COOLING FAN AND COOLING ASSEMBLY

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001]This application claims priority to China Application Serial Number 202420287893.1, filed Feb. 7, 2024, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

[0002]The present disclosure relates to a cooling fan and a cooling assembly.

Description of Related Art

[0003]As automotive technology evolves (especially the development of electronic systems and autonomous driving technology), the heat generated by vehicle electronic components continues to increase. Hence, the cooling device for vehicular electronic components must remove heat at higher rate and, at the same time, meet the lightweight and low-noise requirements of the vehicle.

SUMMARY

[0004]In view of the foregoing, one of the objects of the present disclosure is to provide a cooling fan and a cooling assembly that can achieve high cooling efficiency, lightweight design, and reduced noise.

[0005]To achieve the objective stated above, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a cooling fan includes a fan blade and a frame having a central opening for receiving the fan blade. The frame includes a sidewall portion and at least one protruding portion. The sidewall portion is arranged around the central opening and has a first side opening communicating with the central opening. The protruding portion extends outward from the sidewall portion and covers a first side of the first side opening. The first side is adjacent to an intake side of the central opening.

[0006]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the sidewall portion has an outer surface. The protruding portion is disposed on the outer surface of the sidewall portion and has a lower surface. An angle between the lower surface of the protruding portion and the outer surface of the sidewall portion is at least 30 degrees and is at most 150 degrees.

[0007]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the sidewall portion has an outer surface. The protruding portion is disposed on the outer surface of the sidewall portion and has at least one lateral edge. An angle between the lateral edge of the protruding portion and the outer surface of the sidewall portion is at least 30 degrees and is at most 150 degrees.

[0008]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the sidewall portion has an outer surface. The protruding portion projects from the outer surface of the sidewall portion by at least one millimeter.

[0009]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the frame includes a first protruding portion and a second protruding portion. The first protruding portion and the second protruding portion are separated by a gap.

[0010]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the sidewall portion further has a second side opening communicating with the central opening. The protruding portion covers both the first side of the first side opening and a second side of the second side opening, in which the second side is adjacent to the intake side of the central opening.

[0011]In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a cooling assembly includes a heatsink and the cooling fan described above. The heatsink includes a baseplate and a plurality of fins disposed on the baseplate. The cooling fan is disposed on the baseplate of the heatsink. At least one of the fins of the heatsink is positioned to face the first side opening of the frame of the cooling fan.

[0012]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the frame includes a first protruding portion and a second protruding portion. The first protruding portion and the second protruding portion are separated by a gap. The fins include at least one first fin, at least one second fin and a third fin. The third fin is disposed in the gap. The first fin and the second fin are located on two different sides of the third fin and extend towards different directions.

[0013]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the sidewall portion of the frame further has a second side opening communicating with the central opening. The protruding portion of the frame covers both the first side of the first side opening and a second side of the second side opening, in which the second side is adjacent to the intake side of the central opening.

[0014]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the fins include at least one first fin and at least one second fin. The first fin and the second fin are positioned to face the first side opening and the second side opening, respectively, and the first fin and the second fin extend towards different directions.

[0015]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the fins include at least one first fin and at least one second fin. The first fin and the second fin are positioned to face the first side opening and the second side opening, respectively. A height of the first side opening is less than a height of the second side opening, and a height of the first fin is less than a height of the second fin.

[0016]In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding portion of the frame at least partially covers the fins, such that at least one air passage is formed between the protruding portion, the fins, and the baseplate.

[0017]In sum, the cooling fan of the present disclosure includes a frame, and the frame has at least one side opening for outputting airflow and at least one protruding portion covering a side of the side opening adjacent to an intake side of the cooling fan. The protruding portion can prevent backflow of the airflow output by the cooling fan. By this arrangement, under the condition of the same blade shape and the same rotational speed, the cooling fan of the present disclosure can produce airflow of higher flow rate compared to conventional cooling fans of similar sizes, and as a result, cooling efficiency is improved. On the other hand, the cooling fan of the present disclosure has a simple structure, such that the cooling fan can advantageously be adapted to pair with a variety of heatsinks for adoption in different cooling systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018]To make the objectives, features, advantages, and embodiments of the present disclosure, including those mentioned above and others, more comprehensible, descriptions of the accompanying drawings are provided as follows.

