JP2007258193A - Heat-conducting hinge and electronic device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an inexpensive heat-conducting hinge that has small heat-conducting loss, has improved cooling performance, and can be assembled easily, and to provide an electronic device using the heat-conducting hinge. <P>SOLUTION: The heat-conducting hinge 4 comprises a storage section 8 at a heat generation side for inserting and extracting a heat pipe 3 at the heat generation side for storage, and a storage section 12 at a heat radiation side for inserting and extracting a heat pipe 9 at a heat radiation side for storage rotatably in a hinge body 5 provided in the electronic device. Heat is transferred from the heat pipe at the heat generation side to that at the heat radiation side, the hinge body is formed by a highly heat-conducting metal material, two storage sections at the heat generation and radiation sides are in a cylindrical space for storing a round heat pipe. The heat-conducting hinge 4 comprises: cylindrical heat-conducting media 7, 11 fitted to two storage sections while being inscribed to them; and cylindrical contact pieces 6, 10 in contact with both of the heat-conducting media and heat pipe. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a heat conduction hinge that cools a heat-generating component of an electronic device in which two housings are connected to each other through a hinge, such as a notebook computer.

As a heat conduction hinge in the prior art, one having a structure as shown in FIG. 5 has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional heat conduction hinge.
The hinge body 21 is attached to a fixed housing and has a holding hole 22 for storing the heat pipe 28 on the heating element side and a pipe receiving groove 23 for storing the heat pipe 29 on the heat dissipation side. The heat pipe 28 on the heating element side is pressed into the holding hole 22. The heat pipe 29 on the heat radiating side is attached to the pipe receiving groove 23. When the pipe fixing bracket 30 is fitted from above, the hooking portion 30a fits into the hook groove 24 formed in the hinge body 21, and the heat pipe 29 on the heat radiating side is It is pressed by the pipe receiving groove 23 and held rotatably. The heat pipe 29 on the heat radiation side is attached to the movable housing. The heat generated by the CPU 26 of the printed circuit board 25 is transferred from the heat pipe 28 on the heating element side to the hinge body 21 and the heat pipe 29 on the heat dissipation side, and is dissipated in the movable casing.
Japanese Patent No. 3644858 (paragraph number 0015, FIGS. 2 and 3)

  However, in the conventional technique, the hole of the pipe receiving groove 23 for accommodating the heat pipe 29 on the heat radiation side provided in the hinge body 21 is made slightly larger than the heat pipe 29, and the heat pipe 29 is formed by the pipe fixing bracket 30. The distal end portion is pressed against the pipe receiving groove 23 so that the distal end portion is rotatably held. Therefore, strictly speaking, the metal contact between the heat pipe 29 and the pipe receiving groove 23 is one point when viewed in cross section, and the metal contact with the heat pipe is a single straight line when viewed from the entire pipe receiving groove, and the thermal resistance Usually, heat conductive grease or the like is filled in the space between the heat pipe and the accommodating portion, but the thermal resistance is naturally larger than the contact between the metals.

