Patent Publication Number: US-2007097699-A1

Title: Light-guiding structure having spring member and positioning portion for being assembled to a panel easily

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to light-guiding structures, and more particularly, to a light-guiding structure able to be applied to a panel of an electronic device.  
      2. Description of Related Art  
      With development of the science and technology, powerful electronic equipments have been widely used in our daily life and become one necessary part of our life. As to an enterprise, how to use these electronic equipments such as servers in a network environment to collect and manage information is particularly important.  
      The electronic equipments such as servers are usually mounted in a cabinet in a stack manner or side by side. A plurality of hard disk drives could be mounted in each of the servers and a required system could be installed in each of the hard disk drives.  
      Meanwhile, in order to secure internal circuit components or mechanical components, to prevent dust and to obtain a decorative effect, a housing or a panel is usually mounted on the server. The housing or panel is fixed to the server by a plurality of screws and screw holes formed in the server so that the housing or panel could be removed if needed such as for maintaining, testing or operating the server.  
      In an effort to maintain electronic equipment, a set of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) indicating status of different units in the electronic equipment are aggregated so that a user or technician could easily identify a failing unit according to a fault LED.  
      However, after a panel is mounted to the electronic equipment, the user or technician has to look through perforations formed in advance in the panel to identify a fault LED. Thus, it is difficult for the user or technician to precisely and quickly determine a fault occurrence of any of the units. To overcome this problem, a plurality of light-guiding columns is mounted to the panel so that light of the LEDs below the panel could be guided to the outside. In this way, the user or technician could clearly view the light of the LEDs and easily identify a failing unit according to a fault LED.  
      However, these light-guiding columns are usually fixed to the panel permanently and irremovably. Once the light-guiding columns are not available, the whole panel needs to be replaced, thereby resulting in high maintenance cost.  
      Therefore, there exists a need to provide a light-guiding structure that can be assembled and disassembled without the need of any tools.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      To overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a light-guiding structure that can be assembled and disassembled without the need of any tools.  
      It is another objective of the present invention to provide a light-guiding structure of low maintenance cost.  
      To achieve the above and other objectives, a light-guiding structure for a panel having a plurality of first engaging portions and a first positioning portion is provided. The light-guiding structure includes a main body, a plurality of light-guiding poles installed on the main body and having a plurality of second engaging portions for engaging with the first engaging portions of the panel, and at least a spring member installed on the main body and having a second positioning portion for engaging with the first positioning portion of the panel.  
      Each of the light-guiding poles is preferably to be pervious to light and is made of acryl. Each of the second engaging portions is preferably to be designed as a protrusion. The spring member is preferably integrated with the main body and is in the form of a leaf and in the shape of one selected from the group consisting of characters “U” and “V”, and a plurality of connected Us and connected Vs. In the preferred embodiment, the second positioning portion is a circular or a rectangular convex point. In another embodiment, the second portion is a recess corresponding to the first positioning portion.  
      In the present invention, elastic force generated by the spring member allows the light-guiding structure to be assembled and disassembled without the need of any tools. As a result, a user or technician is allowed to assemble and disassemble the light-guiding structure more quickly and conveniently. Accordingly, the problem that the light-guiding columns are mounted to the panel permanently and irremovably is solved.  
      Meanwhile, the light-guiding structure of the present invention can be easily replaced if needed such as when the light-guiding structure is too old or out of function. Compared with the prior art that needs to replace the whole panel in the same circumstance, the present invention reduces maintenance cost.  
      Other aspects and features will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a front view of a light-guiding structure diagram of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of a panel to which the light-guiding structure shown in  FIG. 1  is applied of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention;  
       FIG. 3  is a rear view of the light-guiding structure shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 4  is an amplified view of the light-guiding structure shown  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 5A  is a schematic diagram of the light-guiding structure shown in  FIG. 1  and the panel shown in  FIG. 2  after the light-guiding structure has been mounted on the panel; and  
       FIG. 5B  is a partially amplified view of the assembled light-guiding structure and panel shown in  FIG. 5A . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      FIGS.  1  to  5 B are diagrams according to the preferred embodiments of the present invention. For purpose of simplification and in order to make the characteristics and structure of the present invention more clear, the drawings merely show structures related to the present invention.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 1 , a light-guiding structure  1  comprises a main body  11 , a plurality of light-guiding poles  13  and at least a spring member  15  installed on the main body  11 . And referring to  FIG. 2 , a panel  3 , to which the light-guiding structure  1  is applied, comprises a plurality of first engaging portions  31  and a first positioning portion  33 . The following embodiment refers to a panel of a server, but it is only exemplary and the panel should not be limited thereto.  
