The present disclosure relates to a circuit board device and a fixing member thereof, and more specifically, to a circuit board device for mounting of interface cards with different lengths and a fixing member thereof.
In general, an interface card (e.g., M.2 interface card) is mounted on a circuit board by screws or plastic hook pillars. The aforesaid screw locking design involves locking screws into screw pillars for fixing the interface card on the circuit board after the screw pillars are mounted into preset holes on the circuit board. In this condition, if a user wants to replace the interface card with another interface card having a different length, the user needs to utilize a Phillips screw driver to detach the screws and then utilize a hexagon socket to detach the screw pillars. During the aforesaid process, it may easily cause the unintentional detachment problem that the screw pillar is detached together with the screw.
Furthermore, in the aforesaid hook pillar fixing design, the user needs to insert the plastic hook pillar into a mounting hole on the circuit board. However, since the plastic hook pillar additionally occupies space under the circuit board, it may cause the problem that the circuit board and another circuit board cannot be disposed in a stacked arrangement, so as to limit the mounting configuration and space utilization of the circuit board.
The present disclosure provides a circuit board device suitable for mounting of a first interface card. The circuit board device includes a circuit board and a fixing member. The circuit board has a first socket for connection of the first interface card and has a first hole. The first hole has a first position end portion and a second positioning end portion. The fixing member includes a pillar structure, a base, and a first fixing component. The pillar structure has a first pillar body, a positioning pillar, and a first axial hole formed on the pillar structure. The positioning pillar extends downward from the first pillar body and has a first positioning portion and a clamping portion corresponding to the first positioning end portion. The clamping portion clamps the circuit board cooperatively with the first pillar body when the positioning pillar is disposed in the first hole and the first positioning portion is engaged with the first positioning end portion. The base has at least one second positioning portion and an opening. The base is disposed in the first hole and abuts against the positioning pillar to make the pillar structure fixed in the first hole when the second positioning portion is engaged with the second positioning end portion of the first hole and the opening is engaged with the positioning pillar. The first fixing component is detachably inserted into the first axial hole to clamp the first interface card cooperatively with the first pillar body.
The present disclosure further provides a fixing member suitable for being mounted on a circuit board to fix a first interface card. The circuit board has a first socket for connection of the first interface card and has a first hole. The first hole has a first position end portion and a second positioning end portion. The fixing member includes a pillar structure, a base, and a first fixing component. The pillar structure has a first pillar body, a positioning pillar, and a first axial hole formed on the pillar structure. The positioning pillar extends downward from the first pillar body and has a first positioning portion and a clamping portion corresponding to the first positioning end portion. The clamping portion clamps the circuit board cooperatively with the first pillar body when the positioning pillar is disposed in the first hole and the first positioning portion is engaged with the first positioning end portion. The base has at least one second positioning portion and an opening. The base is disposed in the first hole and abuts against the positioning pillar to make the pillar structure fixed in the first hole when the second positioning portion is engaged with the second positioning end portion of the first hole and the opening is engaged with the positioning pillar. The first fixing component is detachably inserted into the first axial hole to clamp the first interface card cooperatively with the first pillar body.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
As shown in
As shown in
Via the aforesaid design, when the positioning pillar 34 is disposed in the first hole 20 and the first positioning portion 38 is engaged with the first positioning end portion 22, the circuit board 12 is sandwiched between the clamping portion 40 and the first pillar body 32 . On the other hand, when the second positioning portion 42 is engaged with the second positioning end portion 23 of the first hole 20 and the opening 44 is engaged with the positioning pillar 34, the base 26 is disposed in the first hole 20 and abuts against the positioning pillar 34.
In such a manner, via the designs that the first positioning portion 38 is engaged with the first positioning end portion 22 and the circuit board 12 is sandwiched between the clamping portion 40 and the first pillar body 32, the fixing member 14 can constrain movement of the pillar structure 24 toward a +X-axis direction, ±Y-axis directions, and ±Z-axis directions. Furthermore, via the design that the second positioning portion 42 is engaged with the second positioning end portion 23 and the base 26 abuts against the positioning pillar 34, the fixing member 14 can constrain movement of the pillar structure 24 toward a −X-axis direction. As such, the three-axis positioning effect can be achieved, so as to make the pillar structure 24 fixed in the first hole 20 firmly for the subsequent interface card clamping operation.
After the pillar structure 24 is fixed in the first hole 20, the fixing member 14 can utilize the first fixing component 28 to be detachably inserted into the first axial hole 36 for clamping the first interface card 1 cooperatively with the first pillar body 32 when the first interface card 1 is inserted into the first socket 16. To be more specific, as shown in
Subsequently, the fixing member 14 can utilize the second fixing component 30 to be detachably inserted into the second axial hole 48 for clamping the second interface card 2 cooperatively with the second pillar body 46 when the second interface card 2 is inserted into the second socket 18. The aforesaid design that the first interface card 1 is fixed by the first fixing component 28 could be preferably applied to fixing the second interface card 2 by the second fixing component 30 (but the present disclosure is not limited thereto). That is, as shown in
On the other hand, when the user wants to detach the first interface card 1 and the second interface card 2 from the circuit board 12, the user just needs to push the head portion 50 of the first fixing component 28 and the head portion 60 of the second fixing component 30 and then pull out the pin 52 and the pin 62 from the first axial hole 36 and the second axial hole 48 respectively, so as to release the first interface card 1 from the first fixing component 28 and release the second interface card 2 from the second fixing component 30. As such, the user can detach the first interface card 1 and the second interface card 2 from the first socket 16 and the second socket 18 respectively, so as to complete the detachment operations of the first interface card 1 and the second interface card 2 conveniently and quickly.
