JP2002144941A - Cup holder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an improved cup holder capable of stably retaining cups of various sizes and requiring no large size. SOLUTION: The cup holder has a bottomed cylindrical part capable of accommodating at least one part of a drink container (container accommodation part 6 in an embodiment); a support member (8) pivotally tiltably supported on an axis along a tangent of the bottomed cylindrical part with a free end capable of coming into contact with an outer periphery surface of the drink container; and a driving means (urging part 13, pinion 15, rack gear 17 in the embodiment) tiltingly driving the support member so as to vary a projection amount of the free end of the support member from an inner periphery surface of the bottomed cylindrical. Thereby, drink containers of various sizes can be stably retained by varying the projection amount of the free end of the support member from the inner periphery surface of the bottomed cylindrical part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cup holder, and more particularly, to a cup holder suitable for use in a console box of an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As one of accessories for automobiles, a cup holder incorporated in an instrument panel or a center console box is known. There are various sizes of drink containers held by the cup holder, such as 350 ml cans, 250 ml cans, and paper cups, and it is quite difficult to stably hold these in a single cup holder.

In order to cope with such inconvenience, a flexible flap-shaped holding piece is formed on the inner casing, and an outer casing which is displaceable in the circumferential direction is provided outside the inner casing. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-129327 proposes a cup holder in which the amount of radially inward projection of a holding piece is changed by a cam means provided between them.

[0004]

However, according to this prior art, since the amount of protrusion of the holding piece is given by the lift of the cam means, a gap corresponding to the lift of the cam means is required between the inner and outer casings. Therefore, it was difficult to reduce the size of the entire cup holder.

The present invention has been devised to solve such problems of the prior art, and has as its main object to stably hold cups of various sizes and to increase the size of the cup. An object of the present invention is to provide an improved cup holder so that the cup holder does not need to be made.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a bottomed cylindrical portion capable of accommodating at least a part of a beverage container (a container accommodating portion in the embodiment). 6), a supporting member (8) pivotally supported on an axis along a tangent line of the bottomed cylindrical portion and having a free end thereof in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the beverage container, and an inner peripheral surface of the bottomed cylindrical portion. Characterized in that it has drive means (pressing portion 13, pinion 15, rack gear 17 in the embodiment) for tilting and driving the support member so as to change the amount of protrusion of the free end of the support member from the cup holder. We decided to provide. With this configuration, it is possible to stably hold beverage containers of various sizes by changing the amount of protrusion of the free end of the support member from the inner peripheral surface of the bottomed cylindrical portion.

In the second aspect, the driving means is movable outside the bottomed cylindrical portion along the axis of the bottomed cylindrical portion, and is engaged with the pivot end side of the support member. It had a sliding member (outer sleeve 7 in the embodiment). As a result, the driving means can be provided without increasing the radial dimension, so that the installation space can be reduced.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the driving means is provided with a rack gear (17) formed on the slide member along the axial direction, and is meshed with the rack gear by being pivotally supported by a portion integral with the bottomed cylindrical portion. And a pinion (15). This allows the slide member to be displaced in the axial direction by rotating the pinion,
A substantial operation stroke is small.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the pair of support members are arranged to face each other with the center of the bottomed cylindrical portion interposed therebetween. According to this, when the mounting portion (the base portion 5 in the embodiment) of the bottomed cylindrical portion is rectangular, the support member can be disposed at the corner of the rectangle, so that the entire device is not enlarged. Only

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an entire cup holder constructed according to the present invention. This cup holder 1 is installed in a center console box 4 provided between a driver's seat 2 and a front passenger seat 3 of a passenger car, for example, as shown in FIG.

The cup holder 1 includes a rectangular base portion 5 as a fixing portion to the top plate of the center console box 4, a bottomed cylindrical container housing portion 6 coupled to the lower surface of the base portion 5, and a container. The outer sleeve 7 surrounds the housing 6. Although the one shown in FIG. 1 has two container housings 6 arranged side by side, they have exactly the same structure and can be implemented with only one. Therefore, only one side will be described below. .

The container accommodating section 6 is provided with two pairs (four) of support members 8 at positions opposing each other with the center of the container accommodating section 6 interposed therebetween. As shown in FIG. 5, these support members 8 are composed of an upper piece 8a and a lower piece 8b, and have a substantially L-shaped cross section, and have an upper piece 8a and a lower piece 8b.
Is pivotally supported on the upper end on the outer peripheral side of the container housing 6 by a support shaft 9 extending along a tangent to the circumference of the container housing 6. One of the two pairs of support members 8 is provided at a position corresponding to a corner of the base 5.

