JP2006118532A - Tilt hinge - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tilt hinge with a hinge shaft supported by curled portions of curled bearings, generating greater torque without blocking compact construction. <P>SOLUTION: Inner periphery tapered faces 18, 18 are formed at both ends of the curled portions 14 of the curled bearings 2, 2', a pair of outer periphery tapered faces 22, 22 are formed on the hinge shaft 3 corresponding to the inner periphery tapered faces 18, 18, and a small diameter portion 21 is formed on the hinge shaft 3 between the outer periphery tapered faces 22, 22. Wedge action which imparts elasticity to the curled portion 14 in the direction of shrinking the diameter to fit the inner periphery tapered face 18 to the outer periphery tapered face 22 generates great friction force. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a tilt hinge used when an apparatus main body in an OA device such as a notebook personal computer and an auxiliary device such as a display attached to the device main body are freely opened and closed.

For example, in the above notebook personal computer, a tilt hinge is used to generate a slight torque when opening and closing the display so that the display stops at an arbitrary angle during opening and closing, and an impact does not occur at the end of opening and closing. Conventionally, it is used. As a tilt hinge in this case, a hinge shaft is supported by a curl bearing, and a desired friction torque is generated on the hinge shaft by friction generated by elastic reduction of the curl portion (Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-98134 A

  The conventional tilt hinge has a simple structure and can meet the demand for cost reduction and compactness. However, in order to generate a large torque on the hinge shaft, the shaft diameter of the hinge shaft and its support are supported. Although the diameter of the curled portion of the curled bearing is increased, a method such as increasing the number of curled bearings must be employed. However, according to the above-described method, the size of the tilt hinge is increased. As a result, a device such as a notebook personal computer using the tilt hinge is disadvantageously enlarged.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to generate a large torque without causing an increase in size in a tilt hinge of a type in which a hinge shaft is supported by a curled bearing.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a tilt hinge in which a curl bearing having a curl portion is provided in a hinge body and a hinge shaft is rotatably supported with a predetermined torque in the curl portion. An inner peripheral taper surface that expands in the outer end direction is formed on the inner peripheral surface of both ends, and a pair of outer peripheral taper surfaces that match the inner peripheral taper surface are formed on the hinge shaft so as to face each other in the axial direction. The outer diameter of the hinge shaft between the outer peripheral taper surfaces is formed to be smaller than the inner diameter of the curl portion, and the curl portion is given elasticity in the diameter reducing direction so that the inner peripheral taper surface is fitted to the outer peripheral taper surface. Adopted the configuration.

  A plurality of the curled bearings may be arranged in the axial direction, and a pair of the outer peripheral tapered surfaces may be formed on the hinge shaft corresponding to the curled portion of each curled bearing. Further, it is possible to adopt a configuration in which the curled portion is forcibly enlarged in elastic deformation and fitted to the hinge shaft.

  According to the above configuration, the inner taper surface of the curl portion generates a large pressing force by the wedge action against the outer peripheral taper surface of the hinge shaft, and the pressing force has a taper angle of zero and does not generate the wedge action. Since this is larger than (fitting of a cylindrical curled portion and a cylindrical hinge shaft), a large torque can be generated without increasing the diameter of the hinge shaft or the diameter of the curled portion.

  Hereinafter, a tilt hinge according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the tilt hinge according to the embodiment includes a hinge body 1, a pair of curl bearings 2, 2 ′, a hinge shaft 3, and a bracket 4.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the hinge body 1 is provided with side plates 6 and 6 on both sides of the substrate 5, and a back plate 7 is provided between the side plates 6 and 6. A bearing recess 9 is provided at the upper end of each side plate 6, and a pair of left and right bottomed screw holes 11 are provided in the back plate 7. A pair of mounting holes 12 are provided in the substrate 5.

  The curl bearings 2, 2 ′ are made of an elastic metal, and the upper end of the mounting plate 13 is curved to form a cylindrical curled portion 14. The front end (free end) of the curled portion 14 is opposed to the base portion of the curled portion 14 at the upper end of the mounting plate 13 with a slit-shaped gap 15. The width of the curled portion 14 is slightly narrower than the width of the mounting plate 13, and as a result, a step portion in the width direction is formed between both side portions at the upper end of the mounting plate 13 and the winding start portion of the curled portion 14. 16 and 16 exist. The mounting plate 13 is provided with a mounting hole 17.

  At both ends of the curled portion 14, inner peripheral tapered surfaces 18 and 18 are formed on the inner peripheral surface over the entire periphery (see FIG. 4). Both the inner peripheral tapered surfaces 18 and 18 are cut so that the outer end side is enlarged. The step portions 16 and 16 prevent interference with the tool when the inner peripheral tapered surfaces 18 and 18 are cut.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the hinge shaft 3 has a tip large-diameter portion 19a, an intermediate large-diameter portion 19b, and a mounting base large-diameter portion 19c, each having the same diameter, and the tip large-diameter portion 19a and the intermediate large-diameter portion 19b. And small diameter portions 21 and 21 are provided between the intermediate large diameter portion 19b and the attachment base large diameter portion 19c, respectively. The outer peripheral tapered surfaces 22 and 22 are formed on the opposing surfaces of the tip large-diameter portion 19a and the intermediate large-diameter portion 19b so as to face each other at angles matching the inner peripheral tapered surfaces 18 and 18 of the curled portion 14 (FIG. 1, see FIG. Further, similar outer peripheral tapered surfaces 22 and 22 are formed on the opposing surfaces of the intermediate large-diameter portion 19b and the attachment base large-diameter portion 19c, respectively, in an opposing manner. Further, a flat surface 23 for preventing rotation is formed on the attachment base large-diameter portion 19c.

