JP2009030733A - Foldable electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide foldable electronic equipment with a two-shaft hinge, having a clicking feel in addition to torque required for a rotating operation feel while providing low-profile casings by reducing the diameter of a rotating shaft. <P>SOLUTION: The foldable electronic equipment comprises: opening/closing shafts 4, 5 to be centers when giving mutual opening/closing motion to the first casing having a display part 1a and the second casing 2 having an operation part 2a; and the rotating shaft 6 to be a center when giving rotating motion to the first casing 1 relative to the second casing 2 in the state of opening the first casing 1 and the second casing 2. It has: a bearing holder 19 bearing and supporting the rotating shaft 6 at one half side of the outer periphery while forming a plane 6a on the outer periphery of the rotating shaft 6; and a plate spring 22 abutting on the other half side of the outer periphery of the rotating shaft 6 to face-contact the plane 6a. The bearing holder 19 is fixed into hinge covers 13, 14 covering the opening/closing shafts 4, 5, and the plate spring 22 is arranged between the rotating shaft 6 and the hinge cover 14. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a foldable type in which a first casing having a display unit and a second casing having an operation unit are connected via a biaxial hinge so that the display unit can be folded regardless of whether it is a front side or a back side. It relates to electronic equipment.

In a foldable electronic device, particularly a mobile phone, there is a biaxial hinge structure that can be folded regardless of whether the display unit is front or back (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
The biaxial hinge structure includes an opening / closing shaft that is the center when the first casing having the display unit and the second casing having the operation unit are opened / closed, and the first casing and the second casing. And a rotation axis that becomes a center when the first casing is rotated with respect to the second casing in a state where is opened.
JP 2005-303688 A JP 2006-10025 A

  A foldable mobile phone having such a biaxial hinge includes a rotating shaft that rotates the first housing relative to the second housing with the first housing and the second housing opened, and a bearing thereof. A cam mechanism or the like is usually provided between the holders in order to generate torque necessary for the operational feeling of the rotating shaft, which increases the diameter of the rotating shaft, and accordingly increases the thickness of the casing.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a click feeling in addition to a torque required for a rotational operation feeling in a foldable electronic device having a two-axis hinge, and reduce the diameter of the rotating shaft to make the casing thinner. That is.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the invention described in claim 1 includes an opening / closing shaft serving as a center when the first casing having the display unit and the second casing having the operation unit are opened / closed with each other. A foldable electronic device comprising: a rotation shaft that becomes a center when the first housing is rotated with respect to the second housing with the first housing and the second housing opened. Forming a flat surface on the outer periphery of the rotary shaft, a bearing holder for supporting a bearing on one half of the outer periphery of the rotary shaft, abutting on the other half of the outer periphery of the rotary shaft, and facing the plane And a leaf spring that can be contacted.

  A second aspect of the present invention is the foldable electronic device according to the first aspect, wherein the rotating shaft has a hollow portion, and the electronic component in the first housing and the first shaft are included in the hollow portion. A coaxial cable for electrically connecting the electronic components in the housing of 2 is inserted.

  Invention of Claim 3 is the foldable electronic device of Claim 1 or 2, Comprising: The said bearing holder is being fixed in the hinge cover which covers the said opening-and-closing axis | shaft, The said leaf | plate spring is the said It is arrange | positioned between the rotating shaft and the said hinge cover, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  A fourth aspect of the present invention is the foldable electronic device according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein a plurality of the planes are formed on an outer periphery of the rotating shaft. To do.

  According to the present invention, in a foldable electronic device having a biaxial hinge, the casing can be made thinner by reducing the diameter of the rotating shaft while obtaining a click feeling in addition to the torque necessary for the rotational operation feeling.

Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a cellular phone as a configuration of an embodiment of a foldable electronic device to which the present invention is applied. 1 is a first casing, 2 is a second casing, and 3 is a biaxial hinge unit. .

