Shock absorbing holder and information processor having same

Details Shock absorbing holder and information processor having same Shock absorbing holder and information processor having same

1999-03-12

2001-09-04

Braun, Leslie A. (Department: 3632)

Supports

Miscellaneous

C361S689000, C361S689000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06283438

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shock absorbing holders and information processors having shock absorbing holders, and more specifically to a shock absorbing holder for holding a device vulnerable to shock such as a hard disk drive to protect the device against shock and securely storing the device after it has been removed from an information processor, and an information processor equipped with a device held by the shock absorbing holder.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, the weight, size and thickness of information processors such as notebook computers have been reduced, improving their portability to allow outside use and the like. In such a portable information processor, a hard disk drive is used as a storage device for storing information. There are growing numbers of occasions of attaching/detaching this storage device to/from the information processor as required in order to expand its storage capacity or secure stored information. Further, the removed storage device is carried or stored alone.
As a result, when the information processor is carried, the storage device held in the information processor is damaged by shock and vibration given through the information processor. Further, when the storage device is carried alone, unlike when carried using the information processor, shock and vibration are directly imported to the storage device, resulting in more damage to the storage device. Even the storage device being stored may suffer damage by unexpected shock and vibration under certain circumstances in the storage place.
To avoid these situations, various schemes have been devised to suppress shock and vibration to the storage device and prevent damage to the storage device regardless of whether the storage device is held in the information processor or not.
Described below is a conventional shock absorbing holder and an information processor using the shock absorbing holder referring to
FIGS. 23
,
24
and
25
.
FIG. 23
shows an information processor with a storage device held by a conventional shock absorbing holder embedded. For visibility,
FIG. 23
shows a state in which an open/close lid L of a storage device storing portion
1
c
of an information processor DPp is open. In the information processor DPp, a keyboard
4
is arranged on an approximately upper-half portion of a case
1
, and the storage portion
1
c
for components such as a storage device required to be attached/detached is provided on a lower-half portion thereof. Stored in the storage portion
1
c
are a main circuit board
2
and a storage device unit SU in which a hard disk drive is held by a shock absorbing holder. The storage device unit SU is connected to the main circuit board
2
by a signal cable
6
. The open/close lid L is mounted on the upper surface of the storage portion
1
c
. Further, a display portion
5
is reclosably mounted on the upper end portion of the case
1
.
FIG. 24
shows the structure of the storage device unit SU. The storage device unit SU is composed of a hard disk drive
3
, a shock absorbing holder
51
and a cover
52
. The shock absorbing holder
51
is molded of material with low hardness and repulsion, in a box container shape having a concave portion
51
c
in a shape according to the shape of the hard disk drive
3
. The cover
52
is flatly molded of the same material as that of the shock absorbing holder
51
.
The storage device unit SU is structured so as to accommodate the hard disk drive
3
in the concave portion
51
c
of the shock absorbing holder
51
and fit the cover
52
into the concave portion
51
to hold down the hard disk drive
3
. Part of the signal cable
6
of the hard disk drive
3
is kept extended outside of the storage device unit SU between the shock absorbing holder
51
and the cover
52
so as to connect to the main circuit board
2
, as described above.
FIG. 25
shows a state of the storage device unit SU when the information processor DPp receives shock from its side surface. When shock is imported from an arrow Fa direction to the case
1
of the information processor DPp, a force to move in a Fr direction opposed to the Fa direction occurs in the hard disk drive
3
. However, the shock absorbing holder
51
and the cover
52
are made of material with low hardness and low repulsion, and therefore, as the hard disk drive
3
moves in the Fr direction, portions adjacent to the hard disk drive
3
in the shock absorbing holder
51
become deformed to absorb the shock on the hard disk drive
3
. Such deformation prevents damage to the hard disk drive
3
by shock.
When the hard disk drive
3
is removed from the case
1
and carried or stored for capacity expansion and security, the hard disk drive
3
is not handled as the storage device unit SU, but is removed from the shock absorbing holder
51
and the cover
52
and handled alone.
As described above, gel material with low hardness and low repulsion is conventionally adopted for the shock absorbing holder
51
in order to improve a shock absorbing effect in the information processor. However, due to gel material's low hardness and repulsion, the shock absorbing holder
51
molded in a box container shape does not have a freestanding characteristic. That is, the shock absorbing holder
51
cannot keep its box shape without some other supporting means. Therefore, when the shock absorbing holder
51
is set in the storage portion
1
c
of the case
1
before the hard disk drive
3
is embedded in the case
1
, the shock absorbing holder
51
loses its shape.
With the shock absorbing holder
51
having no freestanding characteristic and losing its shape, it is very difficult to assemble the storage device unit SU. Since the shock absorbing holder
51
changes its shape during assembly of the storage device unit SU, stable shock absorbing capability and holding capability cannot be ensured even when the storage device unit SU was managed to be assembled.
To cope with these problems, the following three methods have been conventionally used. A first method increases the hardness of the material of the shock absorbing holder
51
to prevent it from losing its shape. A second method increases the wall thickness of the material of the shock absorbing holder
51
more than required to ensure a freestanding characteristic. A third method makes the size of the concave portion
51
c
of the shock absorbing holder
51
larger than the size of the hard disk drive
3
so that the shock absorbing holder
51
can accommodate the hard disk drive
3
even after losing its shape.
However, as in the first and third methods, with the hardness of the material of the shock absorbing holder
51
increased and with the size of the concave portion
51
c
made next larger than that of the hard disk drive
3
, the shock absorbing holder
51
cannot sufficiently receive the hard disk drive
3
when the case
1
receives shock and cannot protect the hard disk drive
3
enough against the shock. Also in the second method, increasing the wall thickness of the shock absorbing holder
51
more than required is against the requirement of reduction in weight, size and thickness of the information processor, as described later.
When the shock absorbing holder
51
is made of gel material with high shock absorbing capability, the following problem may further occur. That is, since gel material has high viscosity, the shock absorbing holder
51
intimately contacts with the case
1
, which makes it difficult to attach/detach the storage device unit SU to/from the case
1
. Due to low thermal conductivity, it is difficult for gel material to dissipate heat from the hard disk drive
3
. As a result, overheating of the held hard disk drive
3
is likely to occur.
Furthermore, in recent years, the size and thickness of information processors has been reduced for improving portability. Therefore, the thickness of the shock absorbing holder has to be reduced. A hard disk drive is also reduced in thickness and structured in a flat shape,

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