Variable conductance heat pipe

Abstract

A variable conductance heat pipe is provided. The variable conductance heat pipe includes a sealed container in which a working fluid and a noncondensable gas are sealed. The sealed container includes a heat receiving portion to which an element to be cooled is provided, and heat radiating portion. An amount of heat is supplied to the heat receiving portion when the element to be cooled is in a waiting state.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-219550, filed on Aug. 28, 2008, the entire subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a variable conductance heat pipe for maintaining the temperature of equipment not in operation at an arbitrary temperature with small electric power.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]In a projector and a printer, in order to operate desirably, the temperature of a main part such as a light source has to be controlled to an appropriate temperature. As a temperature controller for maintaining the temperature of such a main part of a projector or printer to a temperature suitable for a desired function, there has been proposed a heater-type temperature controller for implementing a heat control through heating by a heater, a heat pump-type temperature controller...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]According to the above-described configuration, the variable conductance heat pipe can operate as a heat insulated type heat pipe with less electric power by heat being supplied to the heat receiving portion, the temperature of the heat receiving portion can be set to an arbitrary temperature based on the amount of noncondensable gas sealed in the variable conductance heat pipe, and the temperature of the element to be cooled provided in the heat receiving portion can easily be controlled to an arbitrary temperature.

Problems solved by technology

The larger the difference between the two temperatures is, the longer the waiting time becomes, which is not convenient for the user.

In a system having electronic equipment whose temperature needs to be controlled, although the temperature of the electronic equipment is desirably maintained in a state where the temperature lies in the vicinity of a set temperature at which the electronic equipment operates at all times in order to enable a quick output in response to a request from the user, when the temperature of the electronic equipment is maintained in such a state at all times, the consumed power that is necessary to do so becomes large, which results in a wasteful use of electric power.

In this approach, however, since equipment for detecting an input from the user and a control mechanism for enabling the detection are required, electric power for controlling them is required separately, and since the electronic equipment is heat controlled (heated) to the set temperature while heat is radiated from a heat radiating unit of the electronic equipment, the reduction effect of consumed power is not as high as expected.

In addition, although there is an approach in which a temperature control speed at which the temperature of electronic equipment is controlled to its set temperature is made faster by employing high-performance heating and cooling units, a high-level control with a short response time becomes necessary, and such a control is difficult to be applied to electronic equipment which is small in size.

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