Patent Publication Number: US-2007114253-A1

Title: Covering member

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates generally to a covering member, and more particularly, to a covering member applicable to a spare bay of a server device.  
      2. Description of Related Art  
      Servers play an increasingly dominant role in information management. One of the most important features of the server is that a plurality of hard disks can be plugged in and utilized to store a mass of data and information. In addition to hard disks, floppy disks or controller cards can also be designed to the same form factor as hard disks to match the hard disk bay, so as to expand the applicability of the hard disk bay.  
      However, in situations where not all of the hard disk bays are utilized, any spare bays of the must be filled by a suitable covering member for preventing dust from entering and affecting the inner electrical apparatus. Referring to  FIGS. 1A and 1B , a prior-art covering member capable of filling in a spare bay is shown.  
      As shown in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , a covering member  1  includes a spring-stop block  10  for increasing inner friction with the spare bay of a server when filling the bay, a finger hole  110  for withdrawing the member during removal, an operating hole  111 , an opening  112  for exposing a retaining hook (mentioned subsequently), jointing portions  12  for connecting to each side of the covering member  1 , and jointing portions  13  for installing a latch member  14  in advance. The latch member  14  includes an operating handle  141  protruding through the operating hole  111 , a hook  142  protruding through the opening  112 , and jointing portions  143  for fixing with the jointing portions  13 .  
      The above prior-art covering member  1  is formed by folding and fixing a metal plate, requiring numerous jointing portions. Such fabrication may employ welding, riveting, punch riveting, or the like to accomplish jointing. Moreover, in addition to fabrication work to the various sides of the covering member  1 , the latch member  14  must additionally be fabricated, thereby increasing the material cost and also making the jointing process more complicated, further increasing the overall fabricating cost. Furthermore, in that the covering member  1  must smoothly slide into a spare bay of a server, irregular objects such as the redundant welding slag after welding and the convex nail-heads after riveting and the like formed on the surface during fabricating the covering member  1  must be eliminated by grinding and pressing, in order not to provide for smooth movement of the covering member in the spare bay, thus increasing fabrication costs and complexity.  
      Moreover, the latch member  14  is jointed to the covering member  1 , and openings  111  and  112  must be formed on the covering member  1  to allow the operating handle  141  and hook  142  to respectively protrude there through, thereby making the structure of the covering member  1  more complex and further increasing costs.  
      Meanwhile, when removing the covering member  1 , the user must plunge a finger into the finger hole  110  with one hand, and move the latch member  14  that protrudes outside the front surface of the covering member through opening  111  with the other hand, thereby making the operation much more inconvenient.  
      Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a covering member with simple structure to fill in an unutilized spare bay.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the above prior art by providing a covering member that has both simpler construction and fabrication, so as to reduce the fabricating cost.  
      It is another objective of the present invention to provide a covering member capable of being easily disassembled from the spare bay of a server device.  
      In order to attain the above-mentioned objectives and others, a covering member is provided according to the present invention. The covering member includes a hollow body capable of being inserted in a spare server bay, an opening formed on a side surface of the hollow body and extended toward a region outside of the spare bay; a spring unit formed on a surface of the hollow body for limiting the degree of freedom of the hollow body in the spare bay; and a functional unit extended from the side surface of the hollow body, the functional unit having a spring arm, a second latch portion disposed on the spring arm for engaging with the first latch portion, and an operating portion moving in accordance with the movement of the spring arm and capable of being operated by a finger through the opening.  
      According to the preferred embodiment, the operating portion is a suspension link to allow it to be operated through the opening; and the opening is a finger hole for a finger to protrude through to operate the operating portion that is slightly dislocated with the opening, so as to allow for the user to push the operating portion toward the opening. The first latch portion in the spare bay of the server can be a latch hole, and the second latch portion can be a corresponding a hook. The spring unit can be a spring piece to provide a degree of movement freedom for the hollow body in at least one direction of the spare bay.  
      Compared with that the covering member in the prior art that uses many jointing portions, thereby making fabrication more complicated and increasing the fabricating cost, the functional unit of the covering member according to the present invention is extended from the hollow body as an integral whole, such that it can be formed of a metal plate by stamping and folding, so that the manufacturing process is simplified and the usage of material is reduced, thus further reducing the overall fabrication cost. In addition, the operating portion of the covering member according to the present invention is formed inside the hollow body, such that, when the covering member fills in the spare bay, the covering member can be easily pulled out by moving the operating portion toward the opening and then hooking the opening and pulling with just one hand, thus making the operating portion much easier to operate than the prior art. Therefore, the covering member according to the present invention has overcome various drawbacks of the prior art, due to its simple structure, low fabrication cost, and easy operation. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIGS. 1A and 1B  are two perspective diagrams of a covering member according to the prior art.  