  The curl bearings 2 and 2 ′ are forcibly expanded while being elastically deformed at the gaps 15 of the curled part 14, and are forcibly fitted to the two small diameter parts 21 of the hinge shaft 3. . Thereby, each inner peripheral taper surface 18 is fitted to each outer peripheral taper surface 22 with reduced diameter elasticity, and a clearance 24 (see FIG. 1, FIG. 4) occurs. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, the two curl bearings 2, 2 ′ are opposite to each other in the front-rear direction, that is, the gap 15 of the curl bearing 2 exists on the back side of the mounting plate 13. The curl bearing 2 'has a clearance 15 on the front side of the mounting plate 13 (that is, the free end of the curled portion 14). Each direction is determined so that the end faces the front side), and each curled portion 14 is fitted to each small diameter portion 21. After each curl bearing 2, 2 ′ is attached to the hinge shaft 3 as described above, the attachment plate 13 of each curl bearing 2, 2 ′ is fixed to the back plate 7 of the hinge body 1 with screws 25. As a result, the hinge shaft 3 can rotate the curl bearings 2 and 2 ′ forward and backward while generating a required torque by sliding contact between the outer peripheral tapered surface 22 and the inner peripheral tapered surface 18.

  Since one end of the curled portion 14 is a free end, when the hinge shaft 3 rotates in the winding direction of the curled portion 14 (from the base side to the free end), the curled portion 14 rotates in that direction. Since the generated torque tends to be larger than when the diameter is reduced and rotated in the opposite direction, as described above, the direction of each curled portion 14 of the two curled bearings 2 and 2 ′ can be changed in the forward and reverse directions. The torque can be made uniform in any rotation direction. When positively utilizing the fact that the friction torque is uneven, for example, when setting the torque to be small when opened and large when closed, the curl portions 14 of the two curl bearings 2 and 2 ' The orientation may be set so that the free end is on the front side of the mounting plate 13.

  The bracket 4 has a cylindrical mounting portion 26, and the mounting base large-diameter portion 19 c of the hinge shaft 3 is inserted into the mounting hole 28, and the flat portion 23 extends along the flat portion of the inner surface of the mounting hole 28. Accordingly, the rotation is stopped and the screw 27 is fixed.

  The tilt hinge described above is used for use by attaching the substrate 5 of the hinge main body 1 to a device main body 29 such as a personal computer (see the one-dot chain line in FIG. 1) and attaching an auxiliary device 30 such as a display to the bracket 4. In this case, when the auxiliary device 30 such as a display is opened and closed with respect to the device main body 29, the hinge shaft 3 rotates together with the auxiliary device 30. The rotation generates a constant friction torque between the outer peripheral paper surfaces 22 and 22 of the hinge shaft 3 and the inner peripheral curled surfaces 18 and 18 of the curl bearings 2 and 2 ′, and an arbitrary angle during the opening and closing of the auxiliary device 29. And the occurrence of an impact at the end of opening and closing can be prevented.

  The magnitude of the friction torque is determined by the taper angle α of the outer peripheral taper surface 22 and the inner peripheral taper surface 18 slidably in contact with the outer peripheral taper surface 22. Due to the action, the elastic force in the reduced diameter direction of the curled portion 14 acts as a large force on the outer peripheral taper surface 22 via the inner peripheral taper surface 18, so that a larger friction torque can be obtained.

Partial cutaway longitudinal front view of the embodiment Sectional drawing of the XX line of FIG. 1 which shows embodiment Exploded perspective view Partially enlarged sectional view of the above

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hinge body 2, 2 'Curl bearing 3 Hinge shaft 4 Bracket 5 Substrate 6 Side plate 7 Back plate 9 Bearing recessed part 11 Bottomed screw hole 12 Mounting hole 13 Mounting plate 14 Curl part 15 Clearance 16 Step part 17 Mounting hole 18 Inner circumference taper Surface 19a Tip large diameter portion 19b Middle large diameter portion 19c Mounting base large diameter portion 21 Small diameter portion 22 Outer tapered surface 23 Flat portion 24 Clearance 25 Screw 26 Cylindrical mounting portion 27 Screw 28 Mounting hole

Claims (3)

  A tilt hinge having a curl bearing having a curl portion provided on a hinge body and rotatably supporting a hinge shaft with a predetermined torque at the curl portion. A circumferential taper surface is formed, a pair of outer peripheral taper surfaces matching the inner peripheral taper surface are formed on the hinge shaft so as to face each other in the axial direction, and an outer diameter of the hinge shaft between the pair of outer peripheral taper surfaces is A tilt hinge characterized in that it is formed with a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the curled portion, and the curled portion is provided with elasticity in a diameter reducing direction so that the inner peripheral tapered surface is fitted to the outer peripheral tapered surface.   2. The tilt hinge according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the curled bearings are arranged in the axial direction, and a pair of the outer peripheral tapered surfaces are formed on the hinge shaft corresponding to the curled portion of each curled bearing.   The tilt hinge according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the curled portion is forcibly enlarged in elastic deformation and fitted to the hinge shaft.

Images