Module Rack For Connection Boxes Of Printed-circuit Cards

Abstract

The present invention relates to a module rack for the mounting of connection boxes of printed circuit cards which is characterized in that the module rack is intended for receiving connection boxes of any widths, the boxes being arranged according to rows located at different levels, and being inserted side by side in a row. In the arrangement disclosed, insertion, withdrawing or substitution of a connection box by another is extremely simple and requires a relatively short time. The module rack is particularly intended for the mounting of connection boxes which are utilized in data processing equipment.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a module rack for connection boxes of printed-circuit cards.

In the construction of electronic equipment used in telecommunication, or for information processing, electrical circuits are widely used which are designed in the form of cards for printed circuits equipped with, or without, electronic components, to be inserted in connectors linked with interconnection circuits. These printed-circuit cards are usually mounted in rigid frames which are commonly called "connection boxes" because each of these frames exhibits the form of a parallelepipedic box whose upper and lower sides consist of two systems of card guides, positioned, parallel side by side with their ends joined by two side plates; their back is formed by an interconnection panel that functions as support for rows of connectors whose contact parts are welded to conductor circuits of the interconnection panel. For exemplary purposes, a connection box of this type is particularly described in the French Pat. No. 2,085,476, filed by the industrial company Bull General Electric on Apr. 24, 1970.

These connection boxes are usually located in the interior of a rigid module rack which is so constructed as to enable the maintenance personnel to have easy access to these boxes and possibly remove them from the rack to replace them. For this purpose, the rack is equipped with sideways on which rest the lower edges of the side plates of the boxes which are entered into the rack, each box being thus supported by two slides whose distance from one another corresponds with the width of the box. So as to limit the space requirements of the rack, the connection boxes are positioned in the rack in such a fashion that they form superimposed rows, the boxes all being of the same height and being placed in each of these rows side by side. This rack may, for example, take the form of a set of pigeon holes of that type which was particularly described and represented in the French Pat. No. 1,567,300, filed on Mar. 21, 1968.

In electronic equipment of such design, it is not possible to install between two sideways of the rack, connection boxes whose widths differ substantially from the distance between these slides. This fact presents the more serious a drawback, especially in that in such equipment as utilized for information processing, one is frequently forced to employ, in response to the needs of the user, connection boxes which contain a more or less large number of printed-circuit cards, whose width, therefore, differs significantly from box to box. Furthermore, in conventional equipment when one has to replace connection boxes by others of greater width, to increase the range of their use or for reasons of function of this equipment, one is sometimes forced to change the position of the slides, or even remove some of them. This is only feasible at the cost of an occassional substantial modification of the rack and as a practical matter requires the sending of the rack to a factory that is capable of handling this modification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention corrects this drawback and proposes a rack designed to take connection boxes for printed-circuit cards, this rack being suited to receive connection boxes of different width while offering the greatest possibilities for the interchangeability of the boxes. Moreover, the mounting, the withdrawal, or interchanging of the boxes in this rack can be carried out very rapidly without the need of using special tools for these operations.

An objective of the invention concerns a module rack for connection boxes of printed-circuit cards, consisting of two vertical side plates, that is, a right side plate and a left side plate, each equipped with a front edge and a rear edge, a set of front bars, running parallel to each other, between the front edges of these two plates, a set of rear bars, equal in number to the front bars, attached between the rear edges of these two plates, each rear bar being connected with a respective front bar and being positioned on the same level as the latter, and a system of sideways, each placed between a front bar and a rear bar linked up to support the lower lateral edges of the connection boxes which are entered into the rack. This rack is characterized in that each bar comprises a series of identical openings, placed at regular intervals, following an alignment direction parallel to the length of the bar, and in that each slideway is removable and provided at each of its ends with at least one opening whose form is different from the openings of the bars. These openings consist either of circular holes, or of oblong apertures running in said alignment direction. The rack is also characterized in that the width of the oblong apertures as well as their rate of distance when they are drilled into the bars are established as a function of the distance separating two consecutive circular holes in such a way that at least one opening of each end of the slides is facing one of the openings of the bars of the rack, irrespective of the position of that end along these bars. This makes it possible for an attachment part to pass through these openings to achieve the solid connection with this end with the rack.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will evolve in the following description, presented for purposes of an example, and by referring to the attached drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, having portions broken away of an equipment console for information processing, this console containing two module racks, installed according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a module rack according to the invention showing the manner in which the connection boxes are arranged in this module rack;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a connection box for printed-circuit cards in an exploded representation to better bring out certain details;

