US Patent 9661787 Facilitating front access to rear-mounted assembly in equipment chassis

An equipment chassis includes a rear-mountable fan tray assembly (FTA) having a plurality of fans arranged into two or more FTA housing portions, the rear-mountable fan tray assembly being slidably insertable into and retractable from the equipment chassis for facilitating front-to-back airflow while providing ease of access. The FTA housing portions are articulatably coupled to each other and are arranged to follow a smooth motion path when traveling from a horizontal position to a vertical position and vice versa when the rear-mountable fan tray assembly is either inserted into or retracted from the equipment chassis, wherein a top FTA housing portion is guided by a top curvilinear tracking path and a bottom FTA housing portion is guided by a bottom curvilinear tracking path.