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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsRobert George Emberty, Craig Anthony Klein, Daniel James Winarski
Estimating the term…
One embodiment of a picking tool for an automated library of disk drives has an electromagnet, a tapered hole, and a ventilation system. The ventilation system has a box fan with an impeller for moving air through ducting located within the picking tool. The ducting includes a vents located adjacent to one surface of the picking tool. The picking tool is designed to work in conjunction with a disk drive carrier having a front bezel equipped with a tapered guide pin that is complementary to the tapered hole, and vent ports. The guide pin provides alignment between the carrier and the picking tool. The automated disk drive library has a rack with drawers for containing the carriers. The picking tool is mounted to a robotic arm for selectively engaging and interfacing with the carriers. After the picking tool aligns with a desired carrier, the picking tool moves toward the carrier to insert the guide pin into the tapered hole. The disk drive is ventilated by activating the ventilation system to force air through the ducting and vents to cool the disk drive via the vent ports. Ventilation may be performed regardless of the operational status of the disk drive.
A system for interfacing with and handling disk drives in an automated library having a drawer with a drawer connector, the system comprising:
An automated disk drive library, comprising:
A method of ventilating disk drives in an automated library having a drawer with a drawer connector, the method comprising:
A picker in a disk drive library, comprising:
A method of using a picker in a disk drive library, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.