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  Board unitThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060018105. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The disclosure of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2004-211233 (filed Jul. 20, 2004) and No. 2005-50231 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) including the specification, claims, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Technical Field [0003] The present invention relates to a board unit, and more particularly, to a board unit which is removably attachable to a board housing frame. [0004] 2. Background Art [0005] A technology for detachably attaching a circuit board on which electronic circuit components are mounted such as a print circuit board to a subrack constituting an electronic apparatus unit such as a communication device is known (for example, see "Background Art" in Patent Document 1: International Publication No. WO03/086039). In this example, a rectangular parallelepiped subrack 120 has a housing section 121 with an opening 121a on the front side for housing a plurality of circuit boards as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B. In the housing section 121, guide rails 127, . . . , 127 extend from the opening 121a toward the bottom. Front rails 124 and 124 are provided on the side of the opening 121a in the upper and lower panels of the subrack 120. Each of the front rails 124 has first handle contact parts 125 and second handle contact parts 126. [0006] As shown in FIG. 13, a circuit board 110 has a board connector 115 on its rear end, which is the right end as viewed in the drawing. The circuit board 110 has a front panel 111 on its front end, which is the left end as viewed in the drawing, and a pair of upper and lower insertion-extraction handles 100 and 100 at the upper and lower end of the front panel 111. [0007] As shown in FIG. 14A, each of the insertion-extraction handles 100 has an lockable part 102 on the rear end removably lockable with a handle locking part 112 provided on the circuit board 110, a contactable part 103 having first and second contactable parts 103a and 103b contactable with the first and second handle contact parts 125 and 126, respectively, of the front rail 124 of the subrack 120, and a pivot pin 104, located between the lockable part 102 and the contactable part 103, rotatably attached to a handle attaching member 140 provided on the circuit board 110. Each of the insertion-extraction handles 100 has a pressing operation part 100 with a first pressing operation part 101a and a second pressing operation part 101b at the front end. [0008] When the circuit board 110 is inserted into the subrack 120, the lockable parts 102 of the insertion-extraction handles 100 are removed from the handle locking parts 112 as shown in FIG. 14B and the circuit board 110 is inserted into the subrack 120. Then, the first pressing operation parts 101a of the insertion-extraction handles 100 are pressed upward as viewed in FIG. 14B (in the direction indicated by the arrow R1). The insertion-extraction handles 100 are thereby rotated about the pivot pins 104, and the first contactable parts 103a of the insertion-extraction handles 100 are brought into contact with the first handle contact parts 125 of the front rails 124 of the subrack 120. When the insertion-extraction handles 100 are further rotated, the first contactable parts 103a are rotated. Then, the circuit board 110 is moved backward (in the X1 direction in the drawing) with respect to the subrack 120 and the board connector 115 of the circuit board 110 is inserted into a subrack side connector (not shown) in the subrack 120. In this state, the lockable parts 102 of the insertion-extraction handles 100 are engaged with the handle locking parts 112 as shown in FIG. 14A. [0009] When the circuit board 110 having inserted into the subrack 120 is extracted therefrom, the second pressing operation parts 101b of the insertion-extraction handles 100 are pressed downward as viewed in the drawing (the direction indicated by the arrow R2), that is, in the direction opposite the direction in which the first pressing operation parts 101a are pressed. Then, the engagement between the lockable parts 102 and the handle locking parts 112 are released as shown in FIG. 14B, and the second contactable parts 103b of the insertion-extraction handles 100 and the second handle contact parts 126 of the front rails 124 of the subrack 120 are brought into contact with each other. When the insertion-extraction handles 100 are further rotated, the second contactable parts 103b are rotated. Then, the circuit board 110 is moved forward, that is, leftward as viewed in the drawing (in the X2 direction in the drawing), with respect to the subrack 120 and the board connector 115 of the circuit board 110 can be extracted from the subrack side connector 123 in the subrack 120. [0010] The insertion-extraction handles 100 of the circuit board 110 are made of a synthetic resin and so shaped that they can have resiliency as shown in FIG. 14A. As a result, the lockable parts 102 of the insertion-extraction handles 100 are urged toward the handle locking parts 112 so that the insertion-extraction handles 100 can be locked to the circuit board 110 with a prescribed locking force. This configuration prevents the circuit board 110 inserted into the subrack 120 from being easily extracted from the subrack 120. [0011] It is, however, difficult to obtain a desired locking force only by changing the shape of the insertion-extraction handles 100. Also, the insertion-extraction handles 100 have a problem in durability. When the insertion and extraction of the circuit board 110 are repeated or the circuit board 110 is left for a long period of time, the locking force may be lowered because of wear or creep of the lockable parts 102 and/or the handle locking parts 112. Further, since the handle locking parts 112 have to be fixedly provided on the circuit board 110, the production process is complicated and the production cost is high. DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION [0012] The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the conventional circuit board and it is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a board unit having an insertion-extraction handle locking structure with which a desired locking force can be easily generated and the locking force is hardly lowered, and which is low in production cost. [0013] A board unit according to the present invention is a board unit which is removably attachable to a board housing frame. The board unit has a board body; a panel body for fixedly supporting the board body, the panel body having a stopper insertion hole; an insertion-extraction handle rotatably supported by the panel body; and a spring unit non-fixedly held either in the stopper insertion hole or on the insertion-extraction handle. The insertion-extraction handle has an operation part; a frame engaging part configured to be engaged with a part of the board housing frame when the operation part is rotated to a specific fixed position and to be disengaged from the board housing frame when the operation part is rotated to a specific released position; and a stopper part configured to be inserted into the stopper insertion hole when the operation part is rotated to the fixed position and to be extracted from the stopper insertion hole when the operation part is rotated to the released position. The spring unit has a main spring part which, when the stopper part is inserted into the stopper insertion hole, applies a prescribed resistance to the insertion of the stopper part on the insertion-extraction handle and which, when the stopper part is extracted from the stopper insertion hole, applies a prescribed resistance to the extraction of the stopper part on the insertion-extraction handle. [0014] Although the features of this invention can be expressed as above in a broad sense, the constitution and content of this invention, as well as the object and features thereof, will be apparent by reference to the following disclosure taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0015] FIG. 1 is a front view of a subrack 1 as a board housing frame, into which a plurality of board units 2 according to one embodiment of the present invention have been inserted; [0016] FIG. 2A is a conceptual view for explaining the state of a board unit 2 inserted into the subrack 1, which corresponds to a right side view of the subrack 1; [0017] FIG. 2B is a conceptual view for explaining the state of the board unit 2 extracted from the subrack 1, which corresponds to a right side view of the subrack 1; [0018] FIG. 3A is an enlarged view showing a part of FIG. 2A in detail; [0019] FIG. 3B is an enlarged view showing a part of FIG. 2B in detail; [0020] FIG. 4A is a partial perspective view for explaining the state of the board unit 2 inserted into the subrack 1, in which the illustration of the subrack 1 is omitted; Continue reading... Full patent description for Board unit Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Board unit patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Board unit or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Electronic component mounted structure and optical transceiver using the same Next Patent Application: Frame assembly and electronic device Industry Class: Electricity: electrical systems and devices ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Board unit patent info. 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