FIG. 4 is a detailed view demonstrating the manner in which a connection box inserted in the module rack is maintained according to the invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a type of slideway used in the module rack of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view along AA" of FIG. 4, this view showing the manner in which the slides in the module rack of FIG. 2 may be positioned; and

FIG. 7 is a view similar to that of FIG. 6 showing a variation of design of the slideways, and of a module rack according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The module rack, illustrated in FIG. 2 basically includes a right side frame 10 consisting of a front upright post 11 and a rear upright post 12, connected to each other by a crosspiece 13 of which only two may be seen in FIG. 2, a left side frame 14 consisting, in the same manner, of a front upright post 15 and of a rear upright post 16 linked with each other by the crosspieces 17, a set of front bars BV-1, BV-2, etc...attached between two front upright posts 11 and 15 and a set of rear bars BR-1, BR-2, etc...fastened to each other by the rear upright posts 12 and 16. Each of the two side frames 10 and 14 is covered on the outside by a lateral plate, the side plate of the right side frame 10 being marked 18 and that of the left side frame 14 being marked 19. It must be pointed out, however, that the side frames 10 and 14 are only intended to endow the module rack with the high degree of mechanical rigidity that its utilization demands. In the case in which the lateral plates 18 and 19 were to exhibit sufficient rigidity to give the module rack that strength, these lateral frames 10 and 14 could be omitted without disadvantage; the front bars would then be attached in a known manner between the two front edges of these lateral plates, and the rear bars, would be attached between the two rear edges of these plates in the same manner. As shown in FIG. 2, each rear bar is connected with a corresponding front bar and is positioned in the module rack on the same level as the front bar, such that the distance that separates the symmetry axes of two consecutive front bars, such as BV-1 and BV-2 for example, is equal to that which separates the symmetry axes of the two rear bars linked with these front bars, i.e., the rear bars BR-1 and BR-2 in the example under consideration. The front and rear bars are equipped with the openings 20 to permit the positioning of the removable slides 21 in the module rack in a manner to be explained hereinafter, each of these slideways being placed between a front bar and a rear bar linked with the former. As will be seen further on, the slides have the task, on the one hand, to maintain the connection boxes C-1, C-2, C-3, etc...in their places in the module rack, and on the other hand, to guide these connection boxes during their withdrawal from, or their entering into, the module rack. One of the boxes, marked C-5, is illustrated in FIG. 2 in a position preparatory to its engagement in the module rack.

The connection boxes which are represented in FIG. 2 are of the type which was described in the French Pat. No. 2,085,476.

One of these boxes was shown in exploded view in FIG. 3. As may be seen in FIG. 3, that connection box comprises mainly a back panel 100 including an interconnection panel 101 on which an upper back bar 102 is attached, a lower back bar 103 and two rows of connectors 104 and 105, separated from each other by a median back bar 106. The ends of the back bars are solidly connected with two side plates 107 and 108. Each lateral plate consists of two parts. This was the manner in which the side plate 107, for example, was formed of a part 107A in the form of a corner piece which, when attached to the back bars, 102, 103, and 106, becomes an integral part of the back panel 100, and a section 107B which is attached, on the hand, to a portion of the section 107A, and on the other hand, to one of the ends of an upper-entry bar 109 and of a lower-entry bar 110. The lateral plate 108 is in the same way formed by a section 108A, similar to 107A, and by a section 108B, similar to 107B.

Each of the front bars and the entry bars is equipped with two grooves 111 which are shown in detail in FIG. 4 and which are so arranged as to receive, as indicated in FIG. 3, the opposite ends of the guidance gates for the cards 112. Each guidance grating for cards is cast in such a way as to exhibit parallel grooves 113 whose distance is equal to the pitch of the interval of the connectors attached to the interconnection panel 101. These grooves are intended to provide guidance for the printed-circuit cards which, when engaged in these grooves, are pushed to the back until they are inserted between the contact elements of the connectors. The guiding grates are, furthermore, equipped with ventilation holes 114, drilled into those parts of the grates which are enclosed between the guidance grooves so as to remove the heat generated by the various electronic components carried by the printed-circuit cards. As may also be seen in FIG. 3, the side plates 107 and 108 protrude slightly to the front, outside of the plane running through the entry bars 109 and 110, and each end in a flange, indicated by 115 for the plate 107, and by 116 for the plate 108. A protective front plate 117, kept pressed against the flanges 115 and 116 by means of screws 118, provides for the closing of the front face of the connection box. A protective rear plate 119 is attached in the same manner to the rear face of the connection box and kept parallel to the interconnection panel 101 by the crosspieces 120 and screws 121.