[0019]FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020]FIG. 2 illustrates a side view of the cooling fan shown in FIG. 1;

[0021]FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of a cooling fan in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0022]FIG. 4 illustrates a top view of a cooling assembly in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0023]FIG. 5 illustrates a top view of a cooling assembly in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0024]FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling assembly in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0025]FIG. 7 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling assembly in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0026]FIG. 8 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling fan in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0027]FIG. 9 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling fan in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0028]FIG. 10 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling fan in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029]For the completeness of the description of the present disclosure, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and the various embodiments described below. Various features in the drawings are not drawn to scale and are provided for illustration purposes only. To provide full understanding of the present disclosure, various practical details will be explained in the following descriptions. However, a person with an ordinary skill in relevant art should realize that the present disclosure can be implemented without one or more of the practical details. Therefore, the present disclosure is not to be limited by these details.

[0030]Reference is made to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling assembly 29 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The cooling assembly 29 includes a heatsink 30 and a cooling fan 70. The heatsink 30 includes a baseplate 31 and a plurality of fins 35. The fins 35 are disposed on the baseplate 31 and are projected from the baseplate 31. The cooling fan 70 is disposed on the baseplate 31 of the heatsink 30. The fins 35 are arranged on at least one side of the cooling fan 70 and are spaced apart from one another.

[0031]The cooling fan 70 is configured to generate an airflow that flows towards the heatsink 30. The baseplate 31 of the heatsink 30 is configured to be thermally coupled with at least one heat source (not depicted). The baseplate 31 can be thermally coupled to the heat source by directly contacting the heat source (making physical contact with the heat source), or by coupling with the heat source via one or more thermally conductive components, such as a thermal pad, a heat pipe, etc. The cooling assembly 29 can be provided in a vehicle to remove heat from at least one heat source of the vehicle (e.g., electronic control unit (ECU) or other electronic components of the vehicle).

[0032]Reference is made additionally to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates a side view of the cooling fan 70 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the cooling fan 70 includes a fan blade 71 and a frame 73. The frame 73 has a central opening 75 for receiving the fan blade 71. The fan blade 71 is rotatably disposed in the central opening 75. The fan blade 71 can be coupled to an electric motor (not depicted) and can rotate in the central opening 75 as driven by the electric motor. The central opening 75 has an intake side 74. When the fan blade 71 is rotating in the central opening 75, air is drawn into the central opening 75 from the intake side 74. In the illustrated embodiment, the intake side 74 is a side of the cooling fan 70 away from the heatsink 30 (i.e., the upper side of the cooling fan 70 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2).

[0033]As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the frame 73 includes a sidewall portion 76. The sidewall portion 76 is arranged around the central opening 75 and has at least one side opening 78 communicating with the central opening 75. The airflow generated by the rotation of the fan blade 71 discharges laterally through the side opening 78. At least one of the fins 35 are positioned to face the side opening 78 of the frame 73. Hence, the airflow discharging laterally through the side opening 78 flows through at least one of the fins 35.

[0034]As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the frame 73 further includes at least one protruding portion 77. The protruding portion 77 is disposed on the sidewall portion 76 and extends outward from the sidewall portion 76. Specifically, the sidewall portion 76 has an outer surface 72 away from the central opening 75. The protruding portion 77 is disposed on the outer surface 72 and projects from the outer surface 72. The protruding portion 77 covers a first side of the side opening 78. The first side is adjacent to the intake side 74 of the central opening 75. The protruding portion 77 can prevent backflow of the airflow discharging from the side opening 78, such that the airflow can converge and flow towards the heatsink 30, resulting in an improvement in cooling efficiency.

[0035]As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in some embodiments, in order to effectively prevent backflow of air, the protruding portion 77 projects from the outer surface 72 of the sidewall portion 76 by a length L which is at least one millimeter. In some embodiments, an angle A1 between a lower surface of the protruding portion 77 and the outer surface 72 of the sidewall portion 76 is at least 30 degrees to effectively prevent backflow of air, and the angle A1 is at most 150 degrees to prevent the airflow discharged from the side opening 78 from being directly blocked by the protruding portion 77.