  The first casing 1 is a display section casing having a display section 1a by a display screen, and the second casing 2 is an operation section casing having an operation section 2a by various operation keys, and these first casings. The body 1 and the second casing 2 are coupled via a biaxial hinge unit 3 so as to be opened and closed (folded). The biaxial hinge unit 3 can rotate the first casing 1 relative to the second casing 2 in a state where the first casing 1 and the second casing 2 are opened.

  That is, FIG. 1A shows that the first casing 1 and the second casing 2 are closed with respect to each other about the open / close shafts 4 and 5 (see FIGS. 2 and 4) of the biaxial hinge unit 3. Shows the folded state. FIG. 1B shows a state in which the first casing 1 and the second casing 2 are similarly opened around the opening and closing shafts 4 and 5. FIG. 1C shows a state in which the first housing 1 and the second housing 2 are rotated with respect to the second housing 2 in a state where the first housing 1 and the second housing 2 are opened. 3)).

  FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the components of the biaxial hinge unit 3. A thin cylindrical member is used as one of the left and right open / close shafts 4 and 5 located on the same axis. A thin coaxial cable 7 is inserted into a hollow portion in the opening / closing shaft 5 by the thin cylindrical member. The thin coaxial cable 7 electrically connects the electronic components in the first housing 1 and the electronic components in the second housing 2, and is provided with connectors 8 and 9 at both ends. For example, one connector 8 is connected to a substrate 11 (see FIG. 3) in the first housing 1 and the other connector 9 is connected to a substrate 12 (see FIG. 5) in the second housing 2. Connected.

  The left and right open / close shafts 4 and 5 are supported by bearings on the left and right sides of the upper hinge cover 13 and the lower hinge cover 14 combined by screwing, and left and right bosses formed at the end of the second housing 2. The bearing is supported by the portion 15.

  The rotary shaft 6 is arranged with the opening / closing shafts 4 and 5 on the same axis line and the axis line oriented in the orthogonal direction, and is formed by a pair of coaxial cable holding members 16. The pair of coaxial cable holding members 16 are inserted into the semi-cylindrical portion with the thin coaxial cable 7 and joined together by screws as shown in FIG. It is fixed by screwing, and the rotating shaft 6 is formed by the flanged cylindrical portion. In the figure, reference numeral 18 denotes a front case on the opposite side of the display unit 1 a of the first housing 1.

  In the example shown in FIG. 5, a flat surface 6 a is formed on the outer periphery of the rotating shaft 6 so as to be opposed to and parallel to the diameter direction.

  Then, a bearing holder 19 that supports and supports one half of the outer periphery of the rotating shaft 6 is fixed in the lower hinge cover 14 by screws. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the bearing holder 19 of the rotating shaft 6 is fixed on the pair of left and right boss portions 21 formed in the lower hinge cover 14 by screws.

  Further, between the left and right boss portions 21, there is a leaf spring 22 for generating torque that is in contact with the other half portion of the outer periphery of the rotary shaft 6 held by the bearing holder 19 and can be brought into surface contact with the flat surface 6a. Be placed. That is, the leaf spring 22 is disposed between the left and right ribs 23 formed in the lower hinge cover 14 and the left and right ribs 24 formed in the bearing holder 19.

  As described above, according to the biaxial hinge unit 3 of the embodiment, the first and second casings 1 and 2 have the opening and closing shafts 4 and 5 as the center when the first and second casings 1 and 2 are opened and closed, and the operation unit 2a. When the first housing 1 having the display unit 1a is rotated with the rotation shaft 6 serving as the center when the first housing 1 having the display unit 1a is rotated in the open state with respect to the second housing 2, the conventional all-in-one structure is provided. Compared with the two-axis hinge unit, the cause of malfunction or assembly misalignment can be clarified. That is, the opening / closing shafts 4 and 5 and the rotating shaft 6 are not dependent on each other, and can be easily adjusted with respect to inclination and bending.

