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Radiator and cooling system

Radiator and cooling system description/claims

This application claims benefit of the Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-282682 filed on Oct. 17, 2006, and the Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-029774 filed on Feb. 8, 2007, which are hereby incorporated by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a radiator for cooling a fluid passing there through and a cooling system.

2. Description of the Related Art

Basic components of a cooling system, for example, a heat generating CPU (a heat source) have included a coolant jacket for absorbing heat from the CPU in contact therewith, a radiator and a fluid pump for circulating a coolant between the coolant jacket and the radiator. With regard to the individual components of such cooling systems, considerable efforts have been devoted which are intended for achieving further compactness and reliability that allow the components to be installed in a compact apparatus such as a notebook PC. These efforts are described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H06-97338, U.S. Published Patent Application 2004/0042171, and U.S. Published Patent Application 2002/0195238.

Known radiators, however, are difficult to install in a low-profile compact apparatus such as a notebook PC, or are not sufficiently capable of heat radiation for such uses.

The present invention provides a low-profile compact radiator which can be installed in a narrow space and has a superior capability of heat radiation, and also provides a cooling system having excellent cooling performance.

A radiator is disclosed that comprises an inlet line and an outlet line for a coolant to be cooled, and a plurality of flow passage units each having a flow passage for the coolant flowing in from the inlet line and returning to the outlet line. The flow passage is connected between the inlet line and the outlet line in parallel with adjacent flow passages with a space there between.

In one embodiment, each of the flow passage units is formed specifically, for example, by joining a pair of flow passage plates together. The flow passage plates form a fluid flow passage, which is bent into a U-shape at least once. An inlet port and an outlet port, which are respectively connected to the inlet line and the outlet line and constitute a part of the inlet line and the outlet line, respectively, can be provided in each of the flow passage plates.

The above radiator can be employed for a cooling system together with a fan blowing air toward flow passage units of this radiator, a coolant jacket for absorbing heat from a heat source in contact therewith, and a fluid pump for circulating the coolant between the coolant jacket and the radiator. The disclosed cooling system may be characterized in that the radiator is disposed so that the inlet line is further away from the fan than the outlet line, and may also be characterized in that the fan is a centrifugal fan blowing air in a centrifugal direction, and is disposed so that, when the fan blows air toward the flow passage units, the volume of air delivered from the fan toward a second end side of the flow passage units, where coolant flow passages turn from the inlet line to the outlet line, is larger than toward a first end side of the flow passage units, where the inlet and outlet lines are located.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a basic conception of a radiator according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of the radiator;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the same as above;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view as taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view as taken along line V-V of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a magnified cross-sectional view of a part of FIG. 3;

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