Drive Bay

Scope

An elegant product solution was required to house two 3.5in computer hard disks in as small a module as possible, include cooling and require no tools to install/remove a drive. Existing products on the market provided a solution but they were expensive and cumbersome. They also required tools and a reasonable amount of time to remove and install hard disks.

Design

A thorough design study, CAD modeling, simulation and rapid prototyping refined the design to a production ready state before commissioning tooling.

This two part plastic injection moulding design provides the solution. The front cover is completely removable with its fans, lock and indicator LEDs. Plastic injection moulding the front cover allowed many functions to be designed in such as screw bosses, cable restraints and routing, hinges and finger tab for cover removal. One electrical connector carefully designed in on the lock centreline, manages all the connections. For quick and easy fitting, drives are mounted on a simple tool free quick-release sheetmetal tray assembly that locks the drive in place on bay insertion. Closing the front cover on its concealed hook hinges secures the drives in place. All electronics are fastened to the bay rear via moulded-in screw bosses. Design here had to be robust as drives are pushed onto a mating connector.

This universal module is designed to be stackable or used alone within a range of data storage products. In the lone installation, the bay can also take a slimline CD/DVD drive via tool free features incorporating a plastic spring clip. The design also allows the CD/DVD drive to be removed without dismantling anything else.