TWI860835B - Electronic device and pipe positioning assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic device includes a casing, a fan cage, a plurality of fans, a pipe positioning assembly and two pipes. The fan cage includes a plurality of fan spaces and an installation slot, and each of the fan spaces and the installation slot are arranged side by side. The fan cage is disposed in the casing. The fans are respectively located in the corresponding fan spaces. The pipe positioning assembly includes a positioning component and a quick release mechanism. The positioning component includes two positioning holes spaced apart from each other. The quick release mechanism is connected to the positioning component. The positioning component is removably mounted in the installation slot of the fan cage via the quick release mechanism. The pipes are respectively accommodated in the two positioning holes of the positioning component.

Description

Electronic devices and pipeline positioning components

The present invention relates to an electronic device and a pipeline positioning assembly.

With the advancement and development of technology, electronic devices such as servers have adopted liquid cooling to dissipate the heat source (such as the central processing unit) inside. Usually, the liquid cooling method requires the laying of pipelines inside the electronic device, and the pipelines need to be fixed by positioning parts and screws to be positioned at the preset layout position.

Before the screws fix the positioning parts to position the pipeline, the position of the pipeline must be maintained by hand to prevent the pipeline from deviating from the preset position due to its own elasticity. However, while holding the pipeline by hand, the positioning parts must be placed and the screws must be locked. As a result, the position of the pipeline is difficult to maintain and may deviate from the preset position during the process of placing the positioning parts and locking the screws. It may even cause the cold pipe and the hot pipe in the pipeline to contact, resulting in a decrease in heat dissipation efficiency. In this way, the position of the pipeline needs to be readjusted, making the pipeline layout operation quite cumbersome.

The present invention provides an electronic device and a pipeline positioning assembly, which can position the pipeline at a preset position in a simple manner and prevent the cold and hot pipes in the pipeline from contacting each other.

An electronic device disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention includes a housing, a fan rack, a plurality of fans, a pipeline positioning assembly and two pipelines. The fan rack includes a plurality of fan slots and an assembly slot, each of which is arranged side by side, and the fan rack is disposed in the housing. The fans are respectively located in the corresponding fan slots. The pipeline positioning assembly includes a positioning member and a quick release mechanism. The positioning member includes two separated positioning slots. The quick release mechanism is connected to the positioning member, and the positioning member is detachably mounted in the assembly slot of the fan rack via the quick release mechanism. The two pipelines are respectively accommodated in the two positioning slots of the positioning member.

Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a pipeline positioning assembly. The pipeline positioning assembly is used to be installed on a fan frame and position two pipelines on the fan frame. The fan frame includes an assembly slot, a plurality of positioning holes and a locking protrusion. The pipeline positioning assembly includes a positioning piece and a quick release mechanism. The positioning piece includes two separated positioning slots, and the two positioning slots are used to accommodate two pipelines respectively. The quick release mechanism is connected to the positioning piece, and the positioning piece is detachably installed in the assembly slot of the fan frame through the quick release mechanism.

According to the electronic device and pipeline positioning assembly disclosed in the above-mentioned embodiments, the two pipelines can be pre-shaped, positioned and separated by means of two separated positioning grooves of the positioning member of the pipeline positioning assembly, and the positioning member can be detachably installed in the assembly groove of the fan frame through a quick release mechanism. Then, the positioning member and the two pipelines positioned by it can be installed together in the assembly groove of the fan frame through the quick release mechanism. Therefore, the two pipelines can be fixed in the preset position in a simple manner, and at the same time, the two pipelines (such as cold and hot pipes) can be prevented from contacting each other to maintain the heat dissipation efficiency.

The above description of the content of the present invention and the following description of the implementation method are used to demonstrate and explain the principle of the present invention and provide a further explanation of the scope of the patent application of the present invention.

Please refer to Figures 1 to 3. Figure 1 is a partial three-dimensional schematic diagram of an electronic device disclosed according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figures 2 and 3 are partial exploded schematic diagrams of the electronic device of Figure 1.