[0036]As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in some embodiments, the sidewall portion 76 is substantially rectangular, and at least one of the four edges of the sidewall portion 76 is provided with the side opening 78 and the corresponding protruding portion 77. The position and the quantity of the side opening 78 mainly depend on the demand of cooling. For example, in practice, if there is a need for outputting airflow towards two different directions (e.g., when there are two different heat sources, or when a single heat source has two areas that produce a larger amount of heat), the sidewall portion 76 can be have two of its edges each provided with one side opening 78 and the corresponding protruding portion 77.

[0037]As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in some embodiments, the frame 73 further includes a fan blade support 79. The fan blade support 79 is disposed in the central opening 75 and is connected to the sidewall portion 76. The fan blade 71 is rotatably disposed on the fan blade support 79. The electric motor for driving the fan blade 71 to rotate can also be disposed on the fan blade support 79.

[0038]As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in some embodiments, the fan blade 71 is partially exposed through the side opening 78 of the frame 73. In other words, a lower edge of the fan blade 71 (i.e., the lowermost part of the fan blade 71) is below an upper edge of the side opening 78. In other embodiments, the fan blade 71 is not exposed through the side opening 78. In other words, the lower edge of the fan blade 71 is above the upper edge of the side opening 78 or is flush with the upper edge of the side opening 78.

[0039]Reference is made to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of a cooling fan 70A in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 has at least one lateral edge E, and an angle A2 between the lateral edge E of the protruding portion 77 and the outer surface 72 of the sidewall portion 76 is at least 30 degrees to effectively prevent backflow of air. In some embodiments, the angle A2 between the lateral edge E of the protruding portion 77 and the outer surface 72 of the sidewall portion 76 is at most 150 degrees (since the cooling fan 70A only outputs little amount of airflow at the corners of the frame 73, the protruding portion 77 can selectively not cover the corners of the frame 73).

[0040]Reference is made to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 illustrates a top view of a cooling assembly 29B in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In the present embodiment, the frame 73 of the cooling fan 70B includes a first protruding portion 81 and a second protruding portion 82. The first protruding portion 81 and the second protruding portion 82 are positioned corresponding to the side opening 78 and are separated by a gap 83. The fins 35 of the heatsink 30 include at least one first fin 51, at least one second fin 52 and a third fin 53. The third fin 53 is disposed in the gap 83. The first fin 51 and the second fin 52 are located on two different sides of the third fin 53 and extend towards different directions.

[0041]The configuration shown in FIG. 4 is suitable for a case where there are two target locations (e.g., when there are two different heat sources, or when a single heat source has two areas that produce a larger amount of heat). The third fin 53 can act as a partition that divide the airflow discharged from the side opening 78 into two streams, and the first fin 51 and the second fin 52, which extend towards different directions, can guide the two streams of airflow to the two target locations, respectively, to remove heat from the two target locations. The first protruding portion 81 and the second protruding portion 82 can have the same or different widths, such that the two target location can be supplied with the same or different amount of airflow.

[0042]Reference is made to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 illustrates a top view of a cooling assembly 29C in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the sidewall portion 76 of the frame 73 of the cooling fan 70C has a first side opening 61 and a second side opening 62, both of which communicate with the central opening 75. The first side opening 61 and the second side opening 62 can be provided on the same edge of the sidewall portion 76, as shown in FIG. 5. Alternatively, the first side opening 61 and the second side opening 62 can be provided on two different edges of the sidewall portion 76. The protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 covers both a first side of the first side opening 61 and a second side of the second side opening 62. Both the first side and the second side are adjacent to the intake side 74 (see FIG. 1 or FIG. 2) of the central opening 75.

[0043]As shown in FIG. 5, in some embodiments, the fins 35 of the heatsink 30 include at least one first fin 51 and at least one second fin 52. The first fin 51 and the second fin 52 are positioned to face the first side opening 61 and the second side opening 62, respectively, and the first fin 51 and the second fin 52 extend towards different directions. The configuration of FIG. 5 is suitable for a case where there are two target locations. The first fin 51 and the second fin 52, which extend towards different directions and face the first side opening 61 and the second side opening 62 respectively, can guide the airflow to the two target locations, respectively, to remove heat from the two target locations.

