Patent Application
20090196684
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to compression type fixing mechanisms, and more particularly, to a compression type fixing mechanism for components in and a casing of an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
As continuous development and advancing improvement in the electronic industry, designs of electronic products are all in a goal of achieving high performance and top quality. Therefore, among these, the electronic products capable of providing effectiveness such as easier application, promoting product quality and performance, facilitating assembling/disassembling and lowering production cost are creations with high applicability to the electronic industry.
Since the electronic industry is growing at a fast pace nowadays, performance of electronic devices such as computers and servers are also improved rapidly. The demand for larger memory sizes of the electronic devices continuously increases, and consequently a larger amount of hard disks and fans is demanded. Therefore, the casing on which the hard disk and fan are disposed demands a fixing mechanism with higher quality. For instance, in a server, a plurality of hard disks and fans are disposed on the casing to satisfy system needs, and the hard disks and the fans are fixed to the casing by screws.
Referring to
In view of the above, a plurality of screws must be applied to fix the fan module and the hard disk module of a server in the prior art. However, due to the large volume of the hard disk module, the amount of screws required is large and its processing cost is high. In addition, during the disassembly, it takes a great amount of time and work, and the work efficiency is also adversely affected. Also, the disassembled screws are likely to be lost in the disassembly. Therefore, by locking with screws to fix, the disassembling time and the production cost are not saved, and manufacturing is adversely affected.
Accordingly, it is a highly urgent issue in the industry to provide a compression type fixing mechanism capable of effectively solving the drawbacks, such as low efficiency, high production cost arising from assembly/disassembly using screws and tools, and losing screws in the disassembling process, in the prior art.
In light of the shortcomings of the above prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a compression type fixing mechanism capable of increasing assembling efficiency.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compression type fixing mechanism capable of lowering production cost.
To achieve the above-mentioned and other objects, the present invention provides a compression type fixing mechanism in an electronic device. The electronic device at least includes a casing, a first component and a second component. The casing has a base plate for carrying the first component and the second component. The compression type fixing mechanism includes a first limiting unit having a first wedging section disposed on the casing and a second wedging section corresponding to the first wedging section and disposed on the first component, wherein the second wedging section is wedged in the first wedging section so that the first component is limited to move relatively to the base plate in a first direction; a second limiting unit including a third wedging section disposed on the casing and a fourth wedging section corresponding to the third wedging section and disposed on the second component, wherein the fourth wedging section is wedged in the third wedging section for limiting the second component to move relatively to the base plate in a second direction, and the second direction is opposite to the first direction; and a positioning unit disposed on the first component and having a propping portion, wherein the second component has a blocking portion for propping against the propping portion, thereby positioning the first and the second components at a maximum spacing therebetween, and fixing the first and the second components to the base plate.
According to the afore-mentioned mechanism, the blocking portion is a surface of the second component corresponding to the first component. The casing further includes two opposite sidewalls, and the first and the third wedging sections are disposed on either the base plate or the two sidewalls.
According to the afore-mentioned mechanism, the first and the third wedging sections are through holes, and the second and the fourth wedging sections are hooks. Alternatively, the second and the fourth wedging sections are the through holes consisting of a large hole and a small hole connected to each other, and the first and the third wedging sections are positioning shafts consisting of a shaft body and an expansion portion extending from one end of the shaft body. Each of the positioning shafts is disposed in the small hole via the large hole, and wedged in the small hole by the shaft body and the expansion portion.
According to the afore-mentioned mechanism, the first component is a heat-dissipating module, and the second component is a hard disk module. Alternatively, the second component is a heat-dissipating module, and the first component is a hard disk module. The electronic device is a server.
In the compression type fixing mechanism of the present invention, the first and the second component can only move towards each other on the base plate via the first and the second limiting units, and the first and the second components are fixed at a maximum spacing therebetween without further movement by disposing positioning units between the first and the second components. Compared with prior art, the design of the compression type fixing mechanism in the present invention is capable of fixing the first and the second components to the casing without using any disassembling tools, thereby achieving higher efficiency of assembly. Furthermore, since neither screws nor tools are required in assembly, there is no need of worrying about losing screws either, thereby achieving the object of efficiently lowering production cost.
