U.S. patent application number 11/393069 was filed with the patent office on 2007-06-14 for fastening member.
This patent application is currently assigned to Inventec Corporation. Invention is credited to Lin-Wei Chang, Yung-Chin Hsu.
Application Number | 20070130879 11/393069 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37614600 |
Filed Date | 2007-06-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070130879 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chang; Lin-Wei ; et
al. |
June 14, 2007 |
Fastening member
Abstract
A fastening member is provided. The fastening member is formed
with a plurality of positioning portions, a plurality of coupling
portions, a plurality of protruding portions, and a plurality of
fastening portions. The fastening member is assembled and
disassembled without using tools, and made of low-cost material
that is cheaper than metal material, so as to overcome the
drawbacks in the prior art.
Inventors: |
Chang; Lin-Wei; (Taipei,
TW) ; Hsu; Yung-Chin; (Taipei, TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
EDWARDS ANGELL PALMER & DODGE LLP
P.O. BOX 55874
BOSTON
MA
02205
US
|
Assignee: |
Inventec Corporation
Taipei
TW
|
Family ID: |
37614600 |
Appl. No.: |
11/393069 |
Filed: |
March 29, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
52/750 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 1/187 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
052/750 |
International
Class: |
E04B 1/00 20060101
E04B001/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 12, 2005 |
TW |
094221624 |
Claims
1. A fastening member for fastening a panel structure to a casing
of an electronic device, comprising: a plurality of positioning
portions formed at a side of the casing; a plurality of coupling
portions formed at a side of the panel structure and corresponding
to the positioning portions, wherein the coupling portions comprise
openings for being coupled and fastened to the positioning
portions; a plurality of protruding portions formed on a base of
the casing; and a plurality of fastening portions formed between
the panel structure and the casing, wherein each of the fastening
portions has a first fastening structure for securing the panel
structure, a second fastening structure, and a third fastening
structure corresponding to the second fastening structure for
securing the casing.
2. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein each of the positioning
portions is a J-shaped hook structure.
3. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein the openings of the
coupling portions are larger in size than the positioning
portions.
4. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein the protruding portions
comprise protruding structures.
5. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein the fastening portions
are flexible structures.
6. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein the first fastening
structure is a L-shaped plate with a slant face.
7. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein the second fastening
structure is a hook-shaped strip structure.
8. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein the third fastening
structure is a hook-shaped strip structure.
9. The fastening member of claim 1, wherein each of the fastening
portions comprises a blocking member for blocking the casing.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to fastening members, and more
particularly, to a fastening member for fastening a panel structure
to a hard disk.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In this digital era, information that was once provided in
hard-copy format is now digitalized. Meanwhile, having the Internet
booming along with a flood of information, all enterprises around
the world have to constantly reconfigure or upgrade their hardware
in order to meet the dramatic increase in information storage.
[0003] Nowadays, storage capacity of a hard disk is either tens or
hundreds of gigabytes (GB); however, even with such a large storage
capacity, a single hard disk still cannot satisfy the need for
dramatically increasing data storage. Therefore, a server for an
enterprise customer or a service provider must be configured with a
plurality of hard disks for enormous information storage or data
retrieval. Nevertheless, a lot of companies still need to install
additional hard disks or replace the old one with the new one every
few months, so as to maintain or match the equilibrium of data
retrieval and storage. Accordingly, due to the need of frequent
installation or removal of hard disks, a fast and convenient
assembling or disassembling process becomes extremely important for
server maintenance.
[0004] However, in current technology, a panel structure coupling
to a transmission joint of a hard disk, requires tools to fasten
wing screws to a casing of the server for firmly coupling to the
transmission joint of the hard disk. For users who have to
frequently disassemble or assemble the hard disk, arrangement as
such makes the whole disassembling or assembling process
inefficient and inconvenient. In addition, for manufacturers that
produce casings for the servers, a way for them to reduce the cost
of production is to decrease the amount of wing screws used for
fastening the panel structures to each casing of the servers.
