Heat pipe structure with deformable wick structure

Abstract

A heat pipe includes a pipe and a wick structure disposed therein. The pipe has a longitudinal vapor passage. The wick structure has a strip-shaped main wick portion which passes the vapor passage and two positioning wick portions which separately connect to two ends of the main wick portion. Each positioning wick portion has a connection section and an abutting section extending therefrom. The connection sections separately connect the positioning wick portions to two ends of the main wick portion. The abutting sections abut against two opposite positions of an inside wall of the pipe.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A heat pipe structure comprising:
 a pipe, having a longitudinal vapor passage; and   a wick structure, disposed in the pipe, having a strip-shaped main wick portion which passes the vapor passage and two positioning wick portions which separately connect to two ends of the main wick portion, two sides of the main wick portion keeping the vapor passage unimpeded, each positioning wick portion having a connection section and an abutting section extending therefrom, the connection sections separately connecting the positioning wick portions to two ends of the main wick portion, and the abutting sections separately abutting against an inside wall of the pipe.   
     
     
         2 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the a cross-section of the pipe is circular or flat. 
     
     
         3 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the pipe is less than 0.6 mm. 
     
     
         4 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the pipe includes a pipe body and two end portions which separately seal two opposite ends of the pipe. 
     
     
         5 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 4 , wherein each of the two end portions is formed in a conic shape. 
     
     
         6 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 5 , wherein the positioning wick portions are bent to be semicircular to separately abut against the conic shapes. 
     
     
         7 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the wick structure is sinter powder, woven fiber or metal wires, or a curled metal mesh. 
     
     
         8 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the main wick portion is diagonally arranged in the pipe. 
     
     
         9 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the main wick portion is centrally arranged in the pipe in a width direction. 
     
     
         10 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the main wick portion is centrally arranged in the pipe to be parallel to a length direction of the pipe. 
     
     
         11 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the two positioning wick portions are bent at their respective connection sections and extend toward a width direction to be a straight shape. 
     
     
         12 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 11 , wherein the abutting sections are further bent separately along the two inside walls of the pipe to abut against the inside walls. 
     
     
         13 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the connection sections separately abut against the two inside walls of the pipe. 
     
     
         14 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the abutting sections are arranged in two opposite directions to abut against two opposite inside walls of the pipe in a width direction. 
     
     
         15 . The heat pipe structure of  claim 1 , wherein the abutting sections are arranged in the same direction to abut against the same inside wall of the pipe.