SERVER APPARATUS AND TRAY MECHANISM THEREOF
A server apparatus includes a casing having a first engaging structure, a tray mechanism including a tray, a handle and an elastic member, and a server module disposed on the tray. The handle is pivoted to the tray. The elastic member connected to the tray and has an interfering structure. The interfering structure interferes with the handle to position the handle for making the handle not interfere with the first engaging structure when the tray is inserted into the casing along an insertion direction.
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The present disclosure relates to a server apparatus and a tray mechanism thereof, and more specifically, to a server apparatus utilizing an elastic member to interfere with a handle for positioning the handle and a tray mechanism thereof.
2. Description of the Prior ArtIn a conventional server assembly process, a server module including related server components (e.g., display cards and mainboards) is mounted on a tray first, and then the tray having the server module disposed thereon is inserted into a server casing through a front opening of the server casing. As such, the server assembly process can be completed quickly and conveniently.
The prior art usually adopts the design in which a handle located at a front end of the tray is utilized to hook an engaging structure located on a partition of the casing for fixing the tray to the casing and drive the server module to be connected to internal ports in the casing. However, when a user pushes the handle to insert the tray into the casing, the handle may collide with the engaging structure easily since the user cannot keep the handle higher than the engaging structure constantly, so as to cause damage or jamming of components in the server apparatus.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present disclosure provides a server apparatus. The server apparatus includes a casing, a tray mechanism, and at least one server module. The casing has a first engaging structure. The tray mechanism includes a tray, a handle, and an elastic member. The tray has a first board. The handle has at least one pivot portion. The pivot portion is pivoted to the first board to make the handle rotatable between a first position and a second position relative to the tray. The elastic member is connected to the first board and has at least one interfering structure penetrating through the first board. The interfering structure interferes with the pivot portion to keep the handle at the first position and to make the pivot portion and the first engaging structure not interfere with each other when the tray is inserted into the casing along an insertion direction. The server module is disposed on the tray.
The present disclosure further provides a tray mechanism suitable for assembly of at least one electronic module and a casing. The casing has a first engaging structure formed thereon. The tray mechanism includes a tray, a handle, and an elastic member. The tray has a first board. The electronic module is disposed on the tray. The handle has at least one pivot portion. The pivot portion is pivoted to the first board to make the handle rotatable between a first position and a second position relative to the tray. The elastic member is connected to the first board and has at least one interfering structure penetrating through the first board. The interfering structure interferes with the pivot portion to keep the handle at the first position and to make the pivot portion and the first engaging structure not interfere with each other when the tray is inserted into the casing along an insertion direction.
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
For example, the fixing design of the tray mechanism 14 could be preferably applied to partitions at two sides of the casing 12 for mounting the server module 16 in the casing 12 effortlessly and steadily (but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, which means the present disclosure could be only applied to one partition at one side of the casing 12 for simplifying the mechanical design of the server apparatus 10). More detailed description for the fixing design of the tray mechanism 14 and one of second boards 18 of the casing 12 is provided as follows, and the related description for the fixing design of the tray mechanism 14 and the other second board 18 could be reasoned by analogy and omitted herein.
As shown in
To be noted, the interfering structural design adopted by the present disclosure is not limited to the design in which one single interfering structure is utilized to interfere with the pivot portion mentioned in the aforesaid embodiment, meaning that the present disclosure could adopt a multi-point interfering design instead. For example, in another embodiment, the interfering structures 36 could be formed on the elastic member 28 corresponding to two sides of the pivot portion 30 respectively for preventing clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of the pivot portion 30, so as to achieve the purpose that the handle 26 is positioned at the first position steadily. Furthermore, in practical application, a limiting pin 40 protrudes from the first board 25, and an arc-shaped slot 42 is formed on the pivot portion 30 corresponding to the limiting pin 40. As such, the limiting pin 40 can be disposed through the arc-shaped slot 42 for limiting the rotation range of the handle 26, so as to efficiently prevent a user from over-rotating the handle 26 to cause damage or interference of the components when the user operates the tray mechanism 14.
More detailed description for the operation of the tray mechanism 14 is provided as follows. Please refer to
On the other hand, when the user wants to perform the extraction operation of the tray mechanism 14, the user just needs to pull the handle 26 to rotate from the second position as shown in
On the contrary, when the user wants to perform the assembly operation of the tray mechanism 14, the user just needs to push the handle 26 (at this time, as mentioned above, the interfering structure 36 is engaged with the limiting recess 38 to position the handle 26 at the first position steadily) to insert the tray mechanism 14 into the casing 12 along the insertion direction I. During this process, as shown in
In summary, via the design in which the interfering structure of the elastic member is utilized to interfere with the pivot portion of the handle to position the handle at the first position, the present disclosure can surely prevent the handle of the tray mechanism from interfering with the first engaging structure of the casing when the tray is inserted into the casing. In such a manner, the present disclosure can efficiently solve the prior art problem that the handle of the tray collides with the engaging structure of the casing easily during the mounting process to cause damage or jamming of components in the server apparatus, so as to greatly improve the service life and the operational convenience of the tray mechanism.