In addition, an opening for mounting the heat pipe is provided at the center of the pipe receiving groove so that the front end of the heat pipe is pressed into close contact with the pipe receiving groove. When the opening is provided, the upper part of the pipe receiving groove is cut off, so that only the lower half of the cylindrical part area of the pipe comes into contact with the heat pipe.
Thus, it can be seen that the heat resistance is increased because the heat transfer area is significantly reduced compared with the case where the contact is made on the entire circumferential surface of the circular cross section.
In view of the size of the heat conduction hinge, in order to increase the metal contact between the heat pipe and the housing portion to lower the thermal resistance, the longitudinal direction is extended and the size of the heat conduction hinge is increased. Further, since the heat pipe 28 on the heating element side is press-fitted into the holding hole 22, the heat transfer plate 27, the heat pipe 28, and the hinge body 21 are integrated. Therefore, it is inconvenient during storage and assembly.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the heat pipe on the heating element side and the heat pipe on the heat radiation side can contact the heat conduction hinge on the entire circumferential surface to reduce heat conduction loss, It is another object of the present invention to provide a heat conduction hinge that is detachable from the heat conduction hinge body and is not bulky during storage and is easy to assemble.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the hinge body provided in the electronic device, the heat generation side heat pipe that inserts and removes the heat generation side heat pipe and the heat generation side heat pipe is inserted and extracted, and is stored rotatably. A heat conduction hinge that transfers heat from the heat generation side heat pipe to the heat dissipation side heat pipe, wherein the hinge body is formed from a metal material having high heat conductivity, and the heat generation side and heat dissipation The two storage portions on the side are cylindrical spaces for storing the round heat pipes, and the cylindrical heat conduction medium that is inscribed and fitted into the two storage portions, and both the heat conduction medium and the heat pipe And a cylindrical contact piece that comes into contact with each other.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the two storage units are installed so as to be parallel or perpendicular to each other.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a heat generation side storage section for inserting and extracting a heat generation side heat pipe and a heat dissipation side heat pipe are inserted into and extracted from a hinge body provided in the electronic device and stored rotatably. A heat dissipation hinge that transfers heat from the heat generation side heat pipe to the heat dissipation side heat pipe, and the heat generation side storage part is flattened in a direction perpendicular to the heat dissipation side storage part. A rectangular parallelepiped space for housing the heat pipe, and a resilient contact piece formed from a metal material having high thermal conductivity, and the heat-radiating-side housing portion is a cylinder housing the round heat pipe A cylindrical heat conduction medium is formed in a space of a shape and is inscribed and fitted into the storage portion.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the contact piece is formed into a trapezoidal thin plate that is elastically deformed when the flat heat pipe is inserted and pressed against the metal surface of the storage portion on the heat generation side.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, an insertion port for facilitating insertion of the heat pipe is provided at one end of the storage portion.
The invention according to claim 6 is a hollow cylindrical shape in which thin metal wires are randomly laminated so that the heat conducting medium has elasticity, an outer diameter is fitted into the storage portion, and an inner diameter is the cylindrical contact piece. It fits into the outer diameter of the.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the cylindrical contact piece has a hollow cylindrical shape made of a metal material having high thermal conductivity, has an inner diameter slightly smaller than an outer diameter of the heat pipe, and has a slit in the longitudinal direction. It is what you are doing.
The invention described in claim 8 is an electronic device configured by using the heat conduction hinge according to claims 1 to 7.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the heat transfer section including the cylindrical contact piece and the heat conductive medium having elasticity can be realized, the round heat pipes on both the heating element side and the heat radiating side are provided on the entire surface of the heat conductive medium. Can reduce the loss of heat conduction and improve the cooling performance. Moreover, the heat pipe is detachable from the heat conduction hinge body, and is not bulky at the time of storage, and is easy to assemble.
According to the invention described in claim 2, in addition to the above effects, when two sets of heat transfer portions are installed so as to be at right angles to each other, a linear heat pipe can be used, so that the cooling performance is excellent, space saving, Low price effect can be obtained.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the flat heat pipe is inserted and removed between the contact piece and the metal surface of the storage portion facing the contact piece, a thin and thin device can be obtained.
According to the invention described in claim 4, since the contact piece is formed into a trapezoid and elastically deformed and the flat heat pipe is pressed against the metal surface, the heat conduction loss can be reduced and the cooling performance is improved. To do.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the heat pipe insertion port is provided, the heat pipe insertion / extraction operation can be simplified.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the heat conducting medium has a hollow cylindrical shape in which metal thin wires are randomly laminated so that the heat conducting medium has elasticity, heat conduction loss can be reduced and cooling performance is improved.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since the cylindrical contact piece has a hollow cylindrical shape and is provided with slits in the longitudinal direction, a sufficient contact pressure can be obtained, so that heat conduction loss can be reduced and cooling performance is improved.
According to the invention described in claim 8, a small and inexpensive electronic device having high cooling performance can be obtained.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a heat conduction hinge structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a heating element, 2 is a heat conduction plate, 3 is a round heat pipe on the heat generation side, 4 is a heat conduction hinge, 5 is a hinge body, 6 is a cylindrical contact piece on the heat generation side, and 7 is a heat generation side. Thermal conduction medium, 8 is a heat generation side storage section, 9 is a heat dissipation side round heat pipe, 10 is a heat dissipation side cylindrical contact piece, 11 is a heat dissipation side heat transfer medium, 12 is a heat dissipation side storage section, and 13 is a heat dissipation side storage section. An insertion port on the heat generation side, 14 is an insertion port on the heat dissipation side, and 17 is a cover.
In an electronic device in which two housings are connected to each other via a hinge such as a notebook computer, the heat conduction hinge is attached to the stationary housing.
One end of the heat generating side round heat pipe 3 is attached to the heat conducting plate 2, and the other end is inserted into the heat generating side cylindrical contact piece 6 from the heat generating side insertion port 13. The heat conductive plate 2 is brought into close contact with the surface of a heating element such as a CPU.
Further, one end of the heat radiation side heat pipe 9 is inserted into the heat radiation side cylindrical contact piece 10 from the heat radiation side insertion port 14 and the other end is attached to the heat radiation plate of the movable housing.

