to the carrier 8, starting at the end of the carrier 8 intended to be introduced first into the unit 3 in the manner described below. The fan is also attached to the carrier 8 over the length of the carrier 8 which is arranged along the unit rear 5 in the fully introduced position of the carrier 8 . The remaining length of the carrier 8 is usually free of the fan 2 and fan attachment 11 .

Furthermore, this carrier 8 of the cooling fan assembly 1 may have articulated joints 13 provided at regular distances along the carrier 8 to further facilitate the introduction of the carrier 8 to the unit 3 as described later. In applications where more than one fan 2 is required, such an articulated joint 13 may be provided at least between each of said spaced apart appendages 11 for a fan 2 . Such an articulated joint 13 may also be provided in the part of the carrier 8 adjacent to the last fan 2 of the row, as seen in the later described direction of introduction of the carrier 8 into the unit 3, and may even be provided in the carrier 8 in the portion that does not support any fans.

The carrier 8 is also equipped with a connector generally designated by reference numeral 12 and only very schematically illustrated in FIG. 2 . The purpose of the connector 12 is to enable powering of the fan or fans 2 by connecting each of the fans 2 to a power supply (not shown) via a power rail 14 provided in the material of the carrier 8 . In the illustrated embodiment, the connector 12 is also attached to a partially sheared or cut-out section 8A of carrier 8 material. These cut-out segments 8A are formed in the area of the hinged joint 13 and serve to reduce the stress on the connector 12 when the carrier 8 bends during insertion via the non-linear introduction path 9 described later. The same connector 12 may also preferably be used to provide control and/or monitoring of the fan 2 . This is done by returning the tachometer signal from each fan 2 via the carrier 8 in a manner not specifically shown but which would be apparent to a person skilled in the art, not only if the carrier is formed from a standard PCB substrate material . The carrier 8 and/or its power rails 14 are connected to the motherboard 25 of the unit 3 by means of standard type connectors or cables 15 , as vaguely indicated in FIG. 3 . Thereby, the power rail 14 and/or the separate tachometer signal are respectively connected and communicated to suitable power supply equipment and control/monitoring equipment using standard techniques, such as are used for normal fan units, respectively.

As mentioned above, the electronics unit 3 disclosed in Figures 3-5 is particularly suitable for use with the cooling fan assembly 8 of the present invention. Similar to a common unit of this type (shown in Figure 1), it has a unit front 4, a unit rear 5 and unit sides 6, 7, and typically directs cooling airflow AF from the unit front 4 to the unit rear Part 5. In the unit front 4 there is provided a small lead-in slot 3A opening to a non-linear path 9 for the lead-in of the cooling fan assembly 1 as described above with reference to FIG. 2 . It will be noted, especially in FIG. 4 , that the space available for the front connector 20 at the front of the unit 4 is limited only by a small lead-in slot 3A and a plurality of narrow air inlet openings 2A, which may be provided so as not to significantly Spatial interference with front connector 20.

The path 9 for the introduction of the cooling fan assembly 1 (with its carrier 8 and fan 2 ) from the unit front 4 to the unit rear 5 consists of a first A generally straight path segment 9A, a second curved path segment 9B, and a third generally straight path segment 9C extending generally along the unit rear 5 . It will be appreciated that the second curved path segment 9B interconnects the first and third path segments 9A and 9C, respectively, to provide a substantially continuous non-linear guide path 9 for cooling the front to the rear of the fan assembly 1. safety-oriented.

In particular, the non-linear path 9 may be formed between suitably spaced generally parallel walls 10A, 10B, 10C provided inside the electronics unit 3 and along the unit sides 6, at The rear corners of the unit 3 and extend along the rear 5 of the unit. As will be seen in FIG. 5 , the inner wall of the wall 10C forming the third path segment 9C is equipped with cooling air inlet openings 16 generally aligned with associated fan outlet perforations 2C in the rear 5 of the unit. . It should be noted that for strictly front-to-rear cooling, the fans 2 and their fan attachments 11 are restricted to the part of the carrier 8 which corresponds to the rear 5 of the unit when the carrier is fully introduced. Also, it should be apparent that the carrier 8 has such a length that when fully inserted into the path 9 it is still graspable at the unit front 4 for retraction from the unit 3 .

From the above description of FIGS. 2-5 , it should now be clear that the present invention also relates to a method of installing a cooling fan 2 in an electronic equipment unit 3 having a unit front 4, a unit rear 5, and The unit sides 6 , 7 and where the fan/fans generate a cooling airflow AF that is generally directed from the unit front 4 to the unit rear 5 . According to the invention, a suitable number of cooling fans 2 are attached to the flexible fan carrier 8 for a particular electronics unit application. The flexible fan carrier 8 is then introduced via a designated slot 3A in the front 4 of the unit and advanced along a non-linear path 9 . The flexible fan carrier 8 is thus initially advanced from the unit front 4 along the first generally straight path segment 9A, along the unit side 6 and generally to the unit rear 5 . The fan carrier 8 is then advanced further via a second curved path segment 9B and finally further advanced via a third generally straight path segment 9C extending along the unit rear 5 . It will now be appreciated that the cooling fan 2 is attached to the carrier 8, starting at the end of the carrier 8 which is intended to be introduced first into the path 9 of the unit 3 so that the fan carrier 8 rests the proper amount along the rear 5 of the unit when fully inserted into the path 9 fan.