      The main body  11  is designed according to a length of the panel  3  and is made of elastic material. In the present embodiment, the main body  11  is a whole piece to be assembled to the panel  3 . But the main body  11  is not limited thereto. The length of the main body could be changed as long as it meets the requirement of the panel  3 . In addition, a plurality of main bodies  11 , that is, a plurality of light-guiding structures could be mounted on the panel  3 .  
      As shown in  FIG. 3 , each of the light-guiding poles  13  installed on the main body  11  has a second engaging portion  131  for engaging with its corresponding first engaging portions  31 . In the present embodiment, the light-guiding poles  13  are arranged at positions spaced from each other and each of the light-guiding poles  13  is pervious to light and is made of acryl or the like. Each of the second engaging portions  131  is a protrusion, which is to be assembled to its corresponding first engaging portion  31  such as an opening. Accordingly, light of the LEDs (not shown) below the panel  3  could be guided to the outside so that the user or technician could manage or maintain the equipment according to the light.  
      The spring member  15  installed on the main body  11  has a second positioning portion  151  which could be elastically coupled to the first positioning portion  33 . In the present embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 4 , a plurality of the spring members  15  are integrated with the main body  11 . Each of the spring members  15  is a U-shaped leaf spring. The second positioning portion  151  is installed in a region on the spring member  15  far from the main body  1 , and is a circular convex point corresponding to the first positioning portion  33 , which is a circular opening.  
      Each of the spring members  15  could be a leaf spring of a V-shape, a continuous U-shape, a continuous V-shape or the like, as long as it can be elastically assembled to the panel  3 . Meanwhile, each of the second positioning portions  151  is not limited to the circular point. Each of the second positioning portions  151  could be in any shape as long as it can be elastically assembled to the first positioning portion  33 . For example, if the first positioning portion  33  is a rectangular hole, the second positioning portion  151  is a rectangular protrusion. If the first positioning portion  33  is a convex point, the second positioning portion  151  is a recess. In another word, structures of the first positioning portion  33  and the second positioning portion  151  are interchangeable and are not limited to the drawings.  
      Moreover, in the present embodiment, two spring members  15  are installed between every two neighboring light-guiding poles  13  after every four continuous light-guiding poles  13 . But the number, structure and position of the light-guiding poles  13  are not limited thereto, which could be changed according to arrangement of the LEDs below the panel.  
      To mount the light-guiding structure  1  on the panel  3 , what we only need to do is to assemble the second engaging portions  131  of the light-guiding poles  13  to the first engaging portions  31  of the panel  3  and assemble the second positioning portion  151  of the spring member  15  to the first positioning portion  33  of the panel  3 , which needs not any tools. The final structure is shown in  FIG. 5A  and  FIG. 5B .  
      As shown in  FIG. 5A , the main body  11  is closely installed on an inner surface of the panel  3 . Each of the light-guiding poles  13  installed corresponding to each of the LEDs below the panel  3  guides the light to a region outside of the panel  3 .  
      As shown in  FIG. 5B , while mounting the light-guiding structure  1  on the panel  3 , each of the spring members  15  is compressed, and the elastic force generated by the spring members  15  allows the second engaging portions  131  to be firmly assembled to the first engaging portions  31  and the second positioning portion  151  to be firmly assembled to the first positioning portion  33 . On the other hand, to disassemble the light-guiding structure  1  from the panel  3 , elasticity of the spring member  15  makes it easy to separate the second engaging portions  131  from the first engaging portions  31  and separate the second positioning portion  151  from the first positioning portion  33 .  
      As a result, the light-guiding structure could be assembled and disassembled easily and conveniently without the need of any tools, solving the problem of the prior art that the light-guiding structure is irremovably fixed to the panel.  
      In addition, such a light-guiding structure makes it easy to be replaced independently when it is damaged or deteriorated without the need of replacing the whole panel, thereby reducing the maintenance cost compared with the prior art.  
      Although a few preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention.