JP5206463B2 - Cooling device, electronic device cooling method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooling device, a cooling method for an electronic device, a program, and a recording medium, and particularly to a technique that is preferably applied to a cooling device that cools an electronic device using a plurality of fans.

  The method of using a fan as a forced cooling system for electronic devices is a common technique. Further, in a forced cooling system used for an electronic device requiring high reliability, a plurality of fans are often provided in one forced cooling system.

  A method to increase the reliability of a forced cooling system by providing multiple fans in one forced cooling system to provide redundancy, and the effect on the electronic devices to be cooled during fan replacement due to a fan failure or operating life There have been various proposals for reducing the above.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a cooling device that minimizes the influence on a system when a fan is replaced. In the cooling device, a lid that closes the fan insertion / removal hole is provided in each of the fan insertion / removal holes that are opened when a plurality of hot-swappable fans are replaced, and cooling in the system device is performed when the plurality of hot-swappable fans are replaced. Prevent capacity loss.

  Further, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses a fan motor control device capable of performing optimal air volume control according to the heat generation amount. In the fan motor control device, when the current detection unit is arranged in the device housing, the current consumption of each board is detected, and the control unit instructs the generation of the air volume corresponding to the heat generation amount in the device housing from the detection result. Generate speed control data. The driver drives the fan motor based on the rotation speed control data.

  Further, for example, Patent Document 3 discloses a vending machine cooling device that reduces the input amount of the compressor by cooling only necessary products and realizes energy saving. In the cooling device, the operation frequency of the compressor and the air volume of the fan for the cooler in the product storage room are controlled according to the temperature of the product, and the operation frequency of the compressor according to the number of products sold per unit time in the product storage room By controlling to change the upper limit of the air flow and the upper limit of the air volume of the fan for the cooler, energy saving is achieved.

JP 2002-6994 A JP 2001-144484 A JP 2002-92721 A

  When a plurality of fans are used under the same environmental conditions, the operational life of each fan tends to be concentrated within a certain period within the range of individual variation. Therefore, in a forced cooling system having a plurality of fans, 1 When one fan reached the service life, the other fans often reached the service life almost at the same time. This applies to any of the inventions of Patent Documents 1 to 3. For example, in the invention of Patent Document 2, when the two current value detection results are the same, it is not possible to make a difference between the rotational speeds of the two fans. For example, when the same temperature is detected by the temperature sensor in the invention of Patent Document 3, it is not possible to make a difference in the rotational speeds of the two fans.

  Furthermore, in a forced cooling system that requires continuous operation, it was necessary to reserve spare fans with a sufficient amount in advance in case a plurality of fans failed at the same time or reached the service life. .

  Therefore, the present invention provides a cooling device that cools an electronic device by providing a plurality of fans in the same device, so that the operational life of each fan is made different, and the operating state of the entire cooling device is affected. The purpose is to be able to replace a fan that has reached the end of its service life without any problems.

  A cooling device according to one aspect of the present invention is a cooling device that cools an electronic device, and includes a plurality of detachable fan units including a fan that blows air to cool the electronic device, Rotation speed adjusting means for adjusting the rotation speed of the fan based on the mounting position.

  An electronic device cooling method according to an aspect of the present invention is an electronic device cooling method in which an electronic device is cooled by a fan that blows air, and a plurality of detachable fan units including the fan are mounted. Based on the position information notification step for notifying the position information and the position information of the plurality of fan units notified by the position information notification means, the rotation speed is adjusted so that each fan in the plurality of fan units operates at a different rotation speed. A rotational speed adjusting step for adjusting.

  A program according to one aspect of the present invention is a program used in a cooling device that cools an electronic device with a fan that blows air, and a plurality of detachable fan units including the fan are mounted on a computer. Based on the position information acquisition process for acquiring the position information and the position information of the plurality of fan units acquired by the position information acquisition means, the rotation speed is adjusted so that each fan in the plurality of fan units operates at a different rotation speed. And a rotational speed adjustment process to be adjusted.

  A recording medium according to one aspect of the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which the above program is recorded.

  According to the present invention, in a cooling device that cools an electronic device by providing a plurality of fans in the same device, the operating life can be made different for each fan, and the entire cooling system of the electronic device is affected. It is possible to replace a fan whose service life has been reached.

