JP2012247114A - Method of manufacturing heat pipe - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a wick structure inside from being pressed and damaged.SOLUTION: This method of manufacturing a heat pipe, includes a step for preparing a pipe body 1 and the wick structure 2, a step for disposing the wick structure 2 in the pipe body 1 and charging a working fluid while evacuating the inside of the pipe body 1, and a step for sealing the pipe body 1. According to these processes, the wick structure inside of the heat pipe can be prevented from being damaged by curving and pressing of the pipe body, and the heat pipe can be thinned. Further, flexibility and efficiency percentage in manufacturing the heat pipe can be improved.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a heat pipe, and in particular, it is possible to improve the rate of non-defective products of the heat pipe by arranging the wick structure inside the heat pipe after the wick structure is processed and molded in advance outside the pipe body of the heat pipe. Further, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a heat pipe that can realize a thin heat pipe.

In recent years, as the calculation speed of electronic elements increases, more heat is generated from the electronic elements. If excessive heat cannot be eliminated immediately, the stability of the CPU is severely affected. Therefore, it is necessary to dissipate the heat generating electronic element.

In the prior art, the most common electronic element heat dissipation method is to use a heatsink. The initial heat radiator is formed by extrusion-molding an aluminum material, and includes a substrate and a plurality of heat radiation fins extending from one side surface of the substrate. The radiator is attached on the heat generating electronic element. In addition, heat is assisted by disposing a fan on the radiator.

However, as the amount of heat generated by the electronic device increases significantly, it is difficult to satisfy the heat dissipation requirement in the above-described conventional radiator. Then, the trader is raising the heat dissipation capability of a radiator by increasing the heat dissipation area of a radiator. However, increasing the heat dissipating area also increases the volume of the entire heat dissipator, thus greatly increasing the occupied space and weight. In other words, it is difficult to meet the heat radiation demand that has been increasing in recent years because it is contrary to the reduction in size and size of electronic devices.

Therefore, in the industry, a heat radiator is used in which a heat pipe is used as a heat conducting member and the heat pipe is provided through heat radiating fins. First, the low-boiling working fluid filled in the heat pipe absorbs the heat of the heat generating electronic element (evaporating part) and evaporates, and moves the heat to the heat radiating fin. Next, the heat is transferred to the radiation fin (condensing part). Moreover, the heat transmitted to the heat radiating fins is released into the air by the heat radiating fan. With the above structure, heat dissipation of the electronic element is performed.

In the conventional heat pipe manufacturing method, first, metal powder is filled into the hollow tube. Next, the metal powder is sintered to form a wick structure layer on the inner wall of the hollow tube. Next, the tube body is evacuated, filled with the working fluid, and then sealed.

In order to reduce the thickness of the electronic device, it is necessary to reduce the thickness of the heat pipe. In order to manufacture a thin heat pipe, it is necessary to fill the metal powder in the heat pipe and sinter it, and then press the heat pipe to make it flat. Thereafter, the working fluid is filled in the heat pipe, and finally the heat pipe is sealed. Or after pressing a heat pipe beforehand and making it flat shape, it fills with metal powder and performs a sintering operation. However, since the chamber space formed inside the tube is extremely narrow, it is difficult to fill the metal powder. Furthermore, since the steam passage inside the heat pipe is extremely narrow, it affects the circulation efficiency of the working fluid. That is, the conventional thin heat pipe manufacturing method has the following drawbacks (1) to (3).

(1) The difficulty of processing the heat pipe into a thin shape is high.
(2) The wick structure in the heat pipe is easily damaged.
(3) Manufacturing cost is high.

JP 2001-91172 A JP 2011-2216 A

A main object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a heat pipe that can prevent an internal wick structure from being pressed and damaged in the process of manufacturing the heat pipe.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a heat pipe manufacturing method capable of manufacturing a thin heat pipe.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a method of manufacturing a heat pipe according to the present invention includes a step of preparing a tube body and a wick structure, a wick structure disposed in the tube body, and the tube body being evacuated to a working fluid. And a step of sealing the tube body.

  The heat pipe manufacturing method of the present invention can solve the problem of damage to the internal wick structure when processing the heat pipe, and can simplify the manufacture of a thin heat pipe. Furthermore, it is possible to solve the problem that the conventional heat pipe manufacturing method is easily damaged during processing and the manufacturing cost is high.

