The function of the fan is to use airflow to take away the heat accumulated on the cooling fins. The greater the air volume of the fan, the greater the air flowing per unit time, and the more significant the heat dissipation effect. Generally speaking, the greater the fan current, the higher the fan speed. But the air volume is determined not only by the rotation speed, but also by the angle of the fan leaves. When the fan leaf angle is constant, the higher the rotation speed, the higher the air volume. Usually the fan specifications are 6cm, 7cm, 8cm, and 9cm. A few radiators are beginning to use 12cm super-diameter fans. The size and specification of the fan are usually identified by four digits. For example, 8025 represents a fan with a diameter of 80mm and a thickness of 25mm.
The core of fan technology is bearing technology. Bearings are also the most expensive part of a fan. There are many types of fan bearings, and we introduce some of the most common ones:
● Single ball bearing
Single ball bearings are an improvement on traditional oil-sealed bearings. Its rotor and stator are lubricated with balls and lubricating oil. It overcomes the problems of short service life and unstable operation of oil-sealed bearings, while the cost increase is extremely limited. Single ball bearings absorb the advantages of oil-sealed bearings and double ball bearings. The service life of the bearing has been increased to 40,000 hours. After adding balls, the operating noise has increased, but it is still less than that of double ball bearings.
● Laifu Bearing
The representative manufacturer of Laifu bearing technology is CoolerMaster. CoolerMaster has upgraded most of its traditional oil-sealed bearing fans to Laifu bearings.
As an improvement on traditional oil-sealed bearings, Laifu bearings are made of high-oil-containing hollow bearings made of wear-resistant materials, which reduce the friction between the bearings and the shaft core. Laifu bearings also have reverse spiral grooves. And the shaft core of the oil retaining groove, when the fan is running, the oil will flow back in the opposite direction, thereby avoiding the loss of oil, thus extending the bearing life. By adopting the above structure and parts, Laifu bearing fans have greatly improved their oil-containing and oil-retaining capabilities and reduced noise.
● Double ball bearings
Double ball bearings are relatively high-end bearings. There are several tiny steel balls in the bearing surrounding the axis. When the fan leaf or the axis rotates, the steel balls follow. Because they are all spheres, the friction is small and there is no problem of oil leakage. The advantage of the double ball fan is that it has a long service life, about 40,000 to 55,000 hours; it has good anti-aging performance and is suitable for fans with higher speeds. The disadvantage of double ball bearings is that the manufacturing cost is high and the noise is the largest at the same speed level (because the friction points of the ball bearings increase by 2 times.)
● Hydraulic bearings
Hydraulic bearings It is a technology pioneered by AVC. Likewise, it is also improved on the basis of oil-sealed bearings. Hydraulic bearings have a larger oil storage space than oil-sealed bearings and have a unique loop-back oil supply circuit. The working noise of the hydraulic bearing fan is significantly reduced, and the service life is also very long, which can reach 40,000 hours. But not all AVC radiators use hydraulic bearing fans. For example, in this test, AVC only used hydraulic bearing fans in the Red Knight and Dragon Knight.
● Nano Bearing
Traditional oil-sealed bearing fans suffer from serious wear during use and have low reliability when used for a long time. Nano bearings effectively overcome this problem: Ceramic bearing technology uses nano-scale polymer materials and special additives to fully integrate them. It is made using die and sintering processes and contains ceramic powder, which is strong, smooth, and wear-resistant. Nano-ceramic bearings (NCB) have strong high-temperature resistance and are not easy to evaporate, which greatly extends the service life of the fan. The properties of nano-ceramic bearings are similar to ceramics, and the more they are worn, the smoother they become. According to tests, the average service life of fans using nano ceramic bearings (NCB) is more than 150,000 hours.