Electrical connectors – With coupling separator – Including retainer or joiner
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-24
2004-02-03
Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With coupling separator
Including retainer or joiner
Reexamination Certificate
active
06685489
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
Various electrical components may be placed on a circuit board that facilitates the electrical components' electrical connection to a computing device. For instance, components such as processors, memory modules, and peripheral devices may be mounted to a circuit board that can be inserted into and removed from a computing device such as a computer housing or “box.”
Circuit boards are often configured for insertion into a card bay of the computing device in which they are to be used. Various card slots are provided in the card bay to guide the circuit boards to an electrical connector, such as a pin connector, that is configured to couple with connector elements, such as pins, provided on the circuit boards.
Typically, it is desirable to permit insertion and removal of the circuit boards so that the circuit boards may be replaced, for instance to replace defective elements or upgrade hardware. Such insertion and removal can, however, be physically difficult, particularly where a plurality of pins must be inserted into or removed from a pin connector. In particular, a large amount of force may be necessary to both insert the pins into the pin connector, and remove the pins from the connector.
To aid the user in inserting and removing circuit boards and to prevent damage to the circuit boards or the connectors to which they connect, leverage mechanisms are sometimes provided that provide a mechanical advantage to the user during the insertion or removal process. Typically, such leverage mechanisms comprise a simple lever that, when pulled or pushed (as the case may warrant), forces the circuit board into or out of contact with its electrical connector. More particularly, many leverage mechanisms comprise a lever that is connected to a tab or latch that is configured to interface with a lip provided in the card bay. When the lever is actuated (i.e., rotated), the tab or latch is forced against the lip to either force the circuit board into or out of contact with its electrical connector, depending upon the rotational direction in which it is moved.
Although providing the mechanical advantage required to insert or remove the circuit board without difficulty, existing leverage mechanisms require a relatively large amount of space to accommodate the lever because the lever must normally be relatively long to provide the required amount of leverage and therefore requires a relatively large amount of real estate adjacent the edges of the circuit boards with which they are used. In some applications, there simply is not enough room for these long levers due to other computing device components or housing frame. Therefore, the circuit board must either be moved to a card slot in which greater space is available, or the leverage mechanism must be removed, thereby requiring the user to insert and remove the circuit board without the mechanical advantage normally provided by the mechanism.
SUMMARY
Disclosed is a circuit board leverage mechanism. In one embodiment, a leverage mechanism comprises a first gear member configured to rotatably mount to a circuit board, the first gear member including gear teeth and at least one tab that is configured to engage a card guide in which the circuit board may be inserted, and a second gear member configured to rotatably mount to the circuit board in proximity to the first gear member, the second gear member including gear teeth that mesh with the gear teeth of the first gear member, the second gear member further including a lever, wherein rotation of the lever effects rotation of the second gear member and opposite rotation of the first gear member which causes the at least one tab of the first gear member to engage the card guide and urge the circuit board into or out of contact with an electrical connector.
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patent: 6045377 (2000-04-01), Kajiura
patent: 6354164 (2002-03-01), Megason et al.
Clements Bradly
Rubenstein Brandon
Hewlett--Packard Development Company, L.P.
Paumen Gary
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