Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides an expansion card fixing structure which can save space and does not need tools when a user installs and removes an expansion card in a slot.
The invention provides an expansion card module which is provided with the expansion card fixing structure.
The invention provides an expansion card fixing structure which is suitable for fixing an expansion card on a slot. The expansion card fixing structure comprises a fixing piece and a clamping piece. The fixing piece is arranged on at least one side of the expansion card and fixed to the expansion card. The fastener is pivoted on the fixing piece. The fastener comprises a handle part and a hook part which are positioned at two opposite ends. When the fixing piece is fixed to the expansion card and the expansion card is inserted into the slot, the clamping hook part is suitable for being hooked to a bottom surface of one side edge part of the slot, so that the expansion card is not separated from the slot. The handle part is suitable for being pulled to enable the clamping hook part to exit from the bottom surface of the side edge part of the slot, so that the expansion card is suitable for being released from the slot.
The invention provides an expansion card module which is used for being fixed on a slot. The expansion card is provided with a through hole. The expansion card fixing structure comprises a fixing piece and a clamping piece. The fixing piece is arranged on at least one side of the expansion card and fixed on the expansion card. The fastener is pivoted on the fixing piece and comprises a handle part and a clamping hook part which are positioned at two opposite ends. When the fixing piece is fixed to the expansion card and the expansion card is inserted into the slot, the clamping hook part is suitable for being hooked to a bottom surface of one side edge part of the slot, so that the expansion card is not separated from the slot. The handle part is pulled to make the clamping hook part withdraw from the bottom surface of the side edge part of the slot so as to make the expansion card be separated from the slot.
In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion card fixing structure includes a U-shaped through groove located inside the fastening member and far away from the hook portion, and an opening direction of the U-shaped through groove faces the hook portion. The part of the clamping part far away from the clamping hook part is divided into a cantilever positioned in the U-shaped through groove and a handle part positioned outside the U-shaped through groove, and the tail end of the cantilever protrudes towards the fixing part and is abutted against the fixing part.
In an embodiment of the invention, the fastening member in the expansion card fixing structure includes a fixing post, and the fixing post is located on the cantilever or near the cantilever and is adapted to be fixed by a spring plate, so as to increase the structural strength of the cantilever.
In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion card fixing structure further includes a screw. The expansion card is provided with a through hole and the fixing piece is provided with a screw hole, and the screw penetrates through the through hole of the expansion card and is fixedly locked on the fixing piece.
In an embodiment of the invention, the fixing member in the expansion card fixing structure includes a main body and a top cover extending from the main body in a bending manner. When the fixing piece is fixed to the expansion card, the main body abuts against a first side face of the expansion card, and the top cover covers and abuts against a top face of the expansion card.
In an embodiment of the invention, the fixing member in the expansion card fixing structure includes a hook portion extending from the top cover in a bending manner. When the fixing piece is fixed to the expansion card, the hook part is positioned on a second side surface of the expansion card.
In an embodiment of the invention, the fixing member in the expansion card fixing structure includes two side walls extending to two sides of the fastening member. The two side walls comprise two through grooves sunken from the edges of the two side walls, two pivot grooves communicated with the two through grooves and two necking sections positioned between the two through grooves and the two pivot grooves. The clamping part comprises two pivot shafts protruding out of two opposite sides, the two pivot shafts are arranged in the two pivot grooves, and the calibers of the two necking sections are smaller than the diameters of the two pivot shafts.
Based on the above, the expansion card fixing structure of the invention utilizes the fastening member to pivot on the fixing member, when the fixing member is fixed to the expansion card and the expansion card is inserted into the slot, the fastening portion of the fastening member will be hooked to the bottom surface of the side edge portion of the slot, so that the expansion card is not separated from the slot. If the expansion card needs to be removed, the clamping hook part can exit from the bottom surface of the side edge part of the slot only by pulling the handle part of the clamping fastener, the clamping hook part cannot interfere with the bottom surface of the side edge part, and the expansion card can smoothly exit from the slot. Compared with the existing iron piece for fixing the expansion card, which needs to extend from the slot end to the rear window of the shell to occupy a certain volume, the expansion card fixing structure is used for fixing the expansion card in the slot, does not need to extend to the rear window of the shell, and can have a smaller volume. In addition, the existing iron piece for fixing the expansion card needs to be fixed on the rear window of the shell through screws, and the expansion card fixing structure can fix or unfixed the expansion card through the movement of the clamping piece, so that the time and the working procedure required by dismounting are effectively reduced.