And when rotating the 1st housing | casing 1 which has the display part 1a in the state opened with respect to the 2nd housing | casing 2 which has the operation part 2a, as shown, for example in FIG.5 (b) The rotating shaft 6 starts to rotate with respect to the bearing holder 19 from the state in which the leaf spring 22 is in surface contact with the flat surface 6 a of the rotating shaft 6. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6B, the outer peripheral surface of the rotating shaft 6 pushes and bends the leaf spring 22, thereby generating a torque necessary for a rotational operation feeling based on the bending rigidity of the leaf spring 22.
Thereafter, when the rotation angle reaches 180 degrees, the plane 6a opposite to the rotation shaft 6 comes into surface contact with the leaf spring 22, and a click feeling is obtained. Accordingly, the rotational operation feeling is improved.

  As described above, since the torque adjustment necessary for the rotational operation feeling can be performed based on the bending rigidity of the leaf spring 22, the diameter of the rotating shaft 6 can be reduced. Therefore, the thickness of the first housing 1 can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the cellular phone is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this and may be other folding electronic devices such as a calculator, an electronic notebook, a camera, a notebook computer, and a PDA. .
In the embodiment, the first casing and the second casing are opened up and down. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a configuration that opens left and right is also possible.
Furthermore, the click angle of the rotating shaft, the design of the housing, and the like are arbitrary, and it is needless to say that other specific detailed structures can be appropriately changed.

1 shows a configuration of an embodiment of a foldable electronic device to which the present invention is applied; a perspective view (a) in a folded state of a mobile phone; a perspective view (b) in an opened state; It is a perspective view (c) of the state rotated. It is the expansion perspective view which decomposed | disassembled and showed the component of the biaxial hinge unit of FIG. An exploded perspective view (a) showing how to assemble the biaxial hinge unit by removing the outer case of the display unit housing in a folded state, and a perspective view (b) showing a state where the outer case is attached after the biaxial hinge unit is assembled. is there. It is sectional drawing in a hinge case part. It is the top view (a) of a folded state, and sectional drawing (b) along the arrow BB line. It is the side view (a) of the state which rotated the display part housing | casing, and sectional drawing (b) along the arrow BB line.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st housing | casing 1a Display part 2 2nd housing | casing 2a Operation part 3 Biaxial hinge unit 4 Opening-closing axis | shaft 5 Opening-closing axis | shaft 6 Rotating shaft 6a Plane 7 Coaxial cable 8 Connector 9 Connector 11 Board | substrate 12 Board | substrate 13 Hinge cover 14 Hinge Cover 15 Boss part 16 Coaxial cable holding member 17 Middle case 18 Front case 19 Bearing holder 21 Boss part 22 Leaf spring 23 Rib 24 Rib

Claims (4)

In a state where the first casing having the display unit and the second casing having the operation unit are opened and closed with each other, the opening / closing shaft serving as the center, and the first casing and the second casing being opened A foldable electronic device comprising a rotation shaft that is central when rotating the first housing relative to the second housing,
While forming a plane on the outer periphery of the rotating shaft,
A bearing holder that supports the outer half of the outer periphery of the rotating shaft;
A foldable electronic device comprising: a leaf spring that is in contact with the other half portion of the outer periphery of the rotating shaft and that can come into surface contact with the flat surface.   The rotating shaft has a hollow portion, and a coaxial cable for electrically connecting the electronic component in the first housing and the electronic component in the second housing is inserted into the hollow portion. The foldable electronic device according to claim 1.   The said bearing holder is being fixed in the hinge cover which covers the said opening-and-closing axis | shaft, The said leaf | plate spring is arrange | positioned between the said rotating shaft and the said hinge cover, The Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. The foldable electronic device described.   The foldable electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a plurality of the flat surfaces are formed on an outer periphery of the rotating shaft.

Images