       FIG. 2  is a perspective diagram of a covering member of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 3A  is a bottom view of the covering member shown in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 3B  is another perspective diagram of the covering member shown in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 4A  is a side view of the covering member shown in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 4B  is a cut-away view of the covering member shown in  FIG. 3B . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      The following illustrative embodiments are provided to illustrate the disclosure of the present invention, these and other advantages and effects will be apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the disclosure of this specification. The present invention may also be implemented and applied according to other embodiments, and the details may be modified based on different views and applications without departing from the spirit of the invention. In addition, it should be noted that the drawings are all simplified diagrams and merely illustrate the basic structure according to the present invention. As such, they merely illustrate the components pertaining to the present invention, and the illustrated components may not be drawn according to number, shape, dimensions, and size proportions of the components as implemented in real applications. The number, shape, dimensions, or size proportions of the components in actual implementation is a selective design matter, and the layout of the components may be more complex.  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of a covering member  2  of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention. The covering member  2  fills in a spare bay of a server having a first latch portion (not shown). The integrated covering member  2  comprises a hollow body  20 , a spring unit  21 , an opening  22  and a functional unit  23  having an operating portion  232 . It should be noted that the spare bay of the server of the preferred embodiment is a spare bay of a pocket controller, but other spare bays with the similar function or structure can also be applied to the covering member as described in the preferred embodiment, such variations being apparent to those skilled in the art, so such will not be described.  
       FIG. 3A  is a bottom view of the covering member  2 .  FIG. 3B  is another perspective diagram of the covering member  2 . Both of  FIGS. 3A and 3B  are used to illustrate the spring unit  21  and the opening  22  of the covering member  2 . The spring unit  21  is formed on a surface of the hollow body  20  for limiting the degree of freedom of the hollow body in the spare bay. According to the preferred embodiment, the spring unit  21  comprises a plurality of spring pieces integrated on two adjacent surfaces of the hollow body  20  and protruded obliquely outward. The spring pieces disposed on the two adjacent surfaces of the hollow body  20  are used to limit the degree of freedom along two directions of the hollow body  20  in the the spare bay, so as to provide a guiding function automatically. It should be noted that the format of the spring unit  21  is not limited to what described in the exemplary embodiment, the format of the spring unit  21  can be in other forms, e.g., the spring unit  21  is merely disposed at the corner of the hollow body  20 , and, at the same time, used to limit the degree of freedom in the two directions. Such structural variances of the spring pieces are apparent to those skilled in the art, thus will not be described further.  
      The opening  20  is disposed on a side surface of the hollow body  20 . According to the preferred embodiment, the opening  20  is disposed on a side surface of the hollow body  20  toward to a region outside of the spare bay, and is designed to have a size large enough to admit a finger.  
       FIG. 4A  is a side view of the covering member  2 .  FIG. 4B  is a perspective view of the covering member  2 . Both of  FIGS. 4A and 4B  are used to illustrate the functional unit  23 . The functional unit  23  is integrated with and extended from a side surface of the hollow body  20 . The functional unit  23  comprises a spring arm  231  extended from the side surface of the hollow body  20 , a second latch portion  230  disposed on the spring arm  231  for engaging with the first latch portion of the server, and an operating portion  232  moving in accordance with the movement of the spring arm  231  and capable of being operated by a finger through the opening  22 .  
      According to the preferred embodiment, the spring arm  231  is integrated with and extended from the side surface of the hollow body  20 , the second latch portion  230  is in the shape of a hook, and the operating portion  232  is integrated with and perpendicular to the side surface of the hollow body  20  by folding an end region of the spring arm  231  toward a front side of the hollow body  20 , and it is adjacent to the opening  22 . The operating portion  232  is in the shape of a suspension link, and dislocated with the opening  22 . A dislocated distance between the operating portion  232  and the opening is preferably not less than a distance for pushing the second latch portion  230  away from the first latch portion (not illustrated), so as to admit the finger of a user to actuate the operating portion  232 , such as in the shape of a suspension link for unlatching the covering member  2  from the bay.  
      In summary, the covering member of the prior art includes many jointing portions, thereby making fabrication more complicated and increasing fabrication costs, whereas the functional unit of the covering member according to the present invention is extended from the hollow body as an integral whole, so it can be formed of a metal plate by stamping and folding, so that the manufacturing process can be simplified and material consumption can be reduced, thereby reducing the overall fabrication cost. In addition, the operating portion of the covering member according to the present invention is formed inside the hollow body, such that, when the covering member fills in a spare bay, the covering member can be easily pulled out with one hand by moving the operating portion toward the opening and then hooking the opening and pulling, thus it is much easier than the prior art to operate the covering member. Therefore, the covering member according to the present invention provides increased value due to its simple structure, low fabrication cost, and easy operation.  
      As described above, the covering member according to the present invention has good performance in preventing dust, and assembles and disassembles smoothly and conveniently, in addition to the other merits such as its simple structure and low fabricating cost. However, the above-described descriptions of the detailed embodiments are only illustrated to disclose the features and functions of the present invention and are not restrictive of the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the present invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the present invention, provided they fall within the scope of the present invention as defined in the following appended claims.