In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
Detailed Description
Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a slot of an expansion card module fixed on a motherboard according to an embodiment of the invention. Fig. 1B is a schematic view of the expansion card module of fig. 1A after the handle portion is pulled. Referring to fig. 1A and fig. 1B, an expansion card module 1 of the present embodiment includes an expansion card 3 and an expansion card fixing structure 2 disposed on the expansion card 3. The expansion card 3 is suitable for being inserted into a slot 4 of a motherboard 5 so as to be electrically connected with the motherboard 5. In the present embodiment, the expansion card 3 is a PCI-E expansion card, and the slot 4 is a PCI-E slot, but the types of the expansion card 3 and the slot 4 are not limited thereto.
In the embodiment, the expansion card fixing structure 2 is fixed on the expansion card 3 and detachably fixed in the slot 4, so as to assist the expansion card 3 to be firmly fixed on the slot 4 of the motherboard 5 as shown in fig. 1A. In addition, the user can also operate the expansion card fixing structure 2 as shown in fig. 1B, so that the expansion card fixing structure 2 moves to a position where the expansion card 3 is not restricted to be separated from the slot 4, and the expansion card 3 can be easily removed from the slot 4. The detailed structure and operation of the expansion card fixing structure 2 will be described below.
Fig. 2 is an exploded view of fig. 1A. Fig. 3A is a sectional view taken along line a-a of fig. 1A. Referring to fig. 2 and fig. 3A, in the present embodiment, the expansion card fixing structure 2 includes a fixing member 10 and a fastening member 20 pivoted to the fixing member 10. In the present embodiment, the fixing member 10 is fixed to the expansion card 3.
In this embodiment, the expansion card module 1 further includes a screw 34. The expansion card 3 has a through hole 33, and the fixing member 10 has a screw hole 18 located in the main body 11. The screw 34 is adapted to pass through the through hole 33 of the expansion card 3 and is locked on the fixing member 10. Of course, in other embodiments, the fixing element 10 may be fixed to the expansion card 3 by clamping, riveting, adhering, and the like, and the fixing manner between the fixing element 10 and the expansion card 3 is not limited to the above.
In addition, in the present embodiment, the fixing member 10 is disposed on at least one side of the expansion card 3. In detail, as shown in fig. 3A, in the present embodiment, the fixing member 10 includes a main body 11, a top cover 12 and a hook 13, which are sequentially connected in a bending manner. The main body 11 abuts against a first side surface 31 of the expansion card 3. The top cover 12 is bent from the main body 11 and covers the top surface 35 of the expansion card 3 (e.g., the top surface 35 at the groove 36 in fig. 2). The hook 13 is bent downward from the top cover 12 and extends to a second side 32 of the expansion card 3.
As shown in fig. 3A, in the embodiment, the fixing member 10 is locked to the expansion card 3, and the main body 11, the top cover 12 and the hook 13 of the fixing member 10 respectively cover the first side surface 31, the top surface 35 and the second side surface 32 of the expansion card 3, so that the expansion card 3 is effectively prevented from moving upward or leftward and rightward relative to the fixing member 10, and the stability between the fixing member 10 and the expansion card 3 can be ensured. In addition, as shown in fig. 2, in the present embodiment, the groove 36 of the expansion card 3 can also be used to limit the relative position of the fixing member 10 assembled on the expansion card 3. When the fixing member 10 is assembled on the expansion card 3, the fixing member 10 can be limited in the groove 36 of the expansion card 3, and the fixing member 10 is prevented from moving along the extending direction (for example, the left-right direction in fig. 2) of the expansion card 3.
