JPH0625797U - Axis locking device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Structure] A shaft body and a support member rotatable around the shaft body relative to the shaft body are provided, and the support member surrounds the shaft body and is elastic. And a base portion extending radially outward of the shaft body from the cylindrical portion, and a gap extending in the axial direction is formed in the cylindrical portion. [Effect] There is an appropriate amount of frictional resistance between the shaft and the cylindrical portion, and relative rotation between the shaft and the cylindrical portion and maintenance of the locked state at an appropriate position can be performed with a simple structure. Since the shaft body and the cylindrical part are in surface contact, the necessary frictional force can be secured with a small diameter, and as a result, the shaft lock device can be made smaller and lighter,
Since the supporting member having the cylindrical portion can be easily manufactured by bending a part of one member, it can be manufactured at low cost.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an axis lock device which is used in, for example, a laptop personal computer or a word processor and can fix a position of a display panel with respect to a main body including a keyboard at an arbitrary angle.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 In general, the display panel of a laptop computer or word processor is usually stored in a closed state in a main body equipped with a keyboard and the like, and is used in an opened state from the main body. When using the display panel, it may be difficult to see the characters and pictures on the screen due to the fact that light such as lighting is reflected on the screen of the display panel depending on the conditions of use and place of use. The position can be fixed at any angle with respect to the main body.

As an axis lock device for fixing the position of the display panel at an arbitrary angle with respect to the main body, for example, one disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-135397 can be cited. This shaft lock device includes a movable shaft, fixed shafts having the same diameter as the movable shaft and provided on both sides of the movable shaft, and a coil shaft externally fitted to the movable shaft and the fixed shaft. When the movable shaft rotates in one direction, the coil spring in the portion that is externally fitted in close contact with one fixed shaft contracts in diameter and generates lock torque, and the other fixed shaft moves. The coil spring in the portion that is externally fitted in close contact expands to generate slip torque, and the sum of this lock torque and slip torque acts on the movable shaft to fix the position of the display panel at an arbitrary angle. is there.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, the shaft lock device having such a structure fixes the display board at an arbitrary angle by the force of the coil spring. However, since the coil spring and the movable shaft are in line contact with each other, the diameter thereof is large to some extent. Therefore, there is a limit to downsizing and weight saving of the shaft locking device. Also, since it is necessary that the coil spring is externally attached in close contact to the movable shaft and the fixed shafts on both sides of the movable shaft that sandwich the large diameter part at the center of the movable shaft, the large diameter part and both sides of the movable shaft are fixed There has been a problem that the manufacturing cost is increased because the outer diameters of the shafts need to be substantially the same. The manufacturing cost increases as the shaft diameter decreases, which also makes it difficult to reduce the size and weight of the shaft locking device.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a shaft locking device which is small and lightweight and can be manufactured at low cost.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve the above object, a shaft locking device of the present invention is provided with a shaft body and a supporting member which is rotatable relative to the shaft body around the shaft body. The body is surrounded by a cylindrical portion that elastically grips the body, and a base portion that extends radially outward of the shaft body from the cylindrical portion is provided, and a gap that extends in the axial direction is formed in the cylindrical portion. It is a thing.

[0007]

[Action]

 According to the shaft lock device of the present invention, when the shaft body and the support member are rotated relative to each other, the cylindrical portion elastically grips the shaft body, and the elastic force is exerted between the opposing surfaces of the cylindrical portion and the shaft body. This causes a frictional resistance of an appropriate amount to exist between the shaft body and the cylindrical portion, so that it is possible to perform relative rotation between them and to maintain the locked state at an appropriate position.

Here, by forming the cylindrical portion integrally with the end portion of the flat plate-shaped supporting member, it can be easily formed, for example, by bending this portion into a tubular shape. Further, by dividing the cylindrical portion into a plurality of parts in the axial direction of the shaft body, the length of each cylindrical portion can be shortened, and the roundness of each cylindrical portion can be easily improved. Wear. Furthermore, by including the winding directions of the respective divided portions around the shaft body in mutually opposite directions, it becomes possible to appropriately adjust the frictional resistance depending on the rotation direction, that is, the manner of applying the rotation torque. For example, it is possible to equalize the torque in either direction or to make a slight difference.