As illustrated by FIGS. 3 and 4, the connection box also includes two angle irons 122 and 123 welded onto the sections 107B and 108B of the side plates, respectively to permit the attachment of the ends of the entry bars 109 and 110 onto these lateral plates. The lower end of each of these angle irons is equipped with an attachment screw 124 (FIG. 4), intended, as will be observed later on, to keep in its place in the module rack, undisturbed by the shocks and vibration, the connection box which has been inserted up to the back in this rack. It should also be pointed out, as also may be noted in FIG. 6, that the lower edges 127 of the side plates are protruding in relation to the lower face of the box which makes it possible, as will be seen thereafter, to engage these edges in the slides solidly attached to the bars of the module rack.

In the form of embodiment represented in FIGS. 2 and 4, the front and rear bars are of metal whose cross section has the form of a U. In the described example each of these bars is provided with two rows of openings 20, i.e., as shown in FIG. 4, an upper row comprising the openings 20-1 indicated and a lower row with the openings indicated 20-2, these openings being spaced at regular intervals in each of the rows. In the described example, the openings are of oblong form, each running in a direction parallel to the length of the bar.

The slideways employed in the module rack of FIG. 2 are the type illustrated in FIG. 5. Thus (as may be seen in FIG. 5) this slide has the shape of a rigid bar 200 whose one end terminates in a base 201 which is equipped with two screw holes 202 of which only one is visible in FIG. 5. These two holes are provided for the fastening of the slideway to one of the rear bars BR of the module rack, as indicated in FIG. 4, by the screw 125 through the oblong openings 20-1 of that rear bar. The other end of the bar 200 is connected with the base 203 (FIG. 5) carrying two screw holes 204 which permit, as shown in FIG. 4, the fastening of the slide onto one of the front bars BV of the module rack with the screw 126 through the oblong openings 20-1 of this front bar. The base 203 also carries two other screw holes 205, each provided to receive one of the attachment screws 124 of the connection boxes mounted in the module rack. The slideway, shown in FIG. 4, is equipped on its upper face with a longitudinal groove 206 whose width e is slightly larger than twice the thickness of the side plates of the connection boxes. When this slideway is fastened between one of the front bars BV of the module rack and the rear bar BR associated with that front bar, the groove 206 is completely detached from the side of the front bar BV, due to the fact that the front bar BV is significantly narrower than the rear bar BR, which may be seen in FIG. 4. In this manner, it is possible to engage one of the side plates of a connection box through the front of the module rack, this lateral plate resting with its lower edge 127 on the bottom of the groove 206, and to push it (the plate) to the very rear end of this groove.

In view of the fact that the width of the connection boxes may be quite different from box to box, it is highly desirable that each of the slideways may be placed in any position along the front and rear bars of the module rack. In the design example illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4, this objective was accomplished by providing oblong apertures 20-1 and 20-2 in the front and rear bars of the module rack, as shown in FIG. 6, whose length t is larger than the distance d which separates the two holes 202 (or the two holes 204) bored in each of the bases of the slideways for the fastening of these slideways to the module rack. Additionally, these openings are separated from each other in the same row by an interval m whose dimension is at most equal to that of d. These holes and openings thus satisfy the double inequality:

m .ltoreq. d < t

The result is that the pitch p, by which the oblong openings are arranged in the same row, is at the maximum equal to the sum total of the length t of the oblong openings and the distance d separating the two circular holes of a base:

p .ltoreq. t + d

Under these conditions, irrespective of the position of the slideway along a bar of the module rack, at least one of the two circular holes for the attachment of the base to that bar is always positioned opposite an oblong opening of this bar. The slideways 21 may, consequently, always be placed in the module rack in such a way that the distance L separating two adjoining slideways be practically equal to the length of the connection box which has to be supported by these two slides. During the installation of this connection box in the module rack, the two lateral plates 107B and 108B of this box are engaged in the grooves 206 of these two slideways and, guided by the latter, may be pushed to the back of the module rack until the attachment screws 124 of that connection box may be inserted into the holes 205 corresponding with the slides.

