Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-03
2004-06-15
Schuberg, Darren (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S689000, C248S560000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06751092
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic apparatuses and disk unit mounting mechanisms, and more particularly to an electronic apparatus and a disk unit mounting mechanism having a shock-resistant mounting structure of a disk unit such as a hard disk drive (HDD) in a portable electronic apparatus such as a notebook type personal computer.
In this specification, the disk unit refers to a magnetic disk unit, an optical disk unit, a magneto-optic disk unit, a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive (FDD), a CD-ROM drive and the like which record and/or reproduce information on and/or reproduce information from a disk-shaped recording medium.
Recently, the performance of the notebook type personal computer has improved, and it is becoming popular to mount in the notebook type personal computer a hard disk drive which has a large storage capacity and a high operation speed compared to a floppy disk drive.
A description will be given of a hard disk drive mounting structure of a conventional notebook type personal computer, by referring to FIG.
1
.
FIG. 1
is a disassembled perspective view of a notebook type personal computer
50
mounted with a hard disk drive. In
FIG. 1
, a hard disk drive (HDD)
52
is mounted in a HDD accommodating part provided on a back side of a front right of a housing
51
of the notebook type personal computer
50
.
In this case, the HDD
52
accommodates a disk-shaped storage media, a head, a motor and the like. The HDD
52
is fixed on an HDD mounting metal fitting
53
by a screw
54
so that a printed circuit side of the HDD
52
faces a HDD cover
57
. The metal fitting
53
is fixed on the housing
51
by a screw
55
.
In addition, a flexible printed circuit (FPC) cable
56
mounted on the housing
51
is arranged so as to electrically connect to the printed circuit of the HDD
52
. Thereafter, the HDD cover
57
slides to cover the HDD accommodating part of the housing
51
, and the HDD cover
57
is fixed to the housing
51
by screws
58
. No shock absorbing material or the like is used.
In the case of a magnetic disk drive mounted in a lap-top computer or the like, it has been proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.3-241583, for example, to provide a plurality of vibration-preventing rubber pieces between a housing and a side surface of the magnetic disk drive, so as to prevent a positioning error from being generated due to vibration of a magnetic head. It has also been proposed to use a combination of a plurality of vibration-preventing rubber pieces having damping characteristics with different temperature dependencies, so as to cope with a wide a range of temperature changes. In addition, its has also been proposed to use Sorbothane (trademark) which is made of an ether system polyurethane as the vibration-preventing rubber.
In addition, in the case of a fixed magnetic disk drive used in a large scale computer, it has been proposed in a Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application no.59-135504, for example to make the magnetic disk drive portable by accommodating the magnetic disk drive in an external box. It has been vaguely proposed to provide a plurality of shock absorbers such as shock absorbing rubber pieces between the external box and inner top, bottom and side surfaces of a main body of the magnetic disk drive, so as to greatly relax restricting conditions with respect to the vibration and shock.
However, in the notebook type personal computer mounted with the HDD described above, the HDD itself is becoming smaller and lighter due to the increased recording density of the HDD. Particularly when the HDD is light in weight there are increased opportunities for the HDD to be carried. On the other hand, the mechanical strength of the HDD deteriorates as the HDD becomes smaller. As a result, a shock applied on the HDD while the HDD is carried or during operation of the HDD may generate a fault.
For example, because the conventional HDD is fixed to the housing of the notebook type personal computer by screws, the magnetic head makes contact with the disk-shaped storage media when a shock is applied on the HDD which is carried or during operation of the HDD. The disk-shaped media is damaged when the magnetic head makes contact with the disk-shaped storage media, and this damage causes data destruction thereby generating a fault.
On the other hand, if a floating structure is used for the HDD, it becomes impossible to accurately set a head position due to residual vibration accompanying the rotation of the disk-shaped storage media when making a seek operation to make the magnetic head seek a recording region during operation. In this case, a read error is generated.
Further, in the case of the lap-top computer or the like, the vibration preventing rubber is provided on the side surface of the magnetic disk drive in order to make the magnetic disk drive vibration proof. However, no special considerations are made with respect to the shock, particularly the shock applied on the magnetic disk drive when the computer is carried. For this reason, the vibration preventing rubber does not provide a solution to the problems introduced when the magnetic disk drive is carried.
Moreover, the portable fixed magnetic disk drive described above is not intended for the general user, and the fixed magnetic disk drive is considerably large compared to the HDD mounted in the notebook type personal computer. For this reason, there are no strict demands to reduce the size and weight of the fixed magnetic disk drive, and various kinds of measures may be taken against the vibration and shock applied on the fixed magnetic disk drive. However, such measures which may be taken in the fixed magnetic disk drive do not suggest particular measures which may be taken with respect to the notebook type personal computer which is used by the general user and in which restricting conditions exist to reduce the size and weight of the HDD.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a novel and useful electronic apparatus and a disk unit mounting mechanism, in which the problems described above are eliminated.
Another and more specific object of the present invention is to eliminate the problem of data destruction caused by the shock applied on the disk unit such as the HDD, and to provide a disk unit mounting structure having improved reliability.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic apparatus mounted with a hard disk drive, wherein vibration and/or shock absorbing members which absorb vibration and/or shock are provided between the hard disk drive and a lid member which covers a hard disk drive accommodating part provided in a housing of the electronic apparatus. According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the vibration resistance and the shock resistance because the hard disk drive is protected by small pieces of the vibration and/or shock absorbing members. As a result, it is possible to prevent data destruction from being generated in the hard disk drive due to the shock and to prevent a read error from being generated in the hard disk drive due to the vibration. Accordingly, the reliability of the portable electronic apparatus such as the notebook type personal computer is greatly improved.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic apparatus mounted with a hard disk drive, comprising vibration and/or shock absorbing members which are formed by a plurality of small pieces and absorb vibration and/or shock are provided between the hard disk drive and a hard disk drive accommodating part provided in a housing of the electronic apparatus, and a sheet member is provided between the hard disk drive and the plurality of small pieces forming the vibration and/or shock absorbing members. According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the vibration resistance and the shock resistance because the hard disk drive is protected by small pieces of the vibration
Hamaguchi Toyokazu
Mutoh Hiroshi
Ohnishi Masuo
Armstrong Kratz Quintos Hanson & Brooks, LLP
Chang Yean-Hsi
Fujitsu Limited
Schuberg Darren
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