US 6,471,308 B1Granted

Frameless stackable cabinet system for rack mounted electronic equipment

AssigneeStorage Technology Corporation

InventorsMichael Vaughn Konshak, Dale Robert Eichel

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Abstract

The frameless, stackable cabinet system for use with rack mounted electronic equipment comprises stackable wall members that mechanically interconnect without the need for tools to assemble the cabinet. A base unit and cover unit provide the interlocking top and bottom members of the cabinet. The stackable wall members come in various heights and can be interlocked together and to both the base unit and cover unit to configure a cabinet of desired height. Each stackable wall member therefore not only provides a mounting site for a rack mounted piece of electronic equipment, but also serves to provide the wiring channels through openings formed in the stackable wall members. The cabinet system can be transported in a disassembled form to reduce shipping costs and can be simply assembled on site via the interlocking interconnection of the stackable wall members. The resultant cabinet can be reconfigured without a significant effort and the certification of the resultant cabinet configuration can be simplified.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A frameless, stackable cabinet system for housing a plurality of rack mounted apparatus, comprising:

a base unit, having two sets of fastener elements mounted on a top side thereof, each of said sets comprising a predetermined number of fastener elements in a predetermined pattern;
a plurality of wall members, each of which have said predetermined number of said fastener elements mounted on a top side thereof in said predetermined pattern and said predetermined number of fastener apertures formed in a bottom side thereof in said predetermined pattern to receive said predetermined number of said fastener elements mounted on a top side of a one of:
an adjacent wall member and said base unit;
and
wherein said plurality of wall members are stacked one on top of the other in two equal height stacks and mounted on said base unit, with said fastener apertures formed in a bottom side of a bottommost wall member of each stack receiving said predetermined number of said fastener elements of a corresponding one of said sets of fastener elements mounted on said top side of said base unit, and wherein said fastener elements are insertable through the corresponding fastener aperatures in a first direction and translatable in another direction to interlock adjacents ones of said plurality of wall members.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.