JP4846691B2 - Mobile device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable terminal, and more particularly to a foldable portable terminal in which two casings are hinge-coupled via a hinge portion.

  In recent years, mobile phones having various forms have been proposed. For example, a straight type mobile phone, a flip type in which a straight style keypad portion is covered with a rotatable lid, a foldable type mobile phone, a slide type mobile phone, and the like have been proposed.

  In the case of a foldable mobile phone, generally, a lower casing which is a casing on the main body side and an upper casing on which a main display is mounted are hinge-coupled via a hinge portion. Is configured to be openable and closable. In the process of assembling the mobile phone, the hinge portion is sandwiched and fixed between a lower inner case and a lower outer case constituting the lower housing.

A technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-242220 is known as a technique related to a hinge mechanism of a foldable mobile phone.
JP 2006-242220 A

  As described above, in the process of assembling the mobile phone, first, the hinge portion is connected to a part of the upper housing, and then the hinge portion is sandwiched between the lower inner case and the lower outer case of the lower housing. May be fixed. However, in the case of an assembly method in which the hinge portion is sandwiched and fixed between both cases by assembling the lower outer case with the lower inner case after the hinge portion is fitted to the lower inner case, Until the lower outer case is assembled and fixed to the lower inner case, it cannot be completely fixed to the lower inner case.

  For this reason, in the process of assembling the mobile phone, the upper housing is supported with the end face of the bracket provided on the hinge portion as a fulcrum for fixing to the lower inner case during the work after the hinge portion is fitted into the lower inner case. When a pressing force is applied to a part of the body from below to above, the hinge part fitted in the lower inner case is easily detached, which makes it difficult to assemble.

  Therefore, in the process of assembling the mobile phone, it is required to work carefully so that the fitted hinge part does not come off the lower inner case, and it is difficult to work efficiently in the process of assembling the mobile phone. It was.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and can easily fix the hinge portion to be fitted to the lower housing, and can efficiently work in the assembly process of the portable terminal. An object is to provide a portable terminal that can be used.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a mobile terminal according to the present invention includes a first housing, a hinge connected to a part of the first housing, and the first housing and the hinge. A hinge-coupled second housing that is different from the first housing made up of the first case and the second case is provided, and the hinge portion can freely open and close the first housing and the second housing. An opening / closing shaft to be supported; a shaft-like outer cylinder through which the opening / closing axis is penetrated; and a connection bracket provided at at least one end of the outer cylinder. It has a semi-cylindrical outer tube receiving portion for receiving the tube and at least one protrusion having a substantially columnar shape, and the outer tube receiving portion is formed with a recess for receiving the outer tube, and the outer tube is fitted into the recess. In this state, the protrusion is inserted into a substantially U-shaped opening provided in the connection bracket and inscribed with the connection bracket. The bracket is provided with a fixing fitting protrusion for fixing the outer cylinder to the outer cylinder receiving part, and a fitting groove for receiving the fixing fitting protrusion is provided on the inner peripheral side of the outer cylinder receiving part. The fixing fitting projection is fitted into the fitting groove in a state where the cylinder is fitted in the recess.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the hinge part which should be inserted with respect to a lower housing | casing can be fixed easily, and it can work efficiently in the assembly process of a portable terminal.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the configuration of a part of the external appearance of the foldable mobile phone 1 that can be applied to the mobile terminal according to the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a partial external configuration before the folding mobile phone 1 is assembled, and FIG. 2 shows a partial external configuration after the folding mobile phone 1 is assembled.

  As shown in FIG. 1, when assembling the mobile phone 1, first, the hinge portion 11 (portion represented by hatching) is connected to a part of the connecting component 13 of the upper housing 12, and then the hinge portion 11. The connecting component 13 (upper housing 12) connected to each other is fitted into the lower housing 14, and other components are sequentially arranged in the fitted state.