It should be mentioned that the first protruding structure 22 and the second protruding structure 34 could be omitted selectively for simplifying the mechanical design of the server apparatus provided by the present disclosure. Furthermore, the handle configuration of the present disclosure is not limited to the design of rotatably connecting the pivot portion of the handle to the partition of the casing mentioned in the aforesaid embodiment. That is, in another embodiment, the present disclosure could adopt the design of rotatably connecting the pivot portion of the handle to a bottom board of the casing. For example, please refer to
As shown in
More detailed description for the operation of the tray mechanism 104 is provided as follows. Please refer to
On the other hand, when the user wants to perform the extraction operation of the tray mechanism 104, the user just needs to pull the handle 112 to rotate from the second position as shown in
On the contrary, when the user wants to perform the assembly operation of the tray mechanism 104, the user just needs to push the handle 112 (at this time, as mentioned above, the interfering structure 122 is engaged with the interfering hole 124 to position the handle 112 at the first position steadily) to insert the tray mechanism 104 into the casing 102 along the insertion direction I. During this process, as shown in
To be noted, the interfering structural design of the tray mechanism 104 is not limited to the aforesaid design in which the protruding pillar is disposed through the interfering hole. That is, in another embodiment, the present disclosure could adopt the design in which a tongue sheet formed on the elastic member is inserted into a positioning slot formed on the pivot portion. To be brief, in another embodiment, the interfering structure could be a tongue sheet bent from the elastic member by a punching process (but the present disclosure is not limited thereto), and an interfering slot is formed on the pivot portion corresponding to the tongue sheet. As such, the tongue sheet could be inserted into the interfering slot for preventing clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of the handle. Furthermore, the interfering structural designs (e.g., the design that the protruding pillar is engaged with the limiting recess, the design that the protruding pillar is disposed through the interfering hole, and the design that the tongue sheet is inserted into the positioning slot) and the engaging structural designs (e.g., the design that the notch rotates to hook the positioning pillar and the design that the positioning hook is engaged with the positioning slot) mentioned in the aforesaid embodiments could be interchangeably applied to the tray mechanism for improving structural design flexibility of the tray mechanism provided by the present disclosure. The related description for the derived embodiments could be reasoned by analogy according to the aforesaid embodiments and omitted herein. As for which design is adopted, it depends upon the practical application of the tray mechanism of the present disclosure and is not limited to the aforesaid embodiments.
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.
Claims
1. A server apparatus comprising:
- a casing having a first engaging structure;
- a tray mechanism comprising: a tray having a first board; a handle having at least one pivot portion, the pivot portion being pivoted to the first board to make the handle rotatable between a first position and a second position relative to the tray; and an elastic member connected to the first board and having at least one interfering structure penetrating through the first board, the interfering structure interfering with the pivot portion to keep the handle at the first position and to make the pivot portion and the first engaging structure not interfere with each other when the tray is inserted into the casing along an insertion direction; and
- at least one server module disposed on the tray.
2. The server apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pivot portion has a second engaging structure corresponding to the first engaging structure, and when the handle rotates to the second position, the second engaging structure rotates to be engaged with the first engaging structure.
3. The server apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first engaging structure is a positioning pillar, the second engaging structure is a notch, and the interfering structure is a protruding pillar; when the protruding pillar abuts against a protruding edge of the notch for positioning the handle at the first position, the positioning pillar is misaligned with the notch without interference in the insertion direction; when the handle rotates to the second position, the notch rotates to be engaged with the positioning pillar.
4. The server apparatus of claim 3, wherein a limiting recess extends from the protruding edge, and the protruding pillar is engaged with the limiting recess to position the handle at the first position.
5. The server apparatus of claim 1, wherein a limiting pin protrudes from the first board, the pivot portion has an arc-shaped slot corresponding to the limiting pin, and the limiting pin is disposed through the arc-shaped slot to limit the rotation range of the handle.
6. The server apparatus of claim 1, wherein the casing further has a first protruding structure, the elastic member further has a second protruding structure, and when the tray is inserted into the casing and the first protruding structure pushes the second protruding structure, the interfering structure moves relative to the first board for not interfering with the pivot portion, so as to make the handle rotatable to the second position to be engaged with the first engaging structure.