It is a flowchart which shows the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a disassembled perspective view which shows the heat pipe by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a disassembled perspective view which shows the heat pipe by another embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the wick structure of the heat pipe by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the wick structure of the heat pipe by another embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by one Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by one Embodiment of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Embodiments showing the objects, features, and effects of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
Please refer to FIG. FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a heat pipe manufacturing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by 1st Embodiment of this invention consists of the step of S1-S3 below.

S1: A tube and a wick structure are prepared.

In S1, a tube 1 that is a metal hollow tube and a wick structure 2 formed by sintering metal powder are prepared. The tube body 1 is made of a material having excellent thermal conductivity such as a copper material or an aluminum material. In the first embodiment of the present invention, the tube body 1 is flat. The wick structure 2 is a mesh body (see FIG. 5) or a powder sintered body (see FIG. 4). The wick structure 2 is made of copper powder or aluminum powder. The wick structure 2 may be cylindrical (see FIG. 6) or flat (see FIGS. 4 and 5) corresponding to the shape of the hollow portion of the tube 1. Moreover, you may provide the groove part 21 on the wick structure 2 (refer FIG. 7).

S2: After arranging the wick structure in the tube, the tube is evacuated and filled with the working fluid.

In S <b> 2, the wick structure 2 is disposed in the corresponding tube 1. The wick structure 2 and the tube 1 are closely combined. Thereafter, the inside of the tube body 1 is evacuated and filled with a working fluid.

S3: Seal the tube.

After the inside of the tube 1 is evacuated and the working fluid is filled, the open end of the tube 1 is sealed in S3.

(Second Embodiment)
Please refer to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a heat pipe manufacturing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by 2nd Embodiment of this invention consists of the step of S1-S3 below.

S1: A tube and a wick structure are prepared.

S2: A wick structure is placed in the tube, and the tube is evacuated and filled with a working fluid.

S3: Seal the tube.

Since S1 to S3 described above are the same as those in the first embodiment, they will not be described in detail here. In the second embodiment of the present invention, S4 is performed before the tube body 1 of S3 is sealed.

S4: A heat treatment is performed on the tube.

In S <b> 4, after the wick structure 2 is arranged in the tube body 1, heat treatment is performed to improve the adhesion between the wick structure 2 and the tube body 1. The heat treatment is diffusion bonding, and by heating, the wick structure 2 and the tube 1 are bonded together, and a gap between them is eliminated.

(Third embodiment)
Please refer to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a heat pipe manufacturing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the manufacturing method of the heat pipe by 3rd Embodiment of this invention includes the step of S1-S3 below.

S1: A tube and a wick structure are prepared.

S2: A wick structure is placed in the tube, and the tube is evacuated and filled with a working fluid.

S3: Seal the tube.

Since S1 to S3 described above are the same as those in the first embodiment, they will not be described in detail here. In the third embodiment of the present invention, the wick structure is disposed in the tube body of S2, and S5 is performed before the tube body is evacuated and filled with the working fluid.

S5: The tube is pressed into a flat shape.

When manufacturing a thin heat pipe, the tubular body 1 is flattened by pressing the tubular body 1 in S5. In 3rd Embodiment of this invention, although the press of the pipe body 1 is performed by press work, it is not limited only to this (refer FIG.8 and FIG.9).

1 Tube 2 Wick structure

Claims (9)

Providing a tube and a wick structure;
Disposing the wick structure in the tube and evacuating the tube to fill with working fluid;
Sealing the tube;
A method for producing a heat pipe, comprising: The method for manufacturing a heat pipe according to claim 1, wherein the wick structure is a net-like body. The method for manufacturing a heat pipe according to claim 1, wherein the wick structure is a powder sintered body. The said powder sintered compact consists of copper powder or aluminum powder, The manufacturing method of the heat pipe of Claim 3 characterized by the above-mentioned. The said pipe body is flat shape, The manufacturing method of the heat pipe of Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned. The method of manufacturing a heat pipe according to claim 1, further comprising a step of performing a heat treatment on the tube body before the step of sealing the tube body. The method of manufacturing a heat pipe according to claim 6, wherein the heat treatment is to tightly join the wick structure and the pipe body by diffusion bonding. The method of manufacturing a heat pipe according to claim 1, further comprising a step of pressing the tube body into a flat shape before the step of arranging the wick structure in the tube body. The method for manufacturing a heat pipe according to claim 8, wherein the step of pressing the tubular body into a flat shape is performed by pressing.

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