The heat conduction hinge 4 is chamfered so that the hinge body 5 made of a metal material having high heat conductivity such as copper or aluminum and the round heat pipes 3 and 9 provided on the outer edge of the hinge body 5 can be easily inserted and removed. Insertion portions 13 and 14, storage portions 8 and 12 formed on the same axis as the insertion ports 13 and 14 toward the inside of the hinge body 5 on the opposite side of the insertion ports, and the storage portions 8 and 12. Cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10 made of a highly heat conductive metal material such as copper and aluminum disposed inside, and a heat conduction medium 7 sandwiched between the storage portions 8 and 12 and the cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10 and having elasticity. , 11.
The cylindrical contact piece disposed inside the storage unit 8 and the heat conducting medium are collectively referred to as a heat transfer unit. A cover 17 is attached to the end surfaces of the storage portions 8 and 12 with screws so that the cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10 and the heat transfer media 7 and 11 do not fall off.

The cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10 are formed by cutting a circular pipe having an inner diameter substantially the same as the diameter of the round heat pipes 3 and 9 into a predetermined length, machining a slit in the longitudinal direction, and closely contacting the round heat pipe. The inner diameter is slightly reduced.
The heat conduction media 7 and 11 are formed by randomly laminating thin metal wires having appropriate lengths, the outer diameter is adapted to the circular storage portion, the inner diameter is adapted to the outer diameter of the cylindrical contact piece, and the length corresponds to the cylindrical contact piece. It is a hollow cylindrical shape that is molded into a shape and has moderate elasticity.
Further, when the round heat pipes 3 and 9 are inserted into the cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10, the heat conducting media 7 and 11 are contracted and deformed between the cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10 and the storage portions 8 and 12. It is manufactured in consideration of the molding density so as to obtain sufficient elasticity for sandwiching the cylindrical contact pieces 6 and 10 and the round heat pipes 3 and 9.

Next, the operation of the heat transfer unit will be described taking the heat generation side as an example.
The cylindrical contact piece 6 is formed with a small inner diameter so as to be in close contact with the round heat pipe 3, and when the round heat pipe 3 is inserted from the opening 13, the cylindrical contact piece 6 is expanded. The heat conduction medium 7 contracts in the thickness direction due to its own elasticity. When the heat conduction medium 7 contracts in the thickness direction by inserting the round heat pipe 3, the reaction force causes the cylindrical contact piece 6 and the storage portion 8 to be in close contact with each other, and the cylindrical contact piece 6 and the round heat pipe 3 are stored in the storage portion 8. Pinch. The heat transfer section on the heat radiation side has the same structure.
Therefore, as compared with the prior art, the round heat pipe 3 comes into strong contact with the entire inner circumference of the cylindrical contact piece 6, so that the heat of the round heat pipe 3 is transferred to the cylindrical contact piece 6, the heat transfer medium 7, and the hinge body 5. The heat is transferred efficiently to the heat transfer section on the heat generation side, further transferred to the heat transfer section on the heat dissipation side, and dissipated from the heat sink on the movable side housing from the round heat pipe 9 on the heat dissipation side.
Further, as described above, the round heat pipe is detachable from the heat transfer portion of the hinge body 5, so that it is not bulky during storage and easy to assemble.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a heat conduction hinge structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, the heat transfer portions on the heat generation side and the heat dissipation side are provided so as to be at right angles to each other. The structure is the same as that of the first embodiment except for the arrangement of the heat transfer section.
Since the round heat pipe 3 on the heat generating side is linear, it is advantageous in terms of performance, space and price. Compared with the prior art, since the round heat pipe is in strong contact with the entire inner circumference of the cylindrical contact piece 6 and has good heat transfer efficiency, the space does not increase even if they are arranged perpendicular to each other.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the hinge body 5 of FIG.
In this embodiment, the heat pipe on the heat generation side of the second embodiment is changed from a round shape to a flat shape. Accordingly, the description of the same components as those in the first and second embodiments will be omitted, and only different portions will be described.
In FIG. 3, 15 is a flat heat pipe on the heat generation side, 16 is a contact piece on the heat generation side, 16a and 16b are left and right ridges of the contact piece, 20 is a slit on the lower surface of the storage unit, and two slits 20a and 20b on the left and right sides. It is. 9 is a heat radiating side heat pipe, and 17 is a cover.
The heat conduction hinge 4 includes a hinge body 5 made of a metal material having high heat conductivity, a storage portion 8 drilled in a depth direction from a surface through which the flat heat pipe 15 of the hinge body 5 is inserted and removed, and an interior of the storage portion 8. A flat contact heat is provided between the contact piece 16 and the metal piece of the storage portion 8 facing the contact piece 16. The contact piece 16 is made of a highly heat conductive metal material and has elasticity. A pipe 15 is inserted. A front cover 19 and a rear cover are attached to the front and rear end surfaces of the storage portion 8 so that the contact piece 16 does not fall off.