7. The server apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first protruding structure protrudes inward from the casing by a punching process, and the second protruding structure protrudes outward from the elastic member by a punching process.
8. The server apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first engaging structure is a positioning slot, the second engaging structure is a positioning hook, the interfering structure is a protruding pillar, and the pivot portion has an interfering hole corresponding to the protruding pillar; when the protruding pillar is disposed through the interfering hole to position the handle at the first position, the positioning hook is misaligned with the positioning slot without interference in the insertion direction; when the handle rotates to the second position, the positioning hook rotates to hook the positioning slot.
9. The server apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first engaging structure is a positioning slot, the second engaging structure is a positioning hook, the interfering structure is a tongue sheet, and the pivot portion has an interfering slot corresponding to the tongue sheet; when the tongue sheet is inserted into the interfering slot to position the handle at the first position, the positioning hook is misaligned with the positioning slot without interference in the insertion direction; when the handle rotates to the second position, the positioning hook rotates to hook the positioning slot.
10. The server apparatus of claim 1, wherein the casing has a second board corresponding to the first board, and the first engaging structure and the first protruding structure are formed on the second board.
11. The server apparatus of claim 10, wherein the second board is a partition or a bottom board of the casing.
12. A tray mechanism suitable for assembly of at least one electronic module and a casing, the casing having a first engaging structure formed thereon, the tray mechanism comprising:
- a tray having a first board, the electronic module being disposed on the tray;
- a handle having at least one pivot portion, the pivot portion being pivoted to the first board to make the handle rotatable between a first position and a second position relative to the tray; and
- an elastic member connected to the first board and having at least one interfering structure penetrating through the first board, the interfering structure interfering with the pivot portion to keep the handle at the first position and to make the pivot portion and the first engaging structure not interfere with each other when the tray is inserted into the casing along an insertion direction.
13. The tray mechanism of claim 12, wherein the pivot portion has a second engaging structure corresponding to the first engaging structure, and when the handle rotates to the second position, the second engaging structure rotates to be engaged with the first engaging structure.
14. The tray mechanism of claim 13, wherein the first engaging structure is a positioning pillar, the second engaging structure is a notch, and the interfering structure is a protruding pillar;
- when the protruding pillar abuts against a protruding edge of the notch for positioning the handle at the first position, the positioning pillar is misaligned with the notch without interference in the insertion direction; when the handle rotates to the second position, the notch rotates to be engaged with the positioning pillar.
15. The tray mechanism of claim 14, wherein a limiting recess extends from the protruding edge, and the protruding pillar is engaged with the limiting recess to position the handle at the first position.
16. The tray mechanism of claim 12, wherein a limiting pin protrudes from the first board, the pivot portion has an arc-shaped slot corresponding to the limiting pin, and the limiting pin is disposed through the arc-shaped slot to limit the rotation range of the handle.
17. The tray mechanism of claim 13, wherein the first engaging structure is a positioning slot, the second engaging structure is a positioning hook, the interfering structure is a protruding pillar, and the pivot portion has an interfering hole corresponding to the protruding pillar; when the protruding pillar is disposed through the interfering hole to position the handle at the first position, the positioning hook is misaligned with the positioning slot without interference in the insertion direction; when the handle rotates to the second position, the positioning hook rotates to hook the positioning slot.
18. The tray mechanism of claim 13, wherein the first engaging structure is a positioning slot, the second engaging structure is a positioning hook, the interfering structure is a tongue sheet, and the pivot portion has an interfering slot corresponding to the tongue sheet; when the tongue sheet is inserted into the interfering slot to position the handle at the first position, the positioning hook is misaligned with the positioning slot without interference in the insertion direction; when the handle rotates to the second position, the positioning hook rotates to hook the positioning slot.
19. The tray mechanism of claim 12, wherein the casing further has a first protruding structure, the elastic member further has a second protruding structure, and when the tray is inserted into the casing and the first protruding structure pushes the second protruding structure, the interfering structure moves relative to the first board for not interfering with the pivot portion, so as to make the handle rotatable to the second position to be engaged with the first engaging structure.
20. The tray mechanism of claim 19, wherein the first protruding structure protrudes inward from the casing by a punching process, and the second protruding structure protrudes outward from the elastic member by a punching process.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 1, 2021
Publication Date: Jan 26, 2023
Applicant: Wistron Corporation (New Taipei City)
Inventor: Wei-Hao Chen (New Taipei City)
Application Number: 17/516,663