In this embodiment, the electronic device 1 includes a housing 10, a fan frame 20, a plurality of fans 30, two pipes 41, 42 and a pipe positioning assembly 50. In addition, the electronic device 1 may further include a motherboard 60, two water cooling plates 71, 72, a water cooling radiator 80 and a connecting pipe 90.

The housing 10 includes a bottom plate 11 and two side plates 12. The two side plates 12 are connected to the bottom plate 11, and the two side plates 12 and the bottom plate 11 together form a receiving space S. The fan frame 20 is located in the receiving space S of the housing 10, and divides the receiving space S into a first receiving portion S1 and a second receiving portion S2. The fan frame 20 includes two walls 21 and a plurality of partitions 22. The partitions 22 are located between the two walls 21 and connected to the two walls 21, and the partitions 22 divide the space between the two walls 21 into a plurality of fan slots 23 and an assembly slot 24. The fan slots 23 and the assembly slot 24 are arranged side by side, and the assembly slot 24 is, for example, located between two adjacent fan slots 23. The assembly slot 24 is formed by two adjacent partitions 22 and connected to the first accommodation portion S1 and the second accommodation portion S2, and one of the partitions 22 forming the assembly slot 24 includes a locking protrusion 221. In addition, the two walls 21 each include two positioning holes 211, and these positioning holes 211 are located beside the assembly slot 24.

The fans 30 are respectively located in the fan slots 23. The motherboard 60 is located in the first accommodation portion S1 of the accommodation space S of the case 10 and includes two heat sources 61, such as a central processing unit (CPU). The two water cooling plates 71 and 72 are respectively thermally coupled to the two heat sources 61 of the motherboard 60 to absorb the heat generated when the two heat sources 61 are in operation. The water cooling radiator 80 is used to be located in the second accommodation portion S2 of the accommodation space S of the case 10. The opposite ends of the pipeline 41 are respectively connected to the outlet of the water cooling radiator 80 and the inlet of the water cooling plate 71, the opposite ends of the pipeline 42 are respectively connected to the inlet of the water cooling radiator 80 and the outlet of the water cooling plate 72, and the opposite ends of the connecting pipe 90 are respectively connected to the outlet of the water cooling plate 71 and the inlet of the water cooling plate 72. Thus, the water cooling plates 71, 72, the water cooling radiator 80, the pipelines 41, 42 and the connecting pipe 90 together form a cooling cycle. The coolant can flow continuously in the cooling cycle, and when flowing through the water cooling plates 71, 72, it takes away the heat absorbed by the water cooling plates 71, 72, and is cooled when flowing to the water cooling radiator 80. The airflow generated by these fans 30 can dissipate heat for the water cooling radiator 80 and other electronic components on the motherboard 60.

It should be noted that the number of heat sources 61 of the motherboard 60 is not limited to two. In other embodiments, the motherboard may have only one heat source. In this way, the electronic device may correspondingly include only one water cooling plate without connecting pipes, and one pipe connects the outlet of the water cooling radiator and the inlet of the water cooling plate, and the other pipe connects the inlet of the water cooling radiator and the outlet of the water cooling plate.

The pipeline positioning assembly 50 includes a positioning member 51 and a quick release mechanism 52, and the positioning member 51 is detachably mounted on the assembly slot 24 of the fan frame 20 via the quick release mechanism 52. The positioning member 51 and the quick release mechanism 52 will be described in detail below.

The positioning member 51 includes two assembled housings 511 and 512. The two housings 511 and 512 are assembled, for example, in a concave-convex matching manner, and the two housings 511 and 512 accommodate part of the pipelines 41 and 42. For example, the housing 511 includes a plurality of assembly holes 5111, and the housing 512 includes a plurality of assembly bosses 5121 respectively matched with the assembly holes 5111. In addition, the housing 511 may further include two separated grooves 5112, and the housing 512 may also include two separated grooves 5122. The two grooves 5112 of the housing 511 and the two grooves 5122 of the housing 512 respectively form two separated positioning grooves 513. The two positioning grooves 513 respectively accommodate a portion of the pipeline 41 and a portion of the pipeline 42, so that the two pipelines 41 and 42 are separated from each other (ie, not in contact with each other).

