Patent Application
20080316698
The present invention relates to a damping structure for electronic devices and particularly to a. damping structure for holding an electronic device such as a storage device like hard disk drive or optical disk drive on a chassis (of a computer or portable external case) to provide optimal damping effect to facilitate regular operation of the electronic device.
These days people increasingly rely on computers to do their work and daily chores. Hence the computer becomes a necessary and indispensable technology product for many people. Advances of technology and growing demands of consumers have accelerated constant innovation of computer related products. The computer and its accessories can be upgraded according to user's requirement. To accommodate all sorts of data and software, the required space also increases. As a result the demand for hard disk also is greater.
Hard disk has many advantages such as higher storage density, greater capacity, lower cost and faster storing speed. Thus it becomes the mainstream of storage systems. As the hard disk is less expensive and has a greater capacity, it is widely used in notebook computers or other types of mobile electronic devices. But the hard disk has a big drawback, namely it is easily affected by shaking or instantaneous impact when in use, and could result in damage of the read/write head caused by impact with the disk platter. The tracks of the hard disk also could be damaged. In serious situations important data stored in the hard disk could be not recoverable. This is a big issue in the industry remained to be overcome.
To solve the aforesaid problems, R.O.C. patent No. M294728, entitled “Damping structure for hard disk of notebook computers” discloses a technique which mainly includes a hard disk container consisting of a chest and a lid. The chest has an opening at one end to connect the hard disk with a signal transmission flat cable and a power cord, and a hard disk drive held in the hard disk container. The chest of the hard disk container has elastic elements attached to the bottom and the periphery thereof. The lid also has elastic elements at one side facing the chest. When the hard disk drive is held in the chest, and the chest is covered by the lid, the elastic elements encase the hard disk drive. While such a structure can provide damping effect, it still has problems, notably:
The primary object of the present invention is to solve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention provides a damping structure that adopts an open space design. It has a holding rack mounted onto a chassis to hold an electronic device. The holding rack has two ends extended towards the chassis to form respectively a step portion and a first coupling section extended further from the step portion. The holding rack has two other ends extended sideward to form second coupling sections which form a holding space for the electronic device. There are damping assemblies interposed between the holding rack and the chassis, and between the holding rack and the electronic device. The damping assemblies are independent and can provide elastic damping forces. Thus a desired damping effect can be provided for the electronic device to maintain regular operation.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Please refer to
Refer to
Moreover, the frame 23 of the holding rack 20 may be a plane holding board to hold the electronic device 40, or through the second damping assembly and the second coupling section 22 to make the electronic device 40 to be spaced from the frame 23 at an interval S (referring to
While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiment of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.
