Adjustable Depth Server Rack With Sliding Horizontal Supports
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing server information handling system racks have fixed depths, which can lead to inventory and logistics challenges due to mismatches with data center space, resulting in delayed installations and increased costs due to the need for multiple rack sizes and complex inventory management.
Innovation Solution
A server information handling system rack with adjustable depth, achieved through sliding horizontal supports that engage with fixed horizontal supports to extend or retract extensible vertical supports, allowing the rack to adjust between 1070 mm to 1200 mm depths, and a position sensor to report the depth configuration for inventory management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If server racks are manufactured with fixed depths to match specific data center spaces, then the racks can fit precisely in designated locations, but inventory and logistics complexity increases due to the need to maintain multiple rack sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The rack depth is made dynamically adjustable through a telescoping mechanism with sliding horizontal supports that can extend and retract. This allows a single rack design to adapt to multiple depth requirements (1000mm, 1070mm, 1075mm, 1200mm) without requiring separate fixed-depth rack inventories, thereby resolving the contradiction between adaptability and inventory complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The rack design incorporates universal features including adjustable depth, standardized 1U/2U vertical slot configurations, and compatible sled interfaces that work across different depth settings. This multi-functionality allows one rack design to serve multiple data center space requirements, eliminating the need to maintain separate inventories for different rack sizes
2Adaptability or versatility
If data centers maintain inventory of multiple rack sizes to match available space, then rack depth mismatches are avoided, but cost and complexity of servicing different data centers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The telescoping horizontal support mechanism enables the rack to be manufactured in a single standard size that can dynamically adjust to fit various data center depths. This eliminates the need for data centers to maintain inventories of multiple rack sizes, simplifying manufacturing, shipping, and servicing operations while maintaining depth compatibility
3Device complexity
If incorrect server rack or sled is delivered to data center, then inventory costs are reduced, but installation is delayed and customer experience deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The rack includes a position sensor that detects and reports the current depth configuration before installation. This preliminary detection allows data centers to verify rack compatibility with their available space before final installation, preventing delivery of incorrect racks and avoiding installation delays while maintaining simple inventory
Data Source
AI summary
A server information handling system rack has an adjustable depth to fit different sized server rack sleds and adapt the rack to different sized data centers. Fixed vertical supports couple to fixed horizontal supports to define a rack interior that adjusts in depth by sliding horizontal supports that change a position of extensible vertical supports coupled to the sliding horizontal supports. When a desired rack depth is set, the fixed horizontal supports and sliding horizontal supports are affixed to each other, such as with a screw that couples to a threaded nut of the fixed horizontal support.