It should be noted that the two housings 511 and 512 are not limited to being assembled in a concave-convex matching manner. In other embodiments, the two housings can be fixed by bonding. In addition, the positioning member 51 is not limited to including the two housings 511 and 512 assembled together. In other embodiments, the positioning member can be a single body, and the two pipelines can be assembled to the positioning member by passing through the two positioning grooves of the positioning member respectively.

In this embodiment, one of the shells 511 may further include a plurality of first buckles 5113 . The first buckles 5113 are, for example, bumps and are respectively located on two opposite surfaces of the shell 511 .

The quick release mechanism 52 includes a body 521, a plurality of positioning posts 522, and a latch 523. The body 521 includes a base 5211, a plurality of ears 5212, and a plurality of second buckles 5213. The ears 5212 protrude from two opposite sides of the base 5211, and the second buckles 5213 protrude from two opposite sides of the base 5211. The direction D3 in which the second buckles 5213 protrude from the base 5211 is different from the directions D1 and D2 in which the ears 5212 protrude from the base 5211. For example, the direction D3 in which the second buckles 5213 protrude from the base 5211 is perpendicular to the directions D1 and D2 in which the ears 5212 protrude from the base 5211, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The positioning posts 522 are fixed to the ears 5212 and are respectively inserted into the positioning holes 211 of the two walls 21 of the fan frame 20. The second buckle portions 5213 each include a buckle hole 5213a, and the buckle holes 5213a are respectively buckled with the first buckle portions 5113 of the positioning member 51.

It should be noted that the quick release mechanism 52 and the positioning member 51 are not limited to being combined in the manner of the second buckle portion 5213 buckling with the first buckle portion 5113. As long as there is a connection relationship between the quick release mechanism and the positioning member, the quick release mechanism and the positioning member can be combined in other suitable structures or ways.

The latch 523 includes a coupling portion 5231, a locking portion 5232 and two operating portions 5233. The coupling portion 5231 is slidably disposed between the base 5211 of the body 521 and the positioning member 51, and the locking portion 5232 is connected to the coupling portion 5231 and is located beside the positioning member 51. In this embodiment, the base 5211 of the body 521 includes two through holes 5211a, and the coupling portion 5231 includes two coupling holes 5231a. The two operating portions 5233 are, for example, sliding button structures, and each includes a coupling structure 5233a. The coupling structures 5233a of the two operating portions 5233 can respectively slidably pass through the two through holes 5211a of the base 5211 of the body 521 and be locked in the two coupling holes 5231a of the coupling portion 5231. By operating the second operating portion 5233 , the engaging portion 5232 can be driven to slide relative to the body 521 via the coupling portion 5231 , so that the engaging portion 5232 is engaged with or released from the engaging protrusion 221 of the partition plate 22 of the fan frame 20 .

Next, the assembly process of the pipeline positioning assembly 50 will be described below. First, when the water cooling radiator 80 and the water cooling plates 71, 72 are connected to each other through the pipelines 41, 42 and the connecting pipes 90 but have not yet been placed in the housing 10, the two housings 511, 512 of the positioning member 51 are assembled to allow part of the pipeline 41 and part of the pipeline 42 to be respectively located in the two positioning grooves 513 of the positioning member 51. Then, the second buckles 5213 of the body 521, which has been assembled with the latches 523, are respectively buckled with the first buckles 5113 of the positioning member 51.

Then, please refer to FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 4 together. FIG. 4 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram showing the assembly of the positioning member of the pipeline positioning assembly of FIG. 2 on the fan frame. The two water cooling plates 71 and 72 are placed on the two heat sources 61 of the motherboard 60, the water cooling radiator 80 is placed in the second accommodation portion S2 of the accommodation space S of the case 10, and the positioning member 51 is placed in the assembly slot 24 of the fan frame 20, so that the positioning columns 522 of the quick release mechanism 52 are respectively inserted into the positioning holes 211 of the fan frame 20, so that the displacement of the entire pipeline positioning assembly 50 in the horizontal direction (the direction parallel to the bottom plate 11) is limited.