In view of the fact that the width of each groove 206 slightly exceeds twice the thickness of a lateral plate, the connection boxes may be positioned side by side in the module rack, the adjoining side plates 107B and 108B' of two contiguous boxes being engaged in the same groove 206, as shown by schematic representation in FIG. 6. The number of connection boxes which may be thus placed side by side on the same level in the module rack obviously depends on the width of these boxes and on the length of the bars of the module rack. In this fashion, the connection boxes are arranged in the example of embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 2, on three different levels in the module rack, each level comprising two boxes placed side by side. In the module rack of FIG. 2, on each level a more or less large number of boxes may, however, be accommodated, provided that the width of the assembly of boxes placed on the same level remains below the length of the front and rear bars of this rack. The cooling of the circuits of the cards enclosed in the connection boxes installed in the module rack is achieved, as shown in FIG. 2, by small fans 22 which, located in drawers 23 placed under the module rack, circulate air through the boxes mounted in this rack so that this air passes through ventilation holes 114, mentioned above.

To render the cooling effective, it is necessary that each box mounted in the module rack be positioned either immediately above the fans 22 or just above a box through which the air generated by the fans 22 has already passed. To force the air thus circulating through all the boxes in the rack, it was found, furthermore, especially useful to eliminate as much as possible the empty spaces between boxes placed on different levels in the module rack. In the described example, this objective is accomplished by the utilization of connection boxes of a height equal to the distance between two consecutive front bars between which one wishes to place the box in the rack. During their engagement in the module rack, the upper edges of the lateral plates 107B and 108B of these boxes may in this case be set, in the grooves of the slideways 24 mounted in the module rack as shown by FIG. 6. The grooves of these slides, similar to the slides 21, are turned downward and are attached between a front bar and an associated rear bar by means of screws 126 inserted through the oblong openings 20-2 drilled in these bars. This particularly useful arrangement permits the use of only a reduced number of fans to provide for the cooling of the circuits of the connection boxes in an efficient manner. Yet, in the case where the connection boxes mounted in the module rack would not occupy the entire room available in the height between two consecutive front bars, one could effect the cooling of the circuits of the boxes placed on the same level in the rack by installing a row of fans underneath the boxes of that level. In this case, however, since the slideways 24 become useless, each of the front and rear bars of the module rack would only carry a single row of openings 20 intended solely for the attachment of the slideways 21 to the rack.

In another design version, illustrated in FIG. 7, the openings provided in the front and rear bars of the module rack for the fastening of the slideways consist of circular holes 30, so that each bar comprises at least one row of circular holes aligned in this row at an interval p. In this case, each slideway is equipped at each of its ends with a single oblong opening 207 whose length t is at least equal to the pitch of distance p of the circular holes, which is expressed by:

P .ltoreq. t

The location of this oblong opening under these conditions, irrespective of the position of the slideway along a bar of the module rack, is always the one shown in FIG. 7, in front of at least one of the circular holes 30 drilled in this bar. Each end of this slide may thus be attached to one of the bars of the module rack by means of the fastening media 128 consisting of screws, for example, so that each fastening medium, inserted through the oblong opening 207 provided at that end as well as through one of the circular holes of the bar, faces that oblong opening. FIG. 1 represents a console for data-processing equipment containing two module racks designed according to the invention and mounted back to back in the console. Each module rack is movable in the console due to hinges 25 (FIG. 2) attached to the module rack and linked to the frame of the console. This makes possible a rapid access to the intercommunication panel of the boxes positioned in the rack, especially to provide for the connection of these different boxes with conductor cables (not shown for simplification purposes) which link circuits of that console with peripheral elements for data processing.

The electric connections between the different boxes installed in the rack are, moreover, accomplished by means of the conductor cables 26 set in the interior of ducts 27 attached to the front bars of the module rack. To enable an operator to perform the pivoting of each module rack in the console more easily, each rack is equipped with a control handle 28 and a running wheel 29. In this way, the mounting of the connection boxes in the module rack, or their withdrawal, as well as the various electrical connections and disconnections when necessary are greatly facilitated.