  After the assembly, as shown in FIG. 2, in the mobile phone 1, the lower housing 12 and the upper housing 13 are hingedly connected with the hinge portion 11 as a boundary, and are folded in the arrow X direction via the hinge portion 11. It will be formed possible. The lower housing 12 is a housing on the main body side, and is provided with operation keys (not shown). The lower housing 12 includes a lower inner case 15 on the operation key side and a lower outer case (not shown) on the back side with respect to the operation key side. On the other hand, the upper housing 13 is provided with a main display (not shown) composed of a liquid crystal display or the like, and other parts are sequentially fixed to the connecting part 13 connected to the hinge part 11.

  Here, the hinge portion 11 includes an open / close shaft (not shown) that supports the upper housing 12 and the lower housing 14 so as to be openable and closable, a shaft-like outer cylinder 16 that is held through the open / close shaft, It is constituted by a pair of connecting brackets 17-a and 17-b provided at both ends of the cylinder 16. In addition, the hinge portion 11 is provided with an open / close bearing portion (open / close bearing portion 21 in FIG. 4) for receiving an open / close shaft in the outer cylinder 16. In addition, when the hinge part 11 is connected with some connection components 13 of the upper housing | casing 12, the both ends of the opening-and-closing shaft penetrated by the outer cylinder 16 are each fixed to the connection components 13. FIG.

  On the other hand, the lower inner case 15 of the lower housing 14 is provided with a semi-cylindrical outer tube receiving portion 18 that receives the outer tube 16, and two projecting portions 19-a and 19-b having a substantially columnar shape. The outer cylinder receiving portion 18 is formed with a recess for receiving the outer cylinder 16. The protrusions 19-a and 19-b are provided at positions facing the pair of connecting brackets 17-a and 17-b provided on the outer cylinder 16 of the hinge portion 11, respectively.

  Next, when the connecting component 13 (upper housing 12) to which the hinge portion 11 is connected is fitted into the lower housing 14, the outer cylinder 16 is formed on the outer cylinder receiving portion 18 from the direction of the arrow Y. Is inserted into the recess. At this time, in a state where the outer cylinder 16 is fitted in the recess, the protrusions 19-a and 19-b are fitted and connected to substantially U-shaped openings provided in the coupling brackets 17-a and 17-b. The brackets 17-a and 17-b are inscribed respectively.

  FIG. 3 is a plan view of a part of the foldable mobile phone 1 after assembly. As shown in FIG. 3, the outer cylinder 16 is fitted into a recess formed in the outer cylinder receiving portion 18, and the connecting component 13 (upper housing 12) is fitted into the lower housing 14.

  However, until the hinge part 11 is inserted into the lower inner case 15 and then the lower outer case is assembled to the lower inner case 15 until the hinge part 11 is inserted between the two cases and fixed. The lower inner case 15 cannot be completely fixed. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 4 (FIG. 4 is a cross section on the line MM ′ in FIG. 3), after the hinge portion 11 is fitted into the lower inner case 15 in the process of assembling the mobile phone 1. 4 to the connecting component 13 of the upper housing 12 with the end surface of the connecting bracket 17-a or 17-b provided on the hinge portion 11 as a fulcrum for fixing to the lower inner case 15 during the operation of FIG. When a pressing force is applied from the lower side to the upper side indicated by the arrow, the hinge portion 11 floats from the lower inner case 15 with the applied pressing force, and the hinge portion 11 fitted in the lower inner case 15 Is easily removed.

  Therefore, in the process of assembling the mobile phone 1, it is required to work carefully so that the fitted hinge portion 11 does not come off the lower inner case 15, and the work is efficiently performed in the assembly process of the mobile phone 1. It was difficult.