Then, please refer to FIG. 5, which is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the latch of the pipeline positioning assembly of FIG. 2 being fixed to the fan frame. The two operating parts 5233 of the latch 523 of the sliding quick release mechanism 52 drive the locking part 5232 to lock the locking protrusion 221 of the partition plate 22 of the fan frame 20, so that the displacement of the entire pipeline positioning assembly 50 in the vertical direction (vertical to the bottom plate 11) is limited. In this way, the assembly of the pipeline positioning assembly 50 is completed.

In the present embodiment, the two pipelines 41 and 42 are respectively accommodated in two separated positioning grooves 513 of the positioning member 51 of the pipeline positioning assembly 50, and the positioning member 51 is detachably mounted in the assembly groove 24 of the fan frame 20 via the quick release mechanism 52. The two pipelines 41 and 42 can be pre-shaped, positioned and separated, and then the positioning member 51 and the two pipelines 41 and 42 positioned by it are installed together into the assembly groove 24 of the fan frame 20 via the quick release mechanism 52. Therefore, the two pipelines 41 and 42 can be fixed at the preset positions in a simple manner, and at the same time, the two pipelines 41 and 42 (such as cold and hot pipes) can be prevented from contacting each other to maintain the heat dissipation efficiency.

It should be noted that the number of operating parts 5233 of the latch 523 of the quick release mechanism 52 is not limited to two. In other embodiments, the latch of the quick release mechanism may include only one operating part. Furthermore, the latch of the quick release mechanism is an optional component. In other embodiments, the quick release mechanism may not have a latch, and the partition of the fan frame may not have a locking protrusion correspondingly. Under such a configuration, the displacement of the overall pipeline positioning assembly in the vertical direction can be limited by the cover of the casing.

In addition, the horizontal displacement of the overall pipeline positioning assembly 50 is not limited by the combination of the positioning column 522 and the positioning hole 211. As long as the quick release mechanism can be detachably assembled on the fan frame and the positioning member is positioned on the fan frame in the horizontal direction, the quick release mechanism and the fan frame can be matched with other suitable structures.

It should be noted that the assembly slot 24 of the fan frame 20 is not limited to being located between two adjacent fan slots 23. In other embodiments, the assembly slot of the fan frame can be located between the fan slot closest to one of the side panels of the housing and the side panel.

Furthermore, the two pipelines 41 and 42 are not limited to connecting the water cooling radiator 80 and the water cooling plates 71 and 72. In other embodiments, the two pipelines can be connected to any two components in the water cooling circuit as required.

According to the electronic device and pipeline positioning assembly disclosed in the above-mentioned embodiments, the two pipelines can be pre-shaped, positioned and separated by means of two separated positioning grooves of the positioning member of the pipeline positioning assembly, and the positioning member can be detachably installed in the assembly groove of the fan frame through a quick release mechanism. Then, the positioning member and the two pipelines positioned by it can be installed together in the assembly groove of the fan frame through the quick release mechanism. Therefore, the two pipelines can be fixed in the preset position in a simple manner, and at the same time, the two pipelines (such as cold and hot pipes) can be prevented from contacting each other to maintain the heat dissipation efficiency.

In this embodiment, the server of the present invention can be used for artificial intelligence (AI) computing, edge computing, and can also be used as a 5G server, cloud server or Internet of Vehicles server.

Although the present invention is disclosed as above with the aforementioned preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone skilled in the art may make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of patent protection of the present invention shall be subject to the scope of the patent application attached to this specification.

1: electronic device 10: housing 11: bottom plate 12: side plate 20: fan bracket 21: wall 211: positioning hole 22: partition 221: fixing block 23: fan slot 24: assembly slot 30: fan 41,42: pipeline 50: pipeline positioning assembly 51: positioning member 511,512: housing 5111: assembly hole 5112: groove 5113: first buckle 5121: assembly boss 5122: groove 513: positioning slot 52: quick release mechanism 521: body 5211: base 5211a: through hole 5212: ear 5213: second buckle 5213a: buckle hole 522: positioning column 523: latch 5231: coupling part 5231a: coupling hole 5232: clamping part 5233: operation part 5233a: coupling structure 60: motherboard 61: heat source 71,72: water cooling plate 80: water cooling radiator 90: connecting pipe S: storage space S1: first storage part S2: second storage part D1,D2,D3: direction

FIG. 1 is a partial three-dimensional schematic diagram of an electronic device disclosed according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are partial exploded schematic diagrams of the electronic device of FIG. 1 . FIG. 4 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the pipeline positioning assembly of FIG. 2 being assembled on a fan frame. FIG. 5 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the latch of the pipeline positioning assembly of FIG. 2 being fixed on a fan frame.

