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Fan and fan housing thereof having flapper

Fan and fan housing thereof having flapper description/claims

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/907,363, filed on Oct. 11, 2007, and claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 095147374, filed on Dec. 18, 2006, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

1. Field of Invention

The invention relates to a fan and a fan housing thereof, and, in particular, to a fan and a fan housing having a flapper.

2. Related Art

The computer system has become more complex, so the fans used in the computer system have to provide more efficient heat-dissipating ability. If one of the fans malfunctions while the computer system is operating, a backflow through the fan occurs since the interior of the computer system has negative pressure. The backflow will affect the airflow in the computer system and thus decrease the heat-dissipating ability of the fans. The prior art provides several flappers disposed on the outlet of the fan frame to prevent the backflow problem. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional anti-backflow fan 1 includes a fan body 11 and a fan frame 12. The fan body 11 is disposed inside the fan frame 12. Generally speaking, the fan body 11 has an impeller and a motor (not shown). The motor rotates the impeller to produce the airflow direction A as indicated in FIG. 1. The fan frame 12 is used to protect the fan body 11 and provide some fixing parts so that the magnetic conduction coils and circuit board of the motor can be disposed in the fan frame 12. Moreover, the fan frame 12 usually has several installation holes 121 for the user to fix the fan 1 on systems.

To prevent the airflow from leaking out of the outlet 13 of the fan 1 when the fan 1 becomes ineffective or non-operating, an anti-backflow device 14 is usually disposed on the outlet 13 to stabilize the airflow field therein. In this case, the airflow is forbidden to enter the system via the outlet 13.

The anti-backflow device 14 has a frame 141 and several flappers 142. The frame 141 is connected and fixed on the fan frame 12 by using the installation holes 121. The flappers 142 are pivotally installed on the frame 141 and cover the outlet 13. When the fan 1 operates, the airflow passes through the outlet 13, pushes the flappers 142 and then goes out. When the fan 1 stops operating, the flappers 142 cover the outlet 13 to prevent backflows. However, although the anti-backflow device 14 can avoid backflows and thus stabilize the airflow field inside the system, the anti-backflow device 14 often uses the installation holes 121 of the fan 1 to connect to the fan frame 12. In that case, the installation holes 121 are not allowable for the user to use. The use of the fan 1 is thus limited. In addition, the anti-backflow device 14 and the fan frame 12 are two separate pieces. Not only are they likely to depart from each other, it also takes more production cost and time.

Therefore, it is an important subject to provide a fan and fan housing with a flapper that can improve the design and efficiency of the conventional structure, thereby maintaining the heat-dissipating efficiency of the fans and decreasing the manufacturing cost and installation space.

In view of the foregoing, the invention is to provide a fan and fan housing with a flapper that can prevent the backflow problem caused by the negative pressure inside the computer system while the fan malfunctions. Moreover, the heat-dissipating efficiency of the fans can be maintained, and the manufacturing cost and installation space can be decreased.

To achieve the above purpose, the invention discloses a fan housing with an opening, a motor base, and a flapper. The flapper is disposed at an outlet side of the fan housing via a plurality of connecting elements. The connecting elements respectively connect the flappers to a corner of the fan housing. The flappers cover the airflow passage of the fan housing when the fan malfunctions or stops.

To achieve the above object, the invention also discloses a fan including a motor base, a motor, an impeller with a plurality of blades, and a fan housing. The motor is disposed on the motor base for driving the impeller to rotate. The fan housing accommodates the motor base, the impeller with a plurality of blades and the motor. The fan housing includes at least one flappers disposed at an outlet side of the fan housing and pivotally coupled to the fan housing via a plurality of connecting elements. The connecting elements respectively connect the flappers to a corner of the fan housing. The flappers cover the airflow passage of the fan housing without covering the motor base when the fan malfunctions or stops.

As mentioned above, the flapper of the invention is connected to the corner of the fan housing. Thus, the flapper is directly coupled to the fan housing, so that the fan housing does not occupy additional space, the additional elements for installing or fixing the flapper are unnecessary, and the structure and manufacturing of the fan housing are simplified. Compared with the prior art, the invention modifies the corner of the fan housing adjacent to the outlet and the other parts of the fan housing are remained. In the invention, the flapper can be closed by the negative pressure inside the computer system. Thus, the position and direction of the fan installed in the system are not limited, and the flapper can be closed. Accordingly, the heat-dissipating efficiency of the fans can be maintained, and the manufacturing cost and installation space can be decreased.

The invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below illustration only, and thus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a conventional fan;

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