Abstract:
A mounting mechanism for multiple computer storage drives mounts at least one drive so that it may be swung out for easy access to the drive and to its cable connectors. The mechanism comprises a drive cage mounting bracket, a hinge, and appropriately adapted chassis, so that the mounting bracket is hingeably connected to the chassis to swing open for access and to swing closed for operation. The bracket is adapted so that, when in the open position, the cable connector of at least one mounted drive is distal from the hinge and chassis and thus easily accessible. A preferred embodiment provides for releaseably locking the bracket in the closed position. Furthermore, the bracket preferably mounts a hard drive so that it is suspended within the airspace above the computer motherboard for easier cooling.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention. 
     This disclosure relates to computer disk drives generally, and more particularly to methods of hingedly mounting disk drives within a computer system. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     In the past, installation, maintenance and upgrading of storage drives either in desktop personal computers or in rack mountable systems in a central location has often posed difficulties because of the mounting arrangement used and limited space available for accessing connectors and other components of storage drives. This makes access to them difficult in most cases due to the presence of power supplies, boards, other external drives, and other various sheet metal and other plastic parts. Indeed, in systems where multiple drives are installed, access to one drive may be considerably hampered by the orientation and cabling of the other drives. 
     Furthermore, typical external drive peripheral connections and cables are located at the rear of such external drives, e.g., for tape, CD, DVD, floppy and hard drives. Access is therefore difficult for such drives even after the computer cover is removed. 
     Because of such difficulties of access to computer drives, in the past users have often been faced with having to make blind connections and in many cases, to navigate their hand through narrow sheetmetal openings. In addition to resulting in inefficiency in installation, maintenance and upgrading of computer drives, poor user accessibility to computer drives in the past has lead to improper connections, damaged components and even injury to the user. 
     What is needed is an improved method of mounting drives in a computer system that allows for easy and fast access to the drives and to their connections for installation, maintenance, upgrading and other purposes. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved drive mounting system which is capable of housing multiple drives within a limited centralized area while also providing quick and easy access to the drives, and in particular the rear of the drives, when necessary. It is a further object of this invention to provide such an improved drive mounting system with a minimum of parts, for economy and ease of construction. 
     The present invention discloses an improved drive cage mounting bracket apparatus for mounting multiple storage drives, the bracket hingedly connected to the computer chassis to rotate about an axis in the plane of the drives, whereby the entire bracket with mounted drives may be rotated into an open position that presents easy access to the drives and particularly to the rear of the drives. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other objects, advantages, features and characteristics of the present invention, as well as methods, operation and function of related elements of structure, and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become apparent upon consideration of the following description and claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures, and wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention, showing the drive cage mounting bracket in the open position without mounted drives. 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the present invention in the open position showing typically cabled drives mounted therein. 
     FIG. 3 and 3A are close-up perspective views of the present invention in the open position without mounted drives. 
     FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the present invention in the open position, showing the means of mounting drives and hinge mechanism. 
     FIG. 5 is a plane view of the hinge mechanism of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific preferred embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. To avoid detail not necessary to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the description may omit certain information known to those skilled in the art. The following description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the invention is defamed only by the appended claims. 
     Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention comprises a bracket  104  for holding the drives, hingedly connected to computer chassis  102  by way of hinge pin  128 . Referring to FIG. 2, in which are illustrated a CD-ROM/DVD drive  108 , a 3½ inch diskette drive  110  and a hard drive  112  mounted within bracket  104 , it will be noted that the hinge axis running along hinge pin  128  is advantageously parallel to the plane of drives  108 ,  110  and  112 . Therefore, bracket  104  swings perpendicularly to the plane of drives  108 ,  110  and  112 , as indicated by arrow  106 , thereby in the open position allowing easy access to drives  108 ,  110  and  112  generally. 
     Furthermore, because bracket  104  is hinged at pin  128  advantageously toward the front of CD-ROM/DVD drive  108  and 3½ inch diskette drive  110 , by opening bracket  104 , the user particularly exposes the backs of drives  108  and  110 , thereby obtaining easy access to connectors  114  thereon disposed. In certain preferred embodiments as illustrated, hard drive  112  is advantageously mounted distally from hinge pin  128 , stacked with CD-ROM/DVD drive  108 , and advantageously disposed so that the back side of hard drive  112  is orthogonal to the back side of CD-ROM/DVD drive  108 . The distal mounting of hard drive  112  facilitates accessibility, while orienting hard drive  112  so that its back is orthogonal to the back of CD-ROM/DVD drive  108  reduces the likelihood that cables  114  from one of drives  108  and  112  will hinder access to the other drive or its cables  114 . 
     As is well known among those of ordinary skill in the art, while all types of storage drives generate waste heat in operation, removal of such waste heat is of most critical importance for hard drives, in general the most thermally sensitive of storage drives. In preferred embodiments, hard drive  112  is mounted on bracket  104  so that when bracket  104  is in the closed, operational position, hard drive  112  is disposed below CD-ROM/DVD drive  108 , with the underside of hard drive  112  advantageously largely exposed to air within chassis  102 . The exposed underside of hard drive  112  in these embodiments facilitates heat transfer and efficient cooling of the hard drive by the air that is transported by the system fan (not shown) within chassis  102 . 