1: Electronic devices

10: Chassis

11: Base plate

12: Side panels

20: Fan holder

30: Fan

41,42: Pipeline

50: Pipeline positioning assembly

60: Motherboard

61: Heat source

71,72: Water cooling plate

80: Water cooling radiator

90:Connecting pipe

S: Storage space

S1: first accommodating part

S2: Second accommodating part

Claims (10)

An electronic device comprises: a housing; a fan rack comprising a plurality of fan slots and an assembly slot, wherein each of the fan slots and the assembly slot are arranged side by side, and the fan rack is arranged in the housing; a plurality of fans are respectively located in the corresponding fan slots; a pipeline positioning assembly comprises: a positioning piece comprising two separated positioning slots; a quick-release mechanism connected to the positioning piece, wherein the positioning piece is detachably mounted in the assembly slot of the fan rack via the quick-release mechanism; and two pipelines are respectively accommodated in the two positioning slots of the positioning piece. An electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the fan rack includes two walls and a plurality of partitions, each of the partitions is located between the two walls to separate the fan slots and the assembly slot, the two walls include a plurality of positioning holes, each of the positioning holes is located next to the assembly slot, the quick-release mechanism includes a body and a plurality of positioning posts, the body is connected to the positioning piece, each of the positioning posts is fixed to the body, and the positioning posts are respectively inserted into the positioning holes of the two walls. An electronic device as described in claim 2, wherein one of the assembly slots formed in the partitions includes a locking protrusion, and the quick-release mechanism further includes a latch, which is slidably disposed on the main body and is locked to the locking protrusion. An electronic device as described in claim 3, wherein the latch comprises a coupling portion, a locking portion and an operating portion, the coupling portion being slidably disposed on the main body, the locking portion being connected to the coupling portion and being locked to the locking protrusion, and the operating portion passing through the main body and being fixed to the coupling portion. An electronic device as described in claim 2, wherein the positioning member includes a plurality of first buckles, the main body includes a base, a plurality of ears and a plurality of second buckles, the ears protrude from two opposite sides of the base, the second buckles protrude from two opposite sides of the base, the direction in which each of the second buckles protrudes from the base is different from the direction in which each of the ears protrudes from the base, the positioning columns are respectively fixed to the ears, and the second buckles are respectively buckled to the first buckles. An electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the assembly slot is located between any two adjacent fan slots. The electronic device as described in claim 1 further includes a motherboard, a water-cooling plate and a water-cooling radiator, the case includes a accommodating space, the fan bracket is located in the accommodating space and divides the accommodating space into a first accommodating portion and a second accommodating portion, the motherboard is located in the first accommodating portion and includes a heat source, the water-cooling plate is thermally coupled to the heat source, the water-cooling radiator is located in the second accommodating portion, and the two pipelines connect the water-cooling plate and the water-cooling radiator. A pipeline positioning assembly is used to be installed on a fan frame and position two pipelines on the fan frame. The fan frame includes an assembly slot, a plurality of positioning holes and a fixing protrusion. The pipeline positioning assembly includes: a positioning piece including two separated positioning slots, the two positioning slots are used to accommodate the two pipelines respectively; and a quick release mechanism, the quick release mechanism is connected to the positioning piece, and the positioning piece is used to be detachably installed in the assembly slot of the fan frame through the quick release mechanism. A pipeline positioning assembly as described in claim 8, wherein the quick-release mechanism comprises a body and a plurality of positioning posts, the body is connected to the positioning piece, each of the positioning posts is fixed to the body, and the positioning posts are respectively used to be inserted into the positioning holes of the fan frame. A pipeline positioning assembly as described in claim 9, wherein the quick-release mechanism further includes a latch, which is slidably disposed on the main body and is used to be fastened to the fastening protrusion of the fan frame.

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