Housing access door construction for a portable computer docking station

摘要

The housing of a portable computer docking station has an exterior wall with an opening formed therein through which a PC card may be inwardly passed for operative insertion into a PC card ejection mechanism disposed within the housing in a facing, inwardly spaced relationship with the exterior wall opening. A molded plastic access door member has a pair of outwardly projecting pin portions which are releasably snap fitted into socket structures formed on interior housing mounting walls to thereby support the door for pivotal movement between closed and open positions in which the door respectively blocks and unblocks the exterior wall opening. Complementarily sloped surfaces on the pins and the sockets are engageable in a manner resiliently deforming the door as it approaches either of its closed and open positions and then permitting the door to return to its original shape. As it returns to its original shape the door automatically drives itself through a final distance to its closed or open position as the case may be. The engageable sloped surfaces on the pins and socket structures, together with interengageable detent structures on the pins and sockets, function to releasably hold the door in its closed or open position. In this manner the door itself is used as an opening and closing spring, thereby eliminating the need for a separate spring member.