[0044]Reference is made to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling assembly 29D in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. The present embodiment differs from the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 in that the two side openings of the frame 73 of the cooling fan 70D have different heights, and the corresponding fins 35 can have different heights as well. In some embodiments, a height of the first side opening 61 of the frame 73 is less than a height of the second side opening 62 of the frame 73, and a height of at least one first fin 51, which is positioned to face the first side opening 61, is less than a height of at least one second fin 52, which is positioned to face the second side opening 62. The aforementioned heights are measured from the baseplate 31 of the heatsink 30.

[0045]Reference is made to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling assembly 29E in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In the present embodiment, the sidewall portion 76 of the frame 73 of the cooling fan 70E has a first side opening 61 and a second side opening 62, both of which communicate with the central opening 75. The first side opening 61 and the second side opening 62 are located on two adjacent edges of the sidewall portion 76. The protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 is provided on the two adjacent edges of the sidewall portion 76 and covers both a first side of the first side opening 61 and a second side of the second side opening 62. Both the first side and the second side are adjacent to the intake side 74 (see FIG. 1 or FIG. 2) of the central opening 75. Some of the fins 35 are positioned to face the first side opening 61 and the second side opening 62. These fins 35 can extend along the same direction.

[0046]As shown in FIG. 7, in some embodiments, the protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 at least partially covers the fins 35 (i.e., for at least some of the fins 35, a segment of the fin is located between the protruding portion 77 and the baseplate 31), such that at least one air passage 34 is formed between the protruding portion 77, the fins 35, and the baseplate 31. The airflow generated by the rotation of the fan blade 71 can pass through the at least one air passage 34. By this arrangement, the airflow is converged and directed towards a heat source (e.g., a heat source that produces a larger amount of heat), such that heat can be removed from the heat source at a higher rate.

[0047]Reference is made to FIG. 8. FIG. 8 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling fan 70F in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. The protruding portion 77 of the cooling fan 70F of the present embodiment can prevent backflow of air as mentioned above, and moreover, can have other structural features integrated thereon. As shown, in some embodiments, the protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 is formed with at least one snap feature 65 for securing the cooling fan 70F. For example, when the cooling fan 70F is provided in a vehicle, the snap feature 65 can engage with a corresponding engaging feature (e.g., a recess) on the body of the vehicle, thereby fixing the cooling fan 70F to the body of the vehicle. The protruding portion 77 can include multiple snap features 65 having the same or different lengths to align with the corresponding engaging feature (e.g., a recess) on the body of the vehicle.

[0048]Reference is made to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling fan 70G in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 is formed with at least one extension structure 66. The extension structure 66 has a thru-hole 67 for securing the cooling fan 70G. For example, when the cooling fan 70G is provided in a vehicle, a fastener, such as a screw, can be fixedly inserted into the thru-hole 67 of the extension structure 66 and further into a mounting hole on the body of the vehicle, thereby fixing the cooling fan 70G to the body of the vehicle. The protruding portion 77 can include multiple extension structures 66 having the same or different lengths to align with the mounting holes on the body of the vehicle.

[0049]Reference is made to FIG. 10. FIG. 10 illustrates a perspective view of a cooling fan 70H in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the protruding portion 77 of the frame 73 can be non-uniform thickness. As shown, the protruding portion 77 has a first thickness at a first position P1 and has a second thickness at a second position P2, and the first thickness is less than the second thickness. The protruding portion 77 can be designed to have different geometries in accordance with the space for holding the cooling fan 70H.

[0050]In sum, the cooling fan of the present disclosure includes a frame, and the frame has at least one side opening for outputting airflow and at least one protruding portion covering a side of the side opening adjacent to an intake side of the cooling fan. The protruding portion can prevent backflow of the airflow output by the cooling fan. By this arrangement, under the condition of the same blade shape and the same rotational speed, the cooling fan of the present disclosure can produce airflow of higher flow rate compared to conventional cooling fans of similar sizes, and as a result, cooling efficiency is improved. On the other hand, the cooling fan of the present disclosure has a simple structure, such that the cooling fan can advantageously be adapted to pair with a variety of heatsinks for adoption in different cooling systems.

[0051]Although the present disclosure has been described by way of the exemplary embodiments above, the present disclosure is not to be limited to those embodiments. Any person skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the protective scope of the present disclosure shall be the scope of the claims as attached.