Hard drive carrier design permitting floating retention of a connector assembly to facilitate blind mating of the connector assembly in a hard drive bay

摘要

A one-piece carrier body is disclosed for floatingly supporting a removable hard drive in a hard drive bay of a computer system. A printed wire assembly (PWA) board or card mounts on the carrier to provide an interface connection between the hard drive and internal connectors in the hard drive bay. The carrier body has a connector end for receiving the PWA board, which includes side guide channels that are molded using a reverse draft through core-outs in the carrier base. The side channels have a general trapezoidal shape, with a wide base portion and a narrow top portion. The connector end of the carrier body also includes a front lip and a transverse rib defining a guide channel on the base of the carrier body. The endpoints of the narrow top portion of the side guide channels align in the same plane as the base of the front lip and the rib, respectively, to prevent the PWA board from tilting after it is inserted in the connector end. The side guide channels and the base guide channel are designed with clearance for the board to permit the PWA board to float in the x, y, and z directions to facilitate blind mating of the connectors on the PWA board to the internal connectors in the hard drive bay. In addition, a pair of spring ground contacts are provided to bias the PWA card in the z direction to enable the PWA board to engage the internal connectors regardless of the positioning of the PWA board in the base guide channel.