A torsion coil spring 10 is mounted on the support shaft 9, and when no external force is applied, the state shown in FIG. 5, that is, the upper piece 8a extends in the left-right direction and the lower piece 8b
The support member 8 is elastically urged so as to keep the position extending in the vertical direction.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the outer sleeve 7 has a cylindrical shape surrounding the outer periphery of the container housing 6, and has four axial ribs 11 formed on the outer peripheral surface of the container housing 6.
And is coupled to the container housing 6 so as to be vertically slidable. The outer sleeve 7 is prevented from falling downward by a projection 11 a provided on the axial rib 11.

The outer sleeve 7 is provided with a support member receiving portion 12 at a position where the outer peripheral surface thereof is divided into four equal parts.
The pressing portion 1 provided at the upper end of the support member receiving portion 12
3 is in contact with the upper surface of the upper end 8a of the support member 8 at the free end.

A bearing piece 14 is provided vertically on the lower surface of the base portion 5 integral with the container housing portion 6. This bearing piece 14
Has a pinion 15 and a dial 16 integrated with the pinion.
Is pivoted. The pinion 15 is formed in a vertical rack gear 1 formed at an appropriate position on the outer surface of the outer sleeve 7.
7 is engaged.

A circular projection 18 is formed at an appropriate position on one of the axial ribs 11. The outer sleeve 7 is provided with a vertical slit 19 in which the width of the general portion is smaller than the outer diameter of the protrusion 18 so as to receive the protrusion 18 tightly. On the inner surface of the slit 19, three notches 20 having dimensions substantially equal to the outer diameter of the projection 18 are provided at appropriate intervals.

Next, the operation of the device of the present invention will be described.

When the dial 16 whose outer periphery is partially exposed from the upper surface of the base portion 5 is turned, the pinion 15 integral with the dial 16 rotates, and the rack gear 17 meshed with the pinion 15 moves up and down. As the rack gear 17 moves up and down, the outer sleeve 7 integrated with the rack gear 17 moves up and down,
The four support members 8 engaged with the pressing portion 13 at the upper end of the outer sleeve 7 simultaneously tilt.

The tilt angles of the four support members 8 change according to the vertical position of the outer sleeve 7, and the tilt angles of the support members 8 cause the support members 8 from the inner peripheral surface of the container accommodating portion 6 to move.
Of the free end of the lower piece 8a changes. Thereby, it is possible to cope with the difference in the outer diameter of the beverage container.

When the protrusion 18 provided on one axial rib 11 engages with any one of the three notches 20 in the slit 19, a click feeling is generated when the outer sleeve 7 is moved up and down. If the position at which the click feeling occurs is determined according to the size of a typical beverage container, the set can be set by fumbling so that the projecting amount of the free end of the lower piece 8a of the support member 8 is optimal according to the desired size. can do.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, by changing the amount of protrusion of the free end of the support member from the inner peripheral surface of the container housing portion, it is possible to stably drink beverage containers of various sizes. Can be held.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the support member can be tilted and driven by the outer sleeve moving along the axis of the container accommodating portion, so that the radial dimension does not increase. This is effective for reducing installation space.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the rack / pinion mechanism tilts and drives the support member to reduce the substantial operation stroke, it is effective in improving operability. .

Further, according to the configuration of the fourth aspect, when the base shape of the container accommodating portion is rectangular, the support member can be arranged at the corner of the rectangular shape, which can contribute to downsizing of the device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a cup holder according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a passenger compartment of a passenger car showing an application site of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a partial top view of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a partial sectional view taken along line VV in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cup holder 2 Driver's seat 3 Front passenger seat 4 Center console box 5 Base part 6 Container accommodation part 7 Outer sleeve 8 Support member 9 Support shaft 10 Torsion coil spring 11 Axial rib 12 Support member receiving part 13 Pressing part 14 Bearing piece 15 Pinion 16 Dial 17 Rack gear 18 Protrusion 19 Slit 20 Notch

Claims (4)

[Claims] A bottomed cylindrical portion capable of accommodating at least a part of the beverage container; and a pivotally pivotally supported pivotally on an axis along a tangent to the bottomed cylindrical portion, and a free end thereof is provided on an outer peripheral surface of the beverage container. A support member that can come into contact with the support member; and a driving unit that tilts and drives the support member so as to change the amount of protrusion of the free end of the support member from the inner peripheral surface of the bottomed cylindrical portion. Cup holder. 2. The drive means includes a slide member movable outside the bottomed cylindrical portion along an axis of the bottomed cylindrical portion and engaged with a pivotal end side of the support member. The cup holder according to claim 1, characterized in that: 3. The drive means includes a rack gear formed on the slide member along the axial direction, and a pinion pivotally supported by a portion integral with the bottomed cylindrical portion and meshing with the rack gear. The cup holder according to claim 2, characterized in that: 4. The cup holder according to claim 1, wherein the support member is at least a pair of members that are arranged to face each other across the center of the bottomed cylindrical portion.