It is the figure which showed the structure of the cooling device which concerns on this invention. It is the figure which showed the structure of the cooling device which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the structure which can attach or detach each fan unit in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the characteristic of the operating time and rotational speed of each fan in embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the structure of the cooling device which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the cooling device 1 to which the present invention is applied includes a rotation speed adjusting unit 2, a position information notifying unit 3, and a plurality of fan units 4 including a fan 5. . The rotation speed adjustment unit 2 adjusts the rotation speed of the fan 5 in the fan unit 4 based on the position information of the fan unit 4 notified from the position information notification unit 3. The position information notifying unit 3 notifies the rotation speed adjusting unit 2 of the position information on which a plurality of fan units are mounted. The fan unit 4 includes a fan 5 having a function of blowing air to cool an electronic device, and is configured to be detachable independently of other fan units.

  In the present invention, by providing a plurality of fan units equipped with fans in the same cooling device, and having a rotational speed adjusting means 2 for controlling the fans to operate at different rotational speeds according to the mounting position of each fan unit, It is possible to shift the time when each fan reaches the operating life, and to reduce the risk that a plurality of fans stop simultaneously in the same cooling device.

  In addition, in the present invention, by adopting a structure that allows each fan to be attached to and detached from the cooling device, only the fan that has reached the operating life is replaced while the operation of the fan that has not reached the operating life is continued. And the cooling device can be operated continuously.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, by controlling the rotational speed of the fan based on the mounting position in the cooling device, even in the cooling device that uses a plurality of fans of the same type, there is a difference in the rotational speed of each fan. Therefore, only one type of fan can be provided as a spare.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the cooling device according to the embodiment of the present invention. The cooling device of the present embodiment includes a rotation speed adjustment circuit 10 that controls the rotation speed of the fan, two fan units 30a and 30b that have a blowing function for cooling the electronic device, a rotation speed adjustment circuit 10, and the like. It has the coupling | bond part 20a and 20b which couple | bonds the fan units 30a and 30b electrically and physically.

  The rotational speed adjustment circuit 10 determines different rotational speeds respectively determined by the fans 31a and 31b in the fan units 30a and 30b based on the mounting position identification information 51a and 51b of the fan units received from the coupling units 20a and 20b described later. The speed control information 52a and 52b are generated so as to operate in the above manner and output to the fan units 30a and 30b.

  The fan unit 30a includes a fan 31a, a rotation speed monitoring circuit 32a, and an alarm output device 33a, and is connected to the rotation speed adjustment circuit 1 through the coupling unit 20a. The fan unit 30b also has the same configuration as the fan unit 30a, and is connected to the rotation speed adjustment circuit 1 via the coupling portion 20b.

  The fan 31a (31b) that constitutes the fan unit 30a (30b) is a fan that cools the electronic device by rotating the wings attached to the rotating shaft with a motor. Based on the speed control signal 52a (52b), the rotational speed of the motor is controlled to drive the motor. Further, the rotation speed information 53a (53b) is generated by monitoring the rotation speed of the motor, and is output to the rotation speed monitoring circuit 32a (32b).

  The rotation speed monitoring circuit 32a (32b) monitors the rotation speed information 53a (53b), and if the rotation speed of the fan 31a (31b) falls below a predetermined rotation speed, the fan 31a (31b) operates. It is determined that the end of the service life has been reached or an equipment failure has occurred, and a rotation speed reduction alarm 54a (54b) is generated and output to the alarm output device 33a (33b).

  The alarm output device 33a (33b) outputs a warning based on the rotation speed decrease alarm 54a (54b), and has a function of notifying the user that an equipment failure or an operating life has come. The alarm output device 33a (33b) may be a display device that displays a message indicating that the device has failed or has reached the end of its operating life, or may be a speaker device that outputs the message as a voice.

  The coupling portion 20a (20b) electrically and physically couples the rotation speed adjustment circuit 10 and the fan unit 30a (30b). As shown in FIG. 3, the fan unit 30a from the rotation speed adjustment circuit 10 is connected. (30b) can be attached and detached. Further, the coupling unit 20a (20b) holds unique mounting position identification information for each coupling unit. When the coupling unit 20a (20b) is electrically coupled to the fan unit 30a (30b), the coupling position identification information 51a (51b) is stored. Output to the rotation speed adjustment circuit 10.