     Turning to the construction of the invention in its preferred embodiments, bracket  104  is formed of a single sheet of metal, in the preferred embodiment SECC 0.8 gauge zinc-coated, cold-rolled steel. Design features of bracket  104  are implemented by bending, press-cutting, drilling and punching. In this embodiment, CD-ROM/DVD drive  108  is retained side-by-side with diskette drive  110  within bracket  104 . For retaining drives  108  and  110 , bracket  104  is fashioned in a form resembling a square sideways “S”, with one drive mounted in one curve of the “S” and the other drive mounted in the other curve. The bracket  104  thereby surrounds each drive  108 ,  110 , and  112  on three sides. In this embodiment, diskette drive  110  is surrounded on its top and two smaller sides, while CD-ROM/DVD drive  108  is surrounded on its bottom and two smaller sides. 
     Advantageously, to secure bracket  104  in the closed position, supporting and locking element  116  is provided, as shown in FIG.  3 . In some embodiments, element  116  is secured to chassis  102 , in a preferred embodiment integrally as a metal piece punched, bent and formed from the sheet metal of chassis  102  itself In some embodiments, supporting and locking element  116  may be secured to chassis  102  in such a way as to permit a certain amount of biased flexing of element  116  with respect to chassis  102 , as further described below. 
     In these embodiments, supporting and locking element  116  supports bracket  104  by presenting surface  120  upon which the bottom of bracket  104  rests in the closed position. Secured upon bracket  104  is locking tooth  114 , in the preferred embodiment integrally as a metal piece punched, bent and formed from the sheet metal of bracket  104  itself. Disposed within supporting and locking element  116  is aperture  118  so aligned as to receive locking tooth  114  of bracket  104  when bracket  104  is in the closed position, thereby retaining bracket  104  from hingedly opening from the closed position. In preferred embodiments that permit element  116  to flex under bias with respect to chassis  102 , to release locking tooth  114  from engagement with aperture  118  and thereby unlock the bracket for hingedly opening, a user grasps a planar surface  122  of supporting and locking element  116 , pulling it upward and inward against bias. This pull causes supporting and locking element  116  to flex, moving aperture  118  away from engagement with locking tooth  114  of bracket  104 , thereby freeing bracket  104  to be hingedly opened. 
     As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, other means may be employed for supporting and releaseably locking bracket  104 . In contrast to the embodiments described above, supporting function may be provided by an element that is physically discrete from the element providing the locking function. The element supplying the supporting function and/or the locking function may be integral to chassis  102 , bracket  104  or to the overall hinge mechanism, or, in the alternative, such element may be a discrete component affixed thereto. Any structure that serves to stop pivoting of bracket  104  when it is in the closed position can serve the supporting function. Such structures, well known to those skilled in the art, include tabs, pins or platforms relatively fixed with respect to chassis  102 . In the alternative, such structures may comprise mechanisms of the hinge that retard pivoting past a certain point, such as a camming of the hinge. In addition, a diverse variety of locking mechanisms of varying degrees of complexity and functionality are available in the art for providing locking function, including bolts, engaging cams, locking detents, and all other means of releaseably locking one component to another known to those of skill in the art. 
     Turning now to the manner of securing drives  108 ,  110  and  112  within bracket  104 , and referring to FIG. 4, mounting holes  124  are disposed within bracket  104  to align with mounting screw holes provided in drives  108 ,  110  and  112 . In a manner well known to those in the art, the drives  108 ,  110  and  112  are secured within bracket  104  by way of screws  126  inserted through holes  124  to engage matching mounting screw holes in drives  108 ,  110  and  112 . Because of the three-sided enclosure of each drive by bracket  104  in the preferred embodiment, screws  126  on only one side of each drive are sufficient to secure drives  108 ,  110  and  112  to bracket  104 . 
     Turning now to the hinge mechanism of the present invention, a hinge is provided comprising a substantially rod-shaped hinge member  128 , that in the preferred embodiment is composed of a high strength, flexible plastic material such as nylon. As shown in FIG. 5, the hinge rod is inserted through matching aligned hinge points  130 ,  136  on chassis  102  and hinge points  132  on bracket  104 , and in the embodiment shown is secured by engagement of biased flexible toothed portion  134 , which has been flexibly inserted through hinge point  136  on chassis  102 , thereafter engaging at said hinge point  136  by bias of toothed portion  134 . By allowing pivoting at hinge points  130 ,  132 ,  136  about hinge  128 , the mechanism permits bracket  104  to rotate about the axis of hinge  128 . 
     Although the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it should be recognized that elements thereof may be altered by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications and equivalents as can be reasonably included within the scope of the invention. The invention is limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.