Digital Equipment Corporation

Other

Theodore Ernst Bruning

Ewaryst Z Polch

Robert George Ducharme

Nanjappa Bakthavachalam

Grant Edward Carlson

Richard E Mills

Mark F Amberg

Pat Eliot Collins

Benjamin Alma Young

Eugene McNany

Michael K Ferris

Julie T Pettit

Chad Everett Dewitt

The viscoelastic spacer is made of a layer of viscoelastic material and a layer of wear-resistant, low coefficient of friction material which together form a unitary structure for damping vibration. Spacers are placed at the top and bottom of a storage module containing a disk drive. Upon slidable insertion of the storage module into an enclosure, features on the inner surface of the enclosure engage with the spacer in a way which subjects the spacer to both compression and shear forces generated by vibration of the disk drive and of other vibration sources in the environment of the storage module.

Energy absorbing viscoelastic spacer for reducing vibration to disk

An EMI shielded enclosure has a plurality of electrically conductive walls. The conductive walls are electrically connected so electromagnetic radiation from within the enclosure cannot radiate through the walls. An EMI shield plate, that makes up at least one wall of the enclosure, is an electrically non-conductive, plastic wall with tunnel holes through the wall. The holes provide for air flow into and out of the enclosure. A conductive coating on the non conductive wall and the holes converts the non-conductive plastic wall into a conductive wall with waveguide attenuating. The waveguide attenuating holes, when so coated with the conductive layer, attenuate electromagnetic radiation passing from inside the enclosure through said holes to outside the enclosure. The waveguide attenuating holes effectively attenuate electromagnetic radiation at frequencies up to 5 gigahertz.

High frequency EMI shield with air flow for electronic device enclosure

Racks of modules especially useful for retaining disk drives, tape drives, controllers, computers and the like are fabricated via use of tower building blocks. Each block contains a latch arrangement for securing it to another block, a base unit or a cap unit with the latch effecting interlocking of the blocks so as to form a sturdy assembled structure. Power and/or electrical communication lines are provided in each block with power passing through one vertical array of blocks and electrical communications passing through the other so as to reduce the need for shielding one from the other. An arrangement of alignment pins and mating receptacle holes in conjunction with selected placement of sliding latch elements can facilitate proper coupling of blocks which have similar electrical path boards therein.

Tower building block system

In a multiblower system for cooling electronic components, each blower has a backflow preventor. The backflow preventor has two pieces of flexible material and a screen attached to the intake side of the blower assembly. Each of the pieces of flexible material is scored through to form a petaled opening through which air may pass. The scores on one of the pieces of flexible material are out of alignment with the scores on the other piece when assembled together in the blower assembly. When the blower is running, the petals in the pieces of flexible material open to allow air to pass through the blower assembly. When the blower is stopped, the petals are closed against the screen due to the pressure differential between the inside of the enclosure and the outside of the enclosure caused by the effect of the draw of the other blowers in the system. The non-aligned scores on the two pieces of flexible material causes a seal to be formed through which air may not pass back into the enclosure through the stopped blower. In addition, the flexible material acts as a damper between the blower assembly and the electronics enclosure. Further, the petaled opening of the backflow preventor directs air more toward the center of the blower creating a laminar airflow, reducing the turbulence of the air as it is removed from the enclosure.

High efficiency blower system with integral backflow preventor

A composite shelf in a shelf frame supports a plurality of disk drives and attenuates vibrations in the shelf. In the composite shelf, there is a double wall having an outer wall and an inner wall for supporting the disk drives mounted on the shelf. A stiffener between the inner wall and outer wall strengthens the composite shelf to reduce flexure in the composite shelf when the shelf is loaded by disk drives mounted on the shelf. A damping layer is placed between the stiffener and one of the inner wall or outer wall. This damping layer attenuates vibrations in the composite shelf so as to reduce vibrations transmitted from the composite shelf to the disk drives supported by the composite shelf. A second damping layer is placed between the stiffener and the other wall. Both damping layers attenuate vibrations in the composite shelf so as to reduce vibrations transmitted from the composite shelf to the disk drives supported by the composite shelf. A third damping layer may be placed within the stiffener. The damping layers may be formed of adhesive damping layers, or a damping layer sandwiched between two adhesive layers. Alternatively, the stiffener is a spacer member between the inner wall and the outer wall.

Attenuating vibrations in a mounting shelf for multiple disk drives

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Colorado Springs, CO, United States of America

Theodore Ernst Bruning