In addition, a protrusion is provided on one of the surfaces of the cylindrical portion and the shaft that face each other, and a recess that engages with this protrusion is formed on the other side, so that the support member and the shaft are connected by these engagements. Positioning can be performed in a fixed relative positional relationship. Also, by forming an oil supply groove on at least one of the surfaces of the cylindrical portion and shaft that face each other and supplying a lubricating oil such as grease to this, seizure between these surfaces is prevented and good sliding is achieved. The situation can be maintained for a long time.

[0010]

【Example】

 A shaft locking device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In addition, in the present embodiment, description will be made by taking as an example the case of being applied to a laptop type device such as a laptop type personal computer and a word processor, but it is needless to say that it can be applied to various things other than the laptop type device. .

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a shaft locking device of the present embodiment, reference numeral 2 is a movable shaft (shaft body) thereof, and reference numeral 3 is a bracket for rotatably supporting the movable shaft 2. The movable shaft 2 has a solid cylindrical shape, and can be made of metal such as SUM (sulfur free cutting steel) and SUS (stainless steel), ceramic, resin, or the like. At one end of the movable shaft 2, there is formed a mounting portion 4 for fixing a display panel which also serves as a lid of a laptop computer device.

Since the bracket 3 is fixed to the main body of a laptop computer, word processor, etc., the support plates 5 and 6 at both ends of the movable shaft 2 facing each other and the support plates 5 and 6 thereof are provided. The connecting member 7 has a U-shaped cross section and is disposed between the facing surfaces of the supporting member 6 and a supporting member 8 sandwiched by the connecting member 7.

A shaft hole is formed in each of the pair of support plates 5 and 6 so that a shaft can be inserted therethrough. A retaining ring 9 and 10 fitted to the movable shaft 2 on the outside of each of the support plates 5 and 6 prevents the retaining plates 9 and 10 from coming off. The movable shaft 2 is rotatably supported in this state. One support plate 5 extends in a direction away from the axis and is further bent, and the other support plate 6 is fixed to the support plate 6 with bolts 11 to form a frame structure as a whole. Mounting holes 12 are formed for fixing and fixing various parts. The connecting member 7 has one end fixed to the inner surface of the other support plate 6 and extends toward the one support plate 5. A slit 13 extending in the axial direction is formed in the connecting member 7, and a base portion 15 of a support member 14 described later is fitted into the slit 13.

The support member 14 includes two cylindrical cylindrical portions 16 and a flat plate-shaped base portion 15 that extends radially outward from the outer peripheral portions of the cylindrical portions 16, and each cylindrical portion 16 has the same shape. It is provided in parallel with the shaft. The support member 14 is manufactured by punching out a single plate-shaped member and bending it. That is, the plate-shaped member is punched into a rectangular shape in which a slit extends from the center of one side, and then the portions divided by the slit are rounded in opposite directions to form cylindrical portions 16 coaxial with each other. The inner diameter of the cylindrical portion 16 is smaller than the outer diameter of the movable shaft 2 by a predetermined amount, and a predetermined gap is formed between the tip end and the base end of each rounded portion. 17 is formed, which ensures the elasticity of the cylindrical portion 16 to expand and contract in the radial direction. As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the gap 17 is formed so as to be located on the opposite side with respect to the base portion 15. By providing a plurality of cylindrical portions 16 in this way, the length of each cylindrical portion 16 in the axial direction can be shortened, and the roundness of each cylindrical portion 16 can be easily improved. You can

Although the support member 14 is fixed to the connecting member 7 only by inserting the base portion 15 into the slit 13 in the above description, the support member 14 may be fixed by bonding or welding if necessary. Alternatively, it may be integrally formed with the connecting member 7 by an appropriate method. The material forming the cylindrical portion 16 may be any material such as copper alloy and synthetic resin as long as it is an elastic material.

In the shaft lock device 1 having such a structure, the bracket 3 is attached to the main body side of the laptop personal computer / word processor by using the attachment hole 12 and is attached to the display panel side by the attachment portion 4 of the movable shaft 2. Used. When the display board is opened and closed with respect to the main body, the movable shaft 2 rotates due to the elasticity of the cylindrical portion 16 of the bracket 3 while being in surface contact with the urging force from the cylindrical portion 16 while rotating. A frictional resistance is generated between the two and a torque is generated between them. When the torque applied to the movable shaft 2 from the outside becomes larger than the torque due to the frictional resistance between the movable shaft 2 and the bracket 3, the display board rotates the movable shaft 2 relative to the bracket 3. It will be opened and closed.

When the opening / closing torque is removed to fix the display