  Next, the operation in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the operating time and rotational speed characteristics (hereinafter referred to as rotational speed characteristics) of the fans 30a and 30b in the present embodiment shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 4, the rotational speed characteristic 71a indicated by a broken line indicates the operating time and rotational speed characteristics when the fan 31a is controlled to operate at the rotational speed 72a. The rotational speed characteristic 71b indicated by the solid line indicates that the fan 31b The characteristic of the working time and rotational speed at the time of controlling to operate | move at the rotational speed 72b is shown. Further, the rotational speed 74 indicates a predetermined rotational speed that serves as a reference for determining that the service life has come to an end. At times 73a and 73b, the rotational speeds of the fans 31a and 31b respectively indicate the rotational speed 74. Indicates the time when the time was lower.

  The rotational speed adjustment circuit 10 of FIG. 2 controls the speed of the fan unit 30a so as to operate at the rotational speed 72a shown in FIG. 4 based on the mounting position identification information 51a and 52b received from the coupling units 20a and 21b. Information 52a is generated and output to the fan 31a. For the fan unit 30b, the speed control information 52b is generated so as to operate at the rotational speed 72b shown in FIG. 4, and is output to the fan 31b.

  The fans 31a and 31b have the characteristics shown in the rotational speed characteristics 71a and 71b of FIG. 4 according to the speed control information 52a and 52b, and continue to operate while decreasing the rotational speed as the operating time elapses. 53b is output to the rotational speed monitoring circuits 32a and 32b.

  The rotation speed monitoring circuit 32a monitors the rotation speed information 53a, and at a time 73a shown in FIG. 4, a predetermined rotation speed that serves as a reference for determining that the rotation speed of the fan 31a has reached the operating life period. When it is detected that the value is less than 74, a rotation speed reduction alarm 54a is generated, and the user is notified via the alarm output device 33a.

  On the other hand, since the rotational speed of the fan 31b exceeds the rotational speed 74 at the time 73a, the rotational speed monitoring circuit 32b continues to monitor the rotational speed information 53b without generating the rotational speed reduction alarm 54b. When it is detected at 73b that the rotational speed of the fan 31b is lower than the rotational speed 74, a rotational speed reduction alarm 54b is generated and notified to the user via the alarm output device 33b.

  From the above, it is possible to shift the timing at which the rotation speed decrease alarm 54a indicating that the fan 31a has reached the operating life period and the rotation speed decrease alarm 54b indicating that the fan 31b has reached the operating life period are activated. .

  In the example shown in FIG. 2, a method of giving a difference in rotational speed is proposed as a means for shifting the operating life of the fans provided in the same cooling device. However, as a means for shifting the operating life, the same cooling is used. A method in which different types of fans are provided in the apparatus may be used.

  In addition, the mounting position identification information received from the coupling units 20a and 20b is used as means for generating speed control information so as to operate at different rotational speeds for each fan unit, but the mounting position identification information is notified inside the fan unit. The structure provided with the function to perform may be sufficient. In this case, for example, when the fans 31a and 31b hold the mounting position identification information, and the fan units 30a and 30b are electrically connected to the rotation speed adjustment circuit 10, the rotation speed is obtained via the coupling portions 20a and 20b. The mounting position identification information 51a and 51b are transmitted to the adjustment circuit.

  The first effect of the present embodiment described above is that in the cooling device provided with N fans in the same device, the N fans mounted on the same cooling device simultaneously reach the operating life. It is possible to reduce the risk of shutdown. The reason is that by controlling the N fans mounted on the same cooling device at different rotational speeds, it is possible to make the operating life different for each fan.

  The second effect of the present embodiment described above is that, in addition to the first effect, a spare fan unit provided in advance for maintaining the cooling device can be shared. The reason for this is that a circuit for controlling the rotational speed is provided outside the fan unit, and the same fan unit is configured to have a difference in the rotational speed control information by identification information uniquely assigned to each coupling portion. This is because even if the is mounted, the rotational speed can be varied depending on the mounting position.

  The third effect of the present embodiment described above is that the number of spare fan units provided for maintaining the cooling device can be reduced. The reason for this is that, as with the reason for the first effect, the operating life is shifted for each fan unit, so that the situation where a plurality of fan units must be replaced at the same time can be reduced.

  The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment alone, and various modifications are made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Implementation is possible. In other words, the present invention can be applied to a forced cooling system for electronic equipment used in a highly reliable system for companies that require continuous operation for a long time, such as communication equipment, server equipment, financial systems, transportation systems, and the like.