In the same manner, the detachment of the slideways which becomes necessary during the replacement of a connection box by another of different width, may be carried out very rapidly by the operator, without there being a need for sending the module rack to the factory, which is sometimes quite distant from the location where the rack is used. Finally, due to the fact that the connection boxes may be fabricated individually in the factory, each box in the rack, which is found to be defective due to wear, may be sent to that factory and replaced instantly by an analogous box. This also reduces the idle periods for machinery in which the rack happens to be enclosed.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An improved module rack for mounting a plurality of connection boxes that may be of non-uniform widths, and that may have lower lateral edges which protrude below the lower faces of the boxes, comprising:

two vertical side plates which are disposed parallel to but spaced from each other, each of the vertical side plates having a front edge and a rear edge;

a set of front bars, each of which having a length equal to the distance between the two vertical side plates and which extend between the two vertical side plates, with the ends of each of the front bars being fastened to the front edges of the two vertical side plates such that the front bars are substantially parallel to each other and are substantially perpendicular to the two vertical side plates;

a set of rear bars, each of which having a length equal to the distance between the two vertical side plates and which extends between the two vertical side plates, with the ends of each of the rear bars being fastened to the rear edges of the two vertical side plates such that the rear bars are substantially parallel to each other and are substantially perpendicular to the two vertical side plates and with the number of rear bars in the set of rear bars being equal to the number of front bars in the set of front bars, each of the front bars being associated with one of the rear bars so as to form a pair of bars and so that the planes defined by these pairs of front and rear bars are substantially perpendicular to the two vertical side plates and are substantially parallel to the horizontal;

a plurality of slideways, each adapted to be removably mounted between front and rear bars of a pair of bars, each having a front end, a rear end and body portion which extends between the front and rear ends and each having a length substantially equal to the distance between the front and rear bars of a pair of bars; each slideway also including a groove which extends parallel to the longitudinal axis of the slideway and which has a width slightly larger than twice of the thickness of the lower lateral edge of the connection boxes so that the adjoining lower lateral edges of two adjacent connection boxes can fit within the groove when the two connection boxes are placed side by side in the module rack;

means for mounting the slideways to and between the front and rear bars of a pair of bars, the mounting means including: a first series of identical, first openings formed in the front and rear bars and regularly spaced along lines parallel to the longitudinal axes of the front and rear bars; at least one second opening formed in each of the front ends of the slideways; at least one second opening formed in each of the rear ends of the slideways, with the second openings in the front ends of the slideways being identical to the second openings in the rear ends of the slideways; and fastening means adapted to cooperate with aligned first and second openings in an adjacent bar and end of a slideway so as to prevent relative movement therebetween, one of the first and second openings having an oblong shape, with the major axes of these oblong shaped openings being parallel to the longitudinal axes of the front and rear bars of a pair of bars and the other of the openings having a circular shape, the first openings being spaced along the bars so that regardless of the position of the ends of a slideway along the bars, a first opening and a second opening will always be aligned so that a fastening means can cooperate with these aligned first and second openings to prevent relative movement therebetween.

2. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that the connection boxes mounted in the module rack between any two consecutive front bars take up in height the entire space between these two front bars; each of the bars of the rack being provided, moreover, with a second series of first openings, which are identical with the first openings of the first series and which are aligned with and parallel to them so as to permit the mounting of the slideways in said rack with the slideways serving as a guide for the upper lateral edges of the connection boxes during their insertion into the module rack.

3. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each of the slideways is provided with two circular holes; and wherein the first openings are oblong openings drilled in each of the bars of the module rack each exceeding, in length, the distance between these two circular holes and being separated from each other by an interval whose dimension is at the most equal to said distance.

4. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each end of each slideway has a single oblong opening formed therein; and wherein the first openings are circular holes bored in each of the bars of the module rack and being spaced from each other at a distance that is at the most equal to the length of that oblong opening.

5. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that the slideways are equipped with attachment means to keep the connection boxes in place in the modular rack when the connection boxes are in the module rack.

6. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each connection box is provided with ventilation openings on its lower face and on its upper face; and wherein the modular rack includes at least one row of ventilators arranged below the group of connection boxes placed in the modular rack to provide for the cooling of the circuits contained in the connection boxes.