At this time, if the user wants to replace the first interface card 1 and the second interface card 2 with a first interface card 1′ and a second interface card 2′ having a longer mounting length, the user just needs to mount the fixing member 14 in the second hole 62 corresponding to the mounting length of the first interface card 1′ and the second interface card 2′ for the subsequent clamping operations of the first interface card 1′ and the second interface card 2′. The related description for the mounting operations of the first interface card 1′ and the second interface card 2′ could refer to
In brief, after the first interface card 1 and the second interface card 2 are detached from the circuit board 12, the user can push the second positioning portion 42 inward to be separate from the second positioning end portion 23 and then take the base 26 out of the first hole 20. Subsequently, the user can push the pillar structure 24 to disengage the first positioning portion 38 from the first positioning end portion 22, so as to complete the detachment operation of the fixing member 14.
Subsequently, via the designs that the first positioning portion 38 is engaged with the third positioning end portion 72 and the circuit board 12 is sandwiched between the clamping portion 40 and the first pillar body 32, the fixing member 14 can constrain movement of the pillar structure 24 toward the +X-axis direction, the ±Y-axis directions, and the ±Z-axis directions in the second hole 70. Furthermore, via the design that the second positioning portion 42 is engaged with the fourth positioning end portion 73 and the base 26 abuts against the positioning pillar 34, the fixing member 14 can constrain movement of the pillar structure 24 toward the −X-axis direction in the second hole 70. As such, the three-axis positioning effect can be achieved, so as to make the pillar structure 24 fixed in the second hole 70 firmly.
Finally, the fixing member 14 can utilize the first fixing component 28 to be detachably inserted into the first axial hole 36 for clamping the first interface card 1′ cooperatively with the first pillar body 32 when the first interface card 1′ is inserted into the first socket 16, and can utilize the second fixing component 30 to be detachably inserted into the second axial hole 48 for clamping the second interface card 2′ cooperatively with the second pillar body 46 when the second interface card 2′ is inserted into the second socket 18. The detailed description could be reasoned by analogy according to the aforesaid embodiments and omitted herein. In such a manner, the user can mount the first interface card 1′ and the second interface card 2′ having the longer mounting length (i.e. the second mounting length L2) on the upper side and the bottom side of the circuit board 12 respectively (as shown in
In practical application, as shown in
In summary, compared with the prior art, the present disclosure adopts the two-piece fixing design that the pillar structure is fitted with the base and the clamping design that the fixing component is detachably engaged with the pillar structure, to allow that the user can complete the interface card mounting and replacing operations conveniently and quickly. In such a manner, since there is no need to adopt the screw locking design, the present disclosure can efficiently solve the unintentional detachment problem mentioned in the prior art and omit the time-consuming and strenuous screw locking process, so as to greatly improve mounting and replacing convenience of the circuit board device.
It should be mentioned that the second pillar body 46 could be an omissible component for simplifying the fixing design of the present disclosure. For example, please refer to
Via the aforesaid design, when the positioning pillar 34 is disposed in the first hole 20 and the first positioning portion 38 is engaged with the first positioning end portion 22, the circuit board 12 is sandwiched between the clamping portion 40 and the first pillar body 32. On the other hand, when the second positioning portion 42 is engaged with the second positioning end portion 23 of the first hole 20 and the opening 44 is engaged with the positioning pillar 34, the base 104 is disposed in the first hole 20 and abuts against the positioning pillar 34. In such a manner, via the designs that the first positioning portion 38 is engaged with the first positioning end portion 22 and the circuit board 12 is sandwiched between the clamping portion 40 and the first pillar body 32, the fixing member 102 can constrain movement of the pillar structure 24 toward the +X-axis direction, the ±Y-axis directions, and the ±Z-axis directions. Furthermore, via the design that the second positioning portion 42 is engaged with the second positioning end portion 23 and the base 104 abuts against the positioning pillar 34, the fixing member 102 can constrain movement of the pillar structure 24 toward the −X-axis direction. As such, the three-axis positioning effect can be achieved, so as to make the pillar structure 24 fixed in the first hole 20 firmly for the subsequent interface card clamping operation.
After the pillar structure 24 is fixed in the first hole 20, the fixing member 102 can utilize the first fixing component 28 to be detachably inserted into the first axial hole 36 for clamping the first interface card 1 cooperatively with the first pillar body 32 when the first interface card 1 is inserted into the first socket 16, so as to complete the operation of mounting one single interface card on the circuit board 12 (as shown in
In summary, since the present disclosure omits the second pillar body to prevent the fixing member from additionally occupying space under the circuit board in this embodiment, the prior art problem that the circuit board and another circuit board cannot be disposed in a stacked arrangement since the plastic hook pillar additionally occupies space under the circuit board can be solved. Thus, the present disclosure can greatly improve flexibility of the circuit board in the mounting configuration and space utilization.
Moreover, the fixing member 102 could be suitable for mounting interface cards having different mounting lengths on the circuit board 12. For example, please refer to
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202122019474.9 | Aug 2021 | CN | national |