The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 19, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 15, 1998
David F. Bolognia, Kingwood, TX (US);
Keith J. Kuehn, Houston, TX (US);
Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A manually operable ejector assembly is mounted on the front side of a carrier that supports a hot-pluggable disk drive for removable slidable insertion into a sheet metal cage structure portion of a computer system. The ejector assembly includes a main ejector lever which is pivotally spring-biased in a forward direction outwardly from the front side of the carrier, and is releasably held in a pivotally retracted position by a slide bar member that is spring-biased toward a retaining position in which it overlies a free end of the ejector lever. To remove the carrier from the cage, the slide bar member is slid away from the free ejector lever end, thereby permitting the lever to be spring-driven outwardly to an intermediate open position in which it conveniently forms a pull-handle but does not disconnect the drive from the backplane connector. The lever may be then pivoted further outwardly to exert a mechanically advantaged force on the cage to disconnect the drive from the backplane connector and permit the carrier to be pulled forwardly out of the cage. To reinstall the drive, the carrier is slidingly reinserted into the cage and the lever is pivoted inwardly to its retracted position to reconnect the drive to the backplane connector. As the lever reaches its retracted position it cammingly displaces the slide bar member which then snaps back over the free lever end to releasably hold the lever in its retracted position.