As described above, the non-linear path 9 is formed between suitably spaced generally parallel walls 10A- 10C attached inside the electronics unit 3 . In case a replacement of the cooling fan 2 supported by the fan carrier 8 present in place in the electronics unit 3 is required, the carrier 8 with said fan 2 is simply withdrawn from the non-linear path 9 and via the front of the unit 4 out of slot 3A. Obviously, first the connection/connections 15 of the assembly 1 to the motherboard 25 are disconnected. Then a new carrier 8 with fan 2 attached is introduced via slot 3A, pushed into position along non-linear path 9 and connected to motherboard 25 .

Powering the fan/fans 2 is preferably achieved by connecting the fan 2 via the carrier 8 to a suitable power supply (not shown). To further optimize the cooling performance of the cooling fan assembly 1 , control and/or monitoring of the fan is preferably also achieved by connecting the fan via the carrier 8 to suitable control and/or monitoring equipment. The design of such control and/or monitoring equipment and the actual connections between such equipment and fans are not specifically shown or described herein as it is considered to be within the ordinary skills of those skilled in the art.

In alternatives rather than the specific illustrated embodiments of the invention, variations of the illustrated cooling fan assembly and electronics unit according to the invention may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention. To simplify this, the carrier can be specific to each application, with the fan attachments of the carrier optionally distributed along the carrier to suit the specific application, or alternatively standardized, with equally spaced, regular or uniform Fan attachments distributed along the carrier. In other words, an appropriate number of cooling fans for a particular electronics unit application may be attached to the flexible fan carrier. In such variants, depending on the actual application requiring one or several cooling fans in the electronics unit, a special carrier can therefore be equipped with a suitable number of fan attachments for a different number of fans or an excess of fan attachments can prevent a standardized carrier.

The invention has been described in connection with embodiments which are to be considered as illustrative examples of the invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements. The invention similarly covers any feasible combination of features described and illustrated herein. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

Claims (8)

1. one kind at electronic device unit (103; 3) in, one or several cooling fan (102 is installed; 2) method, described electronic device unit (103; 3) there is unit front portion (104; 4), unit rear portion (105; 5) and unit sidepiece (106,107; 6,7), and the usual cooling blast (AF) being directed to described unit rear portion from described unit front portion of its fan/multiple fan generation, it is characterized in that:

-the cooling-air fan concrete electronic device unit being applied to suitable quantity is attached to flexible cooling air fan carrier (8);

-described cooling-air fan carrier is introduced via the groove (3A) of specifying in described unit front portion; And move forward along nonlinear path (9); Thus

-along anterior and to move forward described cooling-air fan carrier to first of described unit rear portion the usually straight route segment (9A) from described unit;

-to move forward described cooling-air fan carrier via the second crooked route section (9B); And

-moving forward described flexibility cooling air fan carrier along the 3rd usually straight route segment (9C), described 3rd usually straight route segment (9C) extends along described unit rear portion; And therefore

-settle described cooling-air fan/multiple fan along described unit rear portion,

Wherein, described method is further characterized in that, realizes the control of described cooling-air fan (2) and/or monitoring and/or power supply by connecting described cooling-air fan (2) to described cooling-air fan carrier (8).

2. method according to claim 1, is characterized in that, between the usually parallel wall (10A, 10B, 10C) suitably separated that described electronic device unit (3) is inner, form described nonlinear path (9).

3. method according to claim 2, it is characterized in that, by regaining from described nonlinear path (9) and via the groove (3A) of described unit front portion (4) the cooling-air fan carrier (8) of existence supporting described cooling-air fan, and replace cooling-air fan (2) by being introduced via described groove and be incorporated into described nonlinear path by the new cooling-air fan carrier with the cooling-air fan of attachment.

4. a cooling-air fan component (101; 1), at electronic device unit (103; 3) cooling blast (AF) is provided in, it is characterized in that, in flexibility cooling air fan carrier (8) upper support cooling-air fan (2), described cooling-air fan carrier (8) has the annex (11) separated of the cooling-air fan for holding optional quantity

Wherein, described cooling-air fan component is further characterized in that, described cooling-air fan carrier (8) has connector (12), for connecting each described cooling-air fan (2) that controls and/or monitor and/or power in described cooling-air fan/multiple fan (2).

5. cooling-air fan component according to claim 4, is characterized in that, the hinged joint (13) of described cooling-air fan carrier (8) between to have in the annex (11) for separating described in described cooling-air fan (2) each.

6. the cooling-air fan component according to any one in claim 4-5, is characterized in that, described cooling-air fan carrier (8) is formed by standard PCB substrate.

7. an electronic device unit (103; 3), there is unit front portion (104; 4), unit rear portion (105; 5) and unit sidepiece (106,107; 6,7), and wherein cooling blast (AF) is directed to described unit rear portion from described unit front portion usually, it is characterized in that the lead-ingroove (3A) in described unit front portion, described channel opening is to the introducing of nonlinear path (9) for cooling-air fan component (1), and described path has from anterior and the extend to described unit rear portion the first usually straight route segment (9A) of described unit, the second crooked route section (9B) and the 3rd usually straight route segment (9C) that extends along described unit rear portion.

8. electronic device unit according to claim 7, is characterized in that, described nonlinear path (9) is being provided in be formed between the inner usually parallel wall (10A, 10B) suitably separated of described electronic device unit (3).