The following embodiments are provided to illustrate the disclosure of the present invention, and these and other advantages and effects may be easily conceived by persons skilled in the art from the disclosure of this specification.
Referring to
As shown in
The first limiting unit 31 includes a first wedging section 311 disposed on the casing 20 and a second wedging section 312 disposed on the first component 21 and corresponding to the first wedging section 311. The second wedging section 312 is wedged in the first wedging section 311 for limiting the first component 21 to move relatively to the base plate 200 in a first direction A.
The second limiting unit 32 includes a third wedging section 321 disposed on the casing 20 and a fourth wedging section 322 disposed on the second component 22 and corresponding to the third wedging section 321. The fourth wedging section 322 is wedged in the third wedging section 321 for limiting the second component 22 to move relatively to the base plate 200 in a second direction B opposite to the first direction A.
The positioning units 33 are elastic and disposed on the first component 21, and each has a propping portion 330. The second component 22 has blocking portions 220 for propping against the propping portion 330. Thus, the first component 21 and the second component 22 are positioned by the positioning units 33 and do not move in the first direction A and the second direction B, respectively, to fix the first component 21 and the second component 22 to the base plate 200.
According to the afore-mentioned mechanism and referring also to
In the embodiment, the first component 21 may be a heat-dissipating module, and the second component 22 may be a hard disk module.
The first wedging section 311 and the third wedging section 321 are positioning shafts each consisting of a shaft body 42 and an expansion portion 43 extending from an end of the shaft body 42. The second wedging section 312 and the fourth wedging section 322 are through holes, and each consists of a large hole 40 and a small hole 41 that are connected to each other in a∞ shape. In the present invention, the large holes 40 on the second wedging section 312 face the large holes 40 on the fourth wedging section 322. The shaft bodies 42 and the expansion portions 43 are wedged in the small holes 41 when the positioning shafts enter via the large holes 40 into the small holes 41, so that the first component 21 and the second component 22 can move only in the first direction A and the second direction B opposite to-the first direction A, respectively. Then the first component 21 and the second component 22 are positioned at a maximum spacing S therebetween by the positioning units 33 to prevent any further movement, thereby fixing the first component 21 and the second component 22 to the base plate 200.
Referring to
In the compression type fixing mechanism, the first component 21 and the second component 22 are disposed on the casing 20 by the first limiting unit 31 and the second limiting unit 32, and may only move towards each other relatively to the base plate 200. The positioning unit 33 is disposed between the first component 21 and the second component 22 for fixing the first component 21 and the second component 22 at a maximum distance S therebetween, to prevent from further movement the first component 21 and the second component 22. By this design, compared with prior art, no tools are used for fixing the first component 21 and the second component 22 to the casing 20 in the present invention, and since it takes neither tools nor screws in the assembling/disassembly in the present invention, there is no need of worrying about losing screws.
Referring to
The first wedging section 311 and the third wedging section 321 are through holes disposed on the two sidewalls, and the second wedging section 312 and the fourth wedging section 322 are hooks. The first component 21 is disposed on the casing 20 by wedging the hooks in the through holes, and moved only in the first direction A. The second component 22 is disposed on the casing 20 by wedging the hooks in the through holes, and moved only in the second direction B opposite to the first direction A.
Accordingly, in the compression type fixing mechanism of the present invention, the first and the second components are moved only towards each other relatively to the base plate via the first and the second limiting units, and the first and the second components are fixed at a maximum spacing therebetween by the positioning units to prevent further movement of the first and second components. Therefore, the compression type fixing mechanism is capable of fixing the first and the second components to the casing without implementing any tools to achieve assembling efficiency. Furthermore, since it takes neither screws nor tool in the assembling/disassembly in the present invention, there is no need of worrying about losing screws, thereby effectively lowering production cost.
The present invention has been described using exemplary preferred embodiments. However, it is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited to the disclosed arrangements. The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadest interpretation, so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
