AU2012100418A4 - Housing Cover For A Mobile Phone - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a sliding cover without a latching mechanism, especially for closing the battery compartment of a mobile phone. The cover is guided by the opposing grooves provided in the housing of the mobile phone. Retaining of the cover is achieved by using a friction spring applying force perpendicular to a sliding edge of the cover and in the direction of the plane of the cover. This arrangement allows use of unconventional materials such as sapphire glass for the cover. Figure 1 Figure 2

Description

I HOUSING COVER FOR A MOBILE PHONE FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a housing of a mobile phone and, more particularly, to a back cover for a mobile phone. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Back cover for a mobile phone is required to service the battery and also to access other components of the phone such as SIM card. The access is typically intended to be performed by the user of the phone and therefore the cover needs to be easy replaceable and the retaining mechanism needs to be reliable. In the present mobile phones these requirements lead to all sorts of latching mechanisms which occupy the valuable space in the phone. Furthermore, the latching mechanisms of the cover and the mating portion of the housing in many cases impact the architectural design of the phone housing. Not only is the design freedom impaired but the choice of materials is also limited. Advanced materials such as flat and scratch resistant sapphire are difficult to apply. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention overcomes the foregoing and other drawbacks by constructing the housing cover as a plate which fits opposing grooves in the phone housing. The convenient design of the groove is V shape and the sliding edges of the plate are chamfered to fit the V groove. [0004] In a typical operation the plate is inserted in the grooves and is free to travel initially but is clamped with a friction force before the end of the travel. [0005] The clamping is achieved with a leaf spring incorporated in one or both grooves. This spring acts in the plane of the cover perpendicular to the sliding edge and provides enough friction between the spring and the edge of the cover to retain the cover in the grooves of the phone housing.

[0006] One advantage of this construction is that the size of the battery cover can be reduced and thus its influence on the design of the housing can be minimized. Further advantage is that advanced materials such as flat and scratch resistant sapphire can be easily applied for battery cover. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is an oblique view of a mobile phone and a battery cover partially sliding into the back of the mobile phone; Figure 2 is a cross sectional view of the mobile phone taken along the line XX in Fig. 1; Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of the mobile phone taken along the line YY in Fig.2; Figure 4 is an oblique elevated view of the cover plate according to the present invention; Figure 5 is an oblique elevated view of the cover plate with a detent. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0007] According to FIG. 1 a mobile telephone comprises a housing 1 which encases the electronic components of the phone. The phone has a back face 2 which can have various openings such as camera window 3 and speaker 4. On the back side of the phone is also battery compartment 5 which can be closed by the cover 10. [0008] The cover illustrated in FIG 4.has two opposing parallel edges 11 and 12 which have guiding bevelled surfaces 13, 14, 15 and 16. In the preferred embodiment the two guiding surfaces of each edge are arranged to form 90 degrees included angle. [0009] The housing 1 of the phone has at the battery compartment two opposing V grooves 6 and which are spaced to accept the cover 10. The spacing of the V grooves is large enough to allow free travel of the cover along the grooves but constricting the movement of the cover in the direction perpendicular to the cover face surface. [0010] In order to retain the cover in place after the insertion one of the grooves is equipped with a leaf spring 20. The spring is inserted in the pocket 8 of the phone housing as illustrated in Fig. 2 and Fig.3. The spring has two clasps 21 and 22 which retain the spring in the pocked upon insertion. The spring also has a curvature 23 which upon sliding the cover over it forces the spring to flatten. This action creates retaining friction force between the edge 11 of the cover and the spring, as well as between the sliding surfaces 15 and 16 and the V groove 7 of the housing 1. Optionally the retaining of the cover can be enhanced by providing a concave detent 18 to the edge of the cover as shown in Fig. 5. [0011] In order to ease the cover over the spring 20 the leading corner of the cover edge has a chamfer 17 as shown Fig. 4.

Claims (4)

1. A mobile phone, having a cover slid thereto, said cover comprising: a plate, said plate having at least two parallel guiding edges, each said edge defines at least one chamfer surface, said surface slidingly fit corresponding groove of the phone body, wherein the plate is restrained in the direction perpendicular to the plate while said edges are engaged in the grooves of the body.

2. The mobile phone accoring to claim 1, wherein said guiding edge defines two symmetrical chamfer surfaces.

3. The mobile phone accoring to claim 1, wherein said guiding edge defines concave or convex surface.

4. The mobile phone accoring to claim 1, wherein at least one edge has a concave detent.