  In the above-described embodiment, the rotation speed adjustment means 2 and the position information notification means 3 are configured by hardware such as the rotation speed adjustment circuit 10 and the coupling unit 20, but these means are realized by software. Is also possible. That is, the program executed by the cooling device in the present embodiment has a module configuration including the above-described units (rotation speed adjusting unit 2 and position information notifying unit 3), and using actual hardware. Realize concrete means. That is, when the computer (CPU) reads a program from a predetermined recording medium and executes it, the above-mentioned means are loaded onto the main storage device and generated.

  When each means (rotational speed adjusting means 2, position information notifying means 3) is realized by software in this way, the program executed by the cooling device in the present embodiment is executed on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet. And may be provided by being downloaded via a network. Further, the program may be provided or distributed via a network such as the Internet.

  The program is a file in an installable or executable format, such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD, nonvolatile memory card, or the like. It may be configured to be provided by being recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. Further, the program may be provided by being incorporated in advance in a ROM or the like.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the recording medium or loaded and executed through the communication line realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments. And the recording medium which recorded the program code comprises this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cooling device 2 Rotational speed adjustment means 3 Position information notification means 4 Fan unit 5 Fan 10 Rotational speed adjustment circuit 20 Coupling unit 30 Fan unit 31 Fan 32 Rotational speed monitoring circuit 33 Alarm output device 51 Mounting position identification information 52 Speed control information 53 Rotational speed information 54 Rotational speed drop alarm 71 Rotational speed characteristics 72 Control rotational speed 73 Operating life time 74 Reference rotational speed

Claims (8)

A cooling device for cooling electronic equipment,
A plurality of detachable fan units equipped with fans for blowing air to cool electronic devices;
Have a, a rotational speed adjusting means for adjusting the rotational speed of the fan based on the mounting position of the fan unit,
The plurality of fan units are:
Rotational speed monitoring means for monitoring the rotational speed of the fan during the air blowing operation,
The cooling device according to claim 1, wherein the rotation speed monitoring means detects a state of the fan based on a rotation speed of the fan . Position information notification means for notifying the rotation speed adjustment means of position information on which the plurality of fan units are mounted,
The rotation speed adjusting means controls the respective fans in the plurality of fan units to operate at different rotation speeds based on the position information of the plurality of fan units notified by the position information notification means. The cooling device according to claim 1, wherein The fan unit is
The cooling device according to claim 1, further comprising an alarm output unit that outputs an alarm when the rotation speed of the fan monitored by the rotation speed monitoring unit is lower than a predetermined rotation speed. Connecting means for connecting the fan unit and the rotational speed adjusting means;
The connecting means includes
Position information notifying means for notifying the rotation speed adjusting means of the position information where the plurality of fan units are mounted ,
The rotational speed adjusting means is
Cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein Rukoto each fan is operated at different rotational speeds in the plurality of fan units on the basis of the position information which the fan unit is mounted. Connecting means for connecting the fan unit and the rotational speed adjusting means;
The fan unit is
Position information notifying means for notifying the rotation speed adjusting means via the connecting means the position information where the plurality of fan units are mounted ,
The rotational speed adjusting means is
Cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein Rukoto each fan is operated at different rotational speeds in the plurality of fan units on the basis of the position information which the fan unit is mounted. An electronic device cooling method for cooling an electronic device with a fan for blowing air,
A position information notification step of notifying position information where a plurality of detachable fan units including the fan are mounted;
A rotational speed adjusting step for adjusting the rotational speed so that each fan in the plurality of fan units operates at a different rotational speed based on the positional information of the plurality of fan units;
An electronic device cooling method comprising: a rotational speed abnormality detection step of detecting a rotational speed of the fan during a blowing operation to detect a state of the fan . A program used in a cooling device that cools an electronic device by a fan that blows air,
On the computer,
Position information acquisition processing for acquiring position information in which a plurality of detachable fan units including the fan are mounted;
Rotational speed adjustment processing for adjusting the rotational speed so that each of the fans in the plurality of fan units operates at different rotational speeds based on the positional information of the plurality of fan units;
A rotation speed abnormality detection process for detecting a rotation speed of the fan during a blowing operation and detecting a state of the fan . A recording medium that records the program according to claim 7 and is readable by a computer.

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