Environmental system for rugged disk drive

Abstract

An arrangement for supplementing passive heat transfer from a hard disk drive housing to a surrounding environmental housing includes active heat transfer devices and an arrangement biasing the disk drive housing into heat conducting contact with the environmental housing. The environmental housing includes a heat conducting outer shell and an internal heat conducting plate spaced from the shell, with the active heat transfer devices positioned in the space. In one embodiment, lifting devices having relatively moveable wedge members are actuatable to lift the disk drive housing into firm contact with the heat conducting plate. In another embodiment, the hard disk drive is moved into heat conducting contact by the cooperation of pins on the disk drive housing and inclined surfaces in the environmental housing, along with wedge members on a door of the environmental housing. The active heat transfer devices can be Peltier effect devices or heat pipes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.