  Heretofore, when the outer cylinder 16 is fitted into the recess formed in the outer cylinder receiving portion 18, it is shown in FIG. 5A (cross section on the line NN 'in FIG. 3). As described above, the connection bracket 17-a provided on the outer cylinder 16 is merely inscribed on the inner peripheral side of the outer cylinder receiving portion 18. Therefore, when a pressing force is applied from the lower side to the upper side indicated by the arrow in FIG. 4 with respect to the connecting component 13 of the upper housing 12, a rotational torque is generated with the applied pressing force, It is thought that the hinge part 11 floats from the lower inner case 15.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5B (cross section on the line NN ′ in FIG. 3), the outer cylinder 16 (hinge portion 11) is placed at a predetermined position of the connection bracket 17-a. A fixing fitting protrusion 22 for fixing to is provided. Note that the fixing fitting protrusion 22 has the same width as that of the connecting bracket 17 (of course, it may have a larger or smaller width different from the width of the connecting bracket 17). On the other hand, a fitting groove 23 into which the fixing fitting projection 22 is fitted is provided at a predetermined position on the inner peripheral side of the outer tube receiving portion 18. Then, the fixing fitting protrusion 22 of the connection bracket 17-a is inserted into the fitting groove 23 of the outer cylinder receiving portion 18 in a state where the outer cylinder 16 is inserted into the recess formed in the outer cylinder receiving portion 18. . As a result, the outer cylinder 16 is pushed upward from the lower side indicated by the arrow in FIG. 4 with respect to the connecting component 13 of the upper housing 12 in a state where the outer cylinder 16 is fitted in the recess formed in the outer cylinder receiving portion 18. Even if pressure is applied, the fixing fitting protrusion 22 inserted into the fitting groove 23 is pressed against the fitting groove 23, thereby generating a stress against the rotational torque with the pressing force, It is possible to prevent the lower inner case 15 from rotating in the rotational direction corresponding to the applied pressing force. Therefore, the hinge portion 11 fitted into the lower inner case 15 of the lower housing 14 can be fixed (temporarily fixed) to the lower inner case 15. As a result, the work can be performed efficiently and suitably in the assembling process of the mobile phone.

  The shape of the fixing fitting protrusion 22 provided on the connecting bracket 17 only needs to be a shape that matches the shape of the fitting groove 23 of the outer tube receiving portion 18, and the shape is not particularly limited. Further, although a pair of the fixing fitting protrusions 22 and the fitting grooves 23 are provided, the present invention is not limited to such a case, and a plurality of them may be provided.

  The present invention can be applied to a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a personal computer, a portable game machine, a portable music player, a portable video player, and other information processing apparatuses in addition to the cellular phone 1. Can do.

The external appearance perspective view of a part before the assembly of the folding-type mobile phone applicable to the portable terminal which concerns on this invention. The external appearance perspective view of a part after the folding-type mobile phone is assembled. The partial top view after the assembly of a foldable mobile phone. Sectional drawing on the MM 'line of FIG. (A) And (B) is sectional drawing on the NN 'line | wire of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Mobile telephone, 11 ... Hinge part, 12 ... Upper housing | casing, 13 ... Connection component, 14 ... Lower housing | casing, 15 ... Lower inner case, 16 ... Outer cylinder, 17 (17-a and 17-b) ... Connection Bracket, 18 ... outer cylinder receiving part, 19 (19-a and 19-b) ... projection, 21 ... opening / closing bearing part, 22 ... fixing fitting protrusion, 23 ... fitting groove.

Claims (3)

A first casing, a hinge connected to a part of the first casing, and a first casing and a second casing are hinge-coupled via the first casing and the hinge. A second housing different from the first housing;
The hinge portion includes an opening / closing shaft that supports the first housing and the second housing so as to be openable and closable, a shaft-like outer cylinder that is held through the opening / closing shaft, and at least the outer cylinder A connection bracket provided at one end,
The first case of the first housing includes a semi-cylindrical outer tube receiving portion that receives the outer tube, and at least one protrusion having a substantially columnar shape,
The outer cylinder receiving portion is formed with a recess for receiving the outer cylinder, and the protrusion is inserted into a substantially U-shaped opening provided in the connection bracket in a state where the outer cylinder is inserted into the recess. The connection bracket is inscribed, while the connection bracket is provided with a fixing fitting protrusion for fixing the outer tube to the outer tube receiving portion, and on the inner peripheral side of the outer tube receiving portion. Is provided with a fitting groove into which the fixing fitting projection is fitted, and the fixing fitting projection is fitted into the fitting groove in a state in which the outer cylinder is fitted into the concave portion. Mobile device.   The fixing fitting protrusion is provided in any part of the connecting bracket that is inscribed in the outer tube receiving portion in a state in which the outer tube is inserted into the recess. The mobile terminal according to claim 1.   The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein the fixing fitting protrusion has a predetermined width equal to or less than a width of the connection bracket.

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