Patent ID: 7215556

Claim:
A rack-mounted assembly comprising: one or more racks capable of containing one or more electronic card subsystems interconnected by a motherboard, and an insertion mechanism for allowing a card subsystem of the one or more card subsystems to be inserted into a rack of the one or more racks, said insertion mechanism constraining the card subsystem on insertion to travel in a first direction substantially parallel to a plane of the motherboard, and subsequently in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard and into electronic engagement therewith, wherein said insertion mechanism includes a carriage operable to move in and out of the rack along a track that extends in said first direction, and wherein the carriage is mounted to said card subsystem by a translation mechanism operable to convert motion of the carriage in said first direction relative to the card subsystem into motion of said card subsystem relative to the carriage in said second direction, and wherein the carriage further comprises an elastic biasing device that interacts with the card subsystem to elastically oppose motion of said carriage relative to said card subsystem in said first direction, the carriage further comprising a latch engageable with the rack to retain the carriage in its inserted position once the card subsystem has engaged with the motherboard.