The contact piece 16 has a trapezoidal cross section, and the left and right flange portions 16 a and 16 b are attached to the left and right slits 20 a and 20 b provided on the lower surface of the storage portion 8. The thickness of the contact piece 16 is such that when the flat heat pipe 15 is inserted, the contact piece 16 is elastically deformed so that the flat heat pipe 15 can be pressed against the metal surface of the upper surface of the storage portion with an appropriate pressure. Design trapezoidal height, etc. In the heat conduction hinge having such a structure, heat of the flat heat pipe 15 is mainly transmitted to the hinge body 5 from the metal surface on the upper surface of the storage portion having a small thermal resistance, and part of the metal surface on the lower surface of the storage portion 8 from the contact piece 16. It is transmitted to.
A thin heat pipe can be used by changing the heat generating side heat pipe from a round shape to a flat shape, which contributes to a thinner device.

  The present invention has better cooling performance than the prior art, and is easy to assemble because the heat conduction hinge and heat pipe are detachable, so it is indispensable for cooling electronic devices such as notebook computers, which are becoming smaller and have higher heat generation. Technology.

The disassembled perspective view which shows the heat conductive hinge which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. The disassembled perspective view which shows the heat conductive hinge which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. The disassembled perspective view which shows the heat conductive hinge which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention. The enlarged view which shows the accommodating part of the heat-generation side in FIG. An exploded perspective view showing a conventional heat conduction hinge

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Heat generating body 2 Heat conduction plate 3, 9 Round heat pipe 4 Heat conduction hinge 5 Hinge main body 6, 10 Cylindrical contact piece 7, 11 Heat conduction medium 8, 12 Storage part 13, 14 Insertion port 15 Flat type heat pipe 16 Contact Piece 16a, 16b 鍔 17, 18, 19 Cover 20, 20a, 20b Slit 21 Hinge body
22 Retaining hole
23 Pipe receiving groove 24 Holding groove 25 Printed circuit board 26 CPU
27 Heat Transfer Plates 28, 29 Heat Pipe 30 Pipe Fixing Bracket 30a Hook

Claims (8)

The hinge body provided in the electronic device is provided with a heat generation side storage section for inserting and extracting the heat generation side heat pipe, and a heat dissipation side storage section for inserting and extracting the heat dissipation side heat pipe and storing it rotatably. In the heat conduction hinge that transfers heat from the heat pipe on the heat generation side to the heat pipe on the heat radiation side,
The hinge body is formed from a metal material having high thermal conductivity, and the two storage portions on the heat generation side and the heat dissipation side are formed in a cylindrical space for storing a round heat pipe, and are inscribed in the two storage portions. A heat conduction hinge comprising: a cylindrical heat conduction medium to be contacted; and a cylindrical contact piece that contacts both the heat conduction medium and the heat pipe.   The heat conducting hinge according to claim 1, wherein the two storage parts are installed in parallel or at right angles to each other. The hinge body provided in the electronic device is provided with a heat generation side storage section for inserting and extracting the heat generation side heat pipe, and a heat dissipation side storage section for inserting and extracting the heat dissipation side heat pipe and storing it rotatably. In the heat conduction hinge that transfers heat from the heat pipe on the heat generation side to the heat pipe on the heat radiation side,
The heat-generating side storage section has a rectangular parallelepiped space for storing a flat heat pipe in a direction perpendicular to the heat dissipation side storage section, and includes a resilient contact piece formed from a metal material having high thermal conductivity. Shall be
The heat radiation hinge is characterized in that the heat radiating side accommodating portion is formed into a cylindrical space for accommodating a round heat pipe, and includes a cylindrical heat conducting medium which is inscribed and fitted in the space portion.   4. The heat conduction hinge according to claim 3, wherein the contact piece is a trapezoidal thin plate that is elastically deformed when the flat heat pipe is inserted and presses against a metal surface of the storage portion on the heat generation side.   4. The heat conduction hinge according to claim 1, wherein the storage portion is provided with an insertion port for inserting the heat pipe at one end thereof. 5.   The heat conduction medium is a hollow cylindrical shape in which thin metal wires are randomly laminated so as to have elasticity, and an outer diameter is fitted to the storage portion, and an inner diameter is fitted to the outer diameter of the cylindrical contact piece. The heat conducting hinge according to claim 1, wherein the heat conducting hinge is provided.   The cylindrical contact piece has a hollow cylindrical shape made of a metal material having high thermal conductivity, has an inner diameter slightly smaller than an outer diameter of the heat pipe, and has a slit in the longitudinal direction. The heat conducting hinge according to claim 1 or 3.   An electronic device comprising the heat conducting hinge according to claim 1.

Images