In addition, as shown in fig. 2, the fixing element 10 of the embodiment includes two side walls 14 located at the left and right sides of the main body 11, and when the fastening element 20 is assembled to the fixing element 10, the two side walls 14 extend to the two sides of the fastening element 20. The two side walls 14 comprise two through slots 15 recessed from the edges of the two side walls 14, two pivot slots 16 communicating with the two through slots 15, and two necked-down sections 17 located between the two through slots 15 and the two pivot slots 16. In the embodiment, there is a turn between the through slot 15 and the corresponding pivot slot 16, and the caliber of the necking segment 17 is smaller than the calibers of the through slot 15 and the pivot slot 16.
The latch 20 of this embodiment includes two pivot shafts 26 protruding from opposite sides. When the locking member 20 is assembled to the fixing member 10, the two pivot shafts 26 of the locking member 20 can enter from the two through slots 15 first, and an assembler can push the two pivot shafts 26 through the two necked-down sections 17 with a slight force, and finally the two pivot shafts 26 enter the two pivot slots 16 and rotate in the two pivot slots 16. In the present embodiment, the aperture of the through slot 15 and the pivot slot 16 is larger than the diameter of the pivot shaft 26, and the aperture of the necking section 17 is smaller than the diameter of the pivot shaft 26. Therefore, the pivot shaft 26 of the latch 20 is not easily released from the pivot slot 16 of the fixing member 10 during the rotation relative to the pivot slot 16 of the fixing member 10.
In addition, in the present embodiment, the locking member 20 includes a handle portion 21 and a hook portion 22 at opposite ends. The handle portion 21 is close to the top cover 12 of the fixing member 10, and the hook portion 22 is far from the top cover 12 of the fixing member 10. Pressing the handle portion 21 can correspondingly rotate the hook portion 22.
Referring to fig. 1A and fig. 3A, when the expansion card 3 is locked to the body 11 of the fixing member 10 and the expansion card 3 is inserted into the slot 4, the hook portion 22 of the locking member 20 is adapted to hook to a bottom surface 42 of a side edge portion 41 of the slot 4, so that the expansion card 3 is not separated from the slot 4.
More specifically, as can be seen in fig. 3A, the latch 20 is restricted from moving upward because the hook 22 of the latch 20 is hooked to the bottom surface 42 of the side edge 41 of the slot 4. In addition, the latch 20 is pivoted to the fixed member 10, and when the two pivot shafts 26 of the latch 20 are located in the two pivot slots 16, the latch 20 can only rotate relative to the fixed member 10 and cannot move. Therefore, when the hook 22 of the latch 20 is hooked to the bottom surface 42 of the side edge 41 of the slot 4, the fixing element 10 is jointly restricted from moving upward.
In this state, the top surface 32 of the expansion card 3 is restricted by the top cover 12 of the fixing member 10 and cannot move in the direction (upward) of coming out of the slot 4. In addition, in this state, the bottom of the expansion card 3 is located in the slot 4, the first side surface 31 and the second side surface 32 of the expansion card 3 are located between the body 11 and the hook 13 of the fixing member 10, and the slot 4, the body 11 of the fixing member 10 and the hook 13 together limit the expansion card 3 from moving in the left-right direction of fig. 3A, so that the expansion card 3 can be stably disposed in the slot 4.
Fig. 3B is a sectional view taken along line B-B of fig. 1B. When the expansion card is to be separated from the slot, referring to fig. 1B and fig. 3B, the user only needs to pull the handle portion 21 of the locking element 20 to make the handle portion 21 of the locking element 20 approach the main body 11 of the fixing element 10, and the hook portion 22 of the locking element 20 can rotate in the opposite direction to exit from the bottom surface 42 of the side edge portion 41 of the slot 4. At this time, the hook portion 22 of the locking member 20 is no longer limited by the bottom surface 42 of the side edge portion 41, and the entire expansion card module 1 (including the expansion card fixing structure 2 and the expansion card 3) can move upward relative to the slot 4 and be separated from the slot 4.
It should be noted that, in the present embodiment, the slot 4 is a PCI-E slot and has a side edge portion 41 protruding from the side surface, in other embodiments, the slot 4 may be other types of slots, and the position and form of the side edge portion 41 relative to the slot 4 are not limited thereto.
