Equipment racks are utilized to house a variety of different types of electronic equipment. For instance, a rack-mount chassis installed within a rack may be utilized to hold server computers, mass storage devices, telecommunications equipment, and a wide variety of other types of electronic equipment. The Electronic Industry Association's (“EIA”) standard EIA-310-D sets forth the standard dimensions and specifications for cabinets, racks, panels, and associated equipment utilized in standard-sized racks.
In order to accommodate the many different types of equipment that may be mounted within a particular rack-mount chassis, the rack-mount chassis may have a large number of holes drilled in its bottom panel. These holes may be drilled in different mounting patterns according to the mounting requirements of different types of equipment. For instance, different types of printed circuit board standards exist that have different types of mechanical mounting requirements.
In order for a rack-mount chassis to support the mounting of each different type of printed circuit board, different mounting patterns need to be drilled into the bottom panel of the rack-mount chassis. In this manner, a single rack-mount chassis may be utilized to accommodate the mounting of different board types. The mounting patterns for the different board types are specified by their respective specifications, such as the ATX standard, the Baby AT standard, or the full AT standard. Other standards may also be utilized for mounting sleds for holding mass storage devices and other types of equipment. When a rack-mount chassis includes mounting holes for a variety of board or equipment types, the mounting pattern in the rack-mount chassis is often referred to as a “universal” mounting pattern.
Although a universal mounting pattern allows many different types of equipment to be mounted within a rack-mount chassis, these universal mounting patterns may also cause difficulties. In particular, the many different holes in the rack-mount chassis that comprise a universal mounting pattern may make it very difficult for a machine or a human installer to determine which holes correspond to the mounting pattern for a piece of equipment to be installed. For instance, a human installer may need to identify six or eight holes from as many as 25 or 30 holes in a universal mounting pattern. This can be difficult for a human or computer installer to accomplish.
The difficulty in locating the appropriate mounting holes for a particular piece of equipment can result in serious inefficiency on the assembly line and cause the assembly of a rack-mount chassis to be more expensive. This is particularly true if a human assembler or a machine assembler accidentally places mounting hardware in the wrong holes. This type of error may not be detected until the assembler actually tries to install the printed circuit board or other piece of equipment into the rack-mount chassis. At that time, the assembler would need to remove the improperly placed mounting hardware, identify the correct holes for the mounting hardware, and then reinstall the mounting hardware. The reduced efficiency caused by such accidental misplacement of mounting hardware can become extremely expensive over time and substantially increase the manufacturing costs for the complete rack-mount chassis.
Therefore, in light of the above, there is a need for a method and apparatus for mounting printed circuit boards and other types of components within a rack-mount chassis that can correctly identify the particular mounting holes for a specified mounting pattern. Moreover, there is a need for a method and apparatus to assist in mounting printed circuit boards or other electronic components that can improve installation efficiency and reduce the cost of manufacturing the complete rack-mount chassis assembly.