Rapid fastening screw apparatus and method

Abstract

A press-in fastening apparatus and method couples a screw with a nut by pushing the screw through an opening of the nut along a slip axis and rotating the nut to align a lock axis with the inserted screw. The opening of the nut along the slip axis has a diameter greater than the diameter of the screw and the opening of the nut along the lock axis has a diameter that engages screw threads with nut threads. In one embodiment, the nut is disposed in a housing coupled to an information handling system and biased to align with the lock axis so that a module is secured to the information handling system by aligning a screw coupled to the module with the nut and pushing the screw into the nut. The module is removed from the information handling system by unscrewing the screw with engagement of the screw threads and nut threads.

1 - 25 . (canceled)  
   
   
       26 . An apparatus for fastening first and second devices, the apparatus comprising: 
 a screw coupled to the first device, the screw having threads at a minor diameter and a major diameter; and    a nut coupled to the second device, the nut having an opening with threads, the opening operable to accept the screw;    wherein the screw couples to the nut by pushing the screw threads against the nut threads to move the nut threads from a position having the minor diameter to a position having the major diameter during insertion of the screw, the nut threads biased to return to the position having the minor diameter to couple with the inserted screw.    
   
   
       27 . The apparatus of  claim 26  wherein the nut opening further comprises a slip opening having the major diameter and a lock axis offset from the slip axis, the nut threads aligned along the lock axis, the nut rotationally coupled to the second device to rotate to the slip axis during insertion of the screw and to rotate to the lock axis after rotation of the screw.  
   
   
       28 . The apparatus of  claim 27  further comprising a biasing mechanism interfaced with the nut and operable to rotationally bias the nut to the lock position.  
   
   
       29 . The apparatus of  claim 26  wherein the nut threads comprise spring fingers extending into the nut opening along the screw insertion axis, the spring fingers flexing to move the threads to the major axis during screw insertion and to return the threads to the minor axis after screw insertion.  
   
   
       30 . The apparatus of  claim 29  further comprising four spring fingers disposed in the opening, each spring finger having an end with varying height from the nut so the ends form a thread that aligns with the screw threads.