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US 7,374,453 B1Granted
Enclosure-to-rail retaining system and method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsDavid John Allcock, Hafiz Talukder
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein relates to an enclosure-to-rail retaining system. The system includes, a rail that is fastenable to a structure, and an enclosure that is receptive of the rail. The enclosure has a slot therein that intersects a channel therein and is slidably engagable by a clip such that a portion of the clip can extend into the channel to thereby narrow a portion of the channel to a dimension less than a width of the rail.
Claims19
An enclosure-to-rail retaining system, comprising:
- a rail having a rail width and being fastenable to a structure;
- an enclosure having a surface with a channel having a channel width, the channel width being greater than the rail width, the enclosure being void any fixed portion that reduces the channel width to less than the rail width, the channel thereby being receptive of the rail, the enclosure also having at least one slot therein intersecting with the channel;
- and
- at least one clip having a substantially C shape slidably engagable within the at least one slot, a portion of the at least one clip being extendable into the channel to thereby narrow a portion of the channel to a dimension less than the rail width, the at least one clip having an opening in the C shape that engages ramped surfaces of the enclosure that ramp to a larger opening of the C shape as the at least one clip reaches a midpoint between the first position and the second position.
1 more element
An enclosure-to-rail retaining system, comprising:
- a rail having a rail width and being fastenable to a structure;
- an enclosure having a surface with a channel having a channel width, the channel width being greater than the rail width, the enclosure being void any fixed portion that reduces the channel width to less than the rail width, the channel thereby being receptive of the rail, the enclosure also having a plurality of slots therein intersecting with the channel, at least two of the plurality of slots being located on opposite sides of the channel from one another;
- a plurality of clips slidably engagable within the plurality of slots, a portion of each of the plurality of clips being extendable into the channel to thereby narrow a portion of the channel width to a dimension less than the rail width;
- and
- at least one post on each of the plurality of clips extending substantially perpendicular to a plane defining each of the plurality of clips, the at least one post being flexibly resilient in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane defining the at least one clip.
2 more elements
A method of attaching and detaching an enclosure to a rail, comprising:
- positioning the rail within a channel of the enclosure;
- lockably engaging the rail within the channel in response to narrowing a portion of the channel with a portion of at least one clip by repositioning the at least one clip from a second position to a first position relative to the enclosure;
- flexing a C shape of the at least one clip over at least one ramped surface to a larger opening of the C shape at a midpoint between the first position and the second position thereby biasing the at least one clip to one of the first position and the second position;
- disengaging the rail from the channel in response to widening the channel to a full channel width by repositioning the at least one clip from the first position to the second position;
- and
- removing the rail from within the channel.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.