[0005] Therefore, the problem to be solved herein is to provide
low-cost fastening members that can be assembled and disassembled
fast and conveniently without using tools, for fastening panel
structures to hard disks
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] In order to solve the problems of the prior art, a primary
objective of the present invention is to provide a fastening
member, which can be assembled or disassembled without using tools,
so as to solve problems of having an inconvenient and
time-consuming assembly or disassembly process.
[0007] Another objective of the present invention is to provide a
fastening member that is a low-cost product, thereby reducing the
cost of production.
[0008] In order to achieve the above and other objectives, the
present invention proposes the fastening member of the present
invention at least comprises a plurality of positioning portions, a
plurality of coupling portions, a plurality of protruding portions,
and a plurality of fastening portions, so as to fasten a panel
structure to a casing of an electronic device. The positioning
portions are formed at a side of the casing, and the coupling
portions are formed at a side of the panel structure at position
corresponding to the positioning portions. The positioning portion
may be a J-shaped hook-like structure. The coupling portion is
formed with at least an opening for coupling to the positioning
portion. The protruding portions are formed at the inner surface of
the base of the casing so as to secure and prevent the panel
structure from undesired movement. The fastening portions are
formed abutting the panel structure and casing, wherein each
fastening portion has a first fastening structure for securing the
panel structure, a second fastening structure and a third fastening
structure corresponding to the second fastening structure for
securing the casing.
[0009] Assembly or disassembly of the fastening member of the
present invention could be done without using tools; and the design
of the present invention allows the fastening member to be
assembled or disassembled by single-hand operation. In the prior
art, tools are required to fasten or remove wing screws to or from
the casing of the electronic device, which is a time-consuming and
inconvenient process and could even prolong the assembling or
disassembling time, if dropping or losing the screws under
environmental restriction during assembling or disassembling.
However, as above discussed, the foregoing drawbacks could be
resolved by the present invention.
[0010] Moreover, as the fastening member of the present invention
could be employed for all current models of the casings of the
electronic device, the casings would not need to be redesigned,
thereby saving time and cost in developing new casings. Further,
the materials of the fastening member could be selected from cheap
materials such as plastic materials, instead of metal materials,
thereby forming a low-cost product and reducing the cost of
production.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The present invention can be more fully understood by
reading the following detailed descriptions of the preferred
embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings,
wherein:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a fastening member in
accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present
invention;
[0013] FIGS. 2A to 2D are enlarged schematic views showing portions
of a fastening member in accordance with a preferred embodiment of
the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the structure of a
fastening portion of the present invention; and
[0015] FIGS. 4A to 4C are schematic views showing the process of
assembling the fastening member in accordance with the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0016] FIGS. 1 to 3, are schematic views showing the structure of a
fastening member according to the present invention. As shown in
the diagrams, the fastening member of the present invention
comprises a plurality of positioning parts 11, coupling portions
12, protruding portions 13 and fastening portions 14, so as to
fasten a panel structure 3 to a casing 2 of an electronic device.
The panel structure 3 and the casing 2 of the electronic device may
be varied and adapted depend upon demand and need, however, the
design and arrangement of the present invention allows the
fastening member to be employed for current models or new design
models of panel structures, electronic devices and the casings
thereof.
[0017] It should be noted that drawings in this specification are
simplified schematic diagrams, in order to simplify but clarify the
features of the present invention, thus only those parts directly
related to the present invention are shown in the diagrams.
[0018] The structure, number, shape and size of the panel structure
3, fastening member, casing 2 and the like are not limited to that
described and illustrated in the present invention. The
configurations of practical implementation may be more
complicated.
[0019] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a fastening member in
accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 2A to 2D are enlarged schematic views showing portions of a
fastening member in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the
present invention. As shown in the diagrams, the fastening member
of the present invention at least comprises a plurality of
positioning portions 11, a plurality of coupling portions 12, a
plurality of protruding portions 13, and a plurality of fastening
portions 14. The positioning portions 11 are formed at a side of
the casing 2, and the coupling portions 12 are formed at a side of
the panel structure 3 at position corresponding to the positioning
portions 11. Each coupling portion 12 comprises an opening 121 for
fastening to the positioning portion 11, wherein the size of the
opening 121 is larger than that of the positioning portion 11.