It should be noted that, referring back to fig. 2, in the present embodiment, the locking member 20 further includes a U-shaped through groove 23 located inside and far away from the hook portion 22, and an opening direction of the U-shaped through groove 23 faces the hook portion 22. That is, in fig. 2, the U-shaped penetration groove 23 has an inverted U-shape. The latch 20 is located at a position away from the hook 22, that is, the upper half of the latch 20 is divided by the U-shaped through groove 23 into a cantilever 24 located in the U-shaped through groove 23 and a handle 21 located outside the U-shaped through groove 23.
In the embodiment, the handle portion 21 and the cantilever 24 are integrated and located on the same side of the two pivot shafts 26 (above the two pivot shafts 26), and the cantilever 24 is linked to the handle portion 21. In addition, since the handle portion 21 and the cantilever 24 are separated by the U-shaped through groove 23, there may be a relative movement between the handle portion 21 and the cantilever 24. That is, when the handle portion 21 is pulled, the degree of the bending of the handle portion 21 may be different from the degree of the bending of the cantilever 24.
In addition, as shown in fig. 3A, in the present embodiment, the cantilever 24 has a turn at the end 28 away from the hook 22, so that the cantilever 24 is in an L-shaped structure, and the end 28 of the cantilever 24 protrudes toward the body 11 of the fixing member 10 to abut against the body 11 of the fixing member 10.
As shown in fig. 3B, when an external force is applied to the handle portion 21 of the locking element 20, the handle portion 21 of the locking element 20 is pulled toward the body 11 of the fixing portion 10, and the cantilever 24 is pressed toward the body 11 of the fixing portion 10 along with the handle portion 21, and is slightly deformed. At this time, the cantilever 24 accumulates energy of deformation. When the external force applied to the handle 21 is released, the energy accumulated in the cantilever 24 is released, so that the cantilever 24 returns to the original position, and the hook 22 is driven to return to the original position.
In other words, in the present embodiment, the expansion card fixing structure 2 uses the cantilever 24 of the latch 20 as a return structure of the latch 20, so that the latch 20 can return to the original position when not pressed, so as to ensure the position of the latch 20 relative to the fixing portion 10 under normal conditions. In other embodiments, the shape of the cantilever 24 is not limited. In addition, in other embodiments, the expansion card fixing structure 2 may also be configured to enable the fastener 20 to maintain a specific position in a normal state.
Referring back to fig. 2, in the embodiment, the locking member 20 further has fixing posts 25 and 27, and the fixing posts 25 and 27 are close to the cantilever 24. The fixing posts 25, 27 are used for fixing a reinforcing structure (not shown), such as a spring plate, to increase the structural strength of the cantilever 24. In this way, when the cantilever 24 is slightly deformed by being pressed toward the main body 11 of the fixing portion 10 along with the handle portion 21 as shown in fig. 3B, more energy is accumulated. The manufacturer can adjust the structural strength of the cantilever 24 to meet the requirements. In the present embodiment, the fixing posts 25 may be heat-melting posts, fastening posts, or riveting posts, and the type thereof is not limited. In addition, in other embodiments, the fixing posts 25 may also be located on the suspension arm 24, and the location and number of the fixing posts 25 are not limited thereto.
In summary, the expansion card fixing structure of the invention utilizes the locking member pivotally connected to the fixing member, when the fixing member is fixed to the expansion card and the expansion card is inserted into the slot, the locking portion of the locking member is locked to the bottom surface of the side edge portion of the slot, so that the expansion card is not separated from the slot. If the expansion card needs to be removed, the clamping hook part can exit from the bottom surface of the side edge part of the slot only by pulling the handle part of the clamping fastener, the clamping hook part cannot interfere with the bottom surface of the side edge part, and the expansion card can smoothly exit from the slot. Compared with the existing iron piece for fixing the expansion card, which needs to extend from the slot end to the rear window of the shell to occupy a certain volume, the expansion card fixing structure is used for fixing the expansion card in the slot, does not need to extend to the rear window of the shell, and can have a smaller volume. In addition, the existing iron piece for fixing the expansion card needs to be fixed on the rear window of the shell through screws, and the expansion card fixing structure can fix or unfixed the expansion card through the movement of the clamping piece, so that the time and the working procedure required by dismounting are effectively reduced.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it should be understood that various changes and modifications can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.