[0020] The positioning portion 11 described above may be a J-shaped
hook-like structure. The J-shaped hook-like structure may be a
narrow but thick J-shaped hook, or a wide but flat J-shaped hook.
Since the shape and size of the opening 121 are corresponding to
that of the positioning portion 11, the opening 121 may be varied
depended upon the shape and size of the positioning portion 11. For
instance, the opening 121 may be a narrow opening or a wide opening
to match the positioning portion 11. Moreover, the components or
arrangement of the fastening member may be varied depended on the
structure of the casing 2, for example, one or more fastening
member may be employed.
[0021] A plurality of protruding portions 3 are formed at the inner
surface of the base of the casing 2, wherein each protruding
portion 13 is a protruding structure for securing and preventing
the panel structure 3 from undesired movement. A plurality of the
fastening portions 14 are formed abutting the panel structure 3 and
casing 2, wherein each fastening portion 14 may be a flexible
structure and have a first fastening structure 141, a second
fastening structure 142 and a third fastening structure 143
corresponding to the second fastening structure 142. The second
fastening structure 142 and the third fastening structure 143 are
employed for fastening the casing 2.
[0022] FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the structure of a
fastening portion of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the
fastening portion 14 of the present invention at least comprises
the first fastening structure 141, the second fastening structure
142 and the third fastening structure 143. The second fastening
structure 142 and the third fastening structure 143 are hook-like
strip structures that are corresponding to each other, and either
one is relatively longer than the other. The second fastening
structure 142 and the third fastening structure 143 are employed to
fasten the casing 2. The first fastening structure 141 may be a
L-shaped plate with a slant face, wherein the slant face of the
L-shaped plate is employed for fastening the panel structure 3 so
as to position the panel structure 3. In addition, each fastening
portion 14 further comprises at least a blocking member 144 formed
between the first fastening structure 141 and the second fastening
structure 142 or between the first fastening structure 141 and the
third fastening structure 143 for blocking the casing 2, so as to
prevent the fastening portion 14 from entering too deep, in order
to fulfill purposes of securing and separating the casing 2 and the
structure 3.
[0023] FIGS. 4A to 4C are schematic views showing the process of
assembling the fastening member in accordance with the present
invention. As shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C, a hard disk 4 is placed into
a compartment of the casing 2 of the electronic device, then, the
panel structure 3 is placed into the casing 2, wherein the
positioning portions 11 would be pressed and drew toward the
direction of the casing 2 due to forces applied to the installation
of the panel structure 3 in a downward direction, so that the
positioning portion 11s and the coupling portions 12 would be
mutually fastened. When the panel structure 3 is positioned, that
is, after it had been installed in the casing 2, the fastening
portion 14 would be rebounded and returned to a secured state.
Therefore the third fastening structure 143 of the fastening
portion 14 would be fastened to the panel structure 3 tightly so as
to install and secure the panel structure 3 in the casing 2
firmly.
[0024] Further, the panel structure 3 could be easily removed from
the casing 2, simply by pressing the J-shape structure of the
positioning portion 11 toward the opposite direction of the panel
structure 3, in other words, pressing toward the direction of the
casing 2 so as to disassemble the panel structure 3.
[0025] Assembly or disassembly of the fastening member of the
present invention could be done without using tools; and the design
of the present invention allows the fastening member to be
assembled or disassembled by single-hand operation. In the prior
art, tools are required to fasten or remove wing screws to or from
the casing of the electronic device, which is a time-consuming and
inconvenient process and could even prolong the assembling or
disassembling time, if dropping or losing the screws under
environmental restriction during assembling or disassembling.
However, as above discussed, the foregoing drawbacks could be
resolved by the present invention.
[0026] Moreover, as the fastening member of the present invention
could be employed for all current models of the casings of the
electronic device, the casings would not need to be redesigned,
thereby saving time and cost in developing new casings. Further,
the materials of the fastening member could be selected from cheap
materials such as plastic materials, instead of metal materials,
thereby forming a low-cost product and reducing the cost of
production.
[0027] The invention has been described using exemplary preferred
embodiments. However, it is to be understood that the scope of the
invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the
contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar
arrangement. The scope of the claims therefore should be accorded
the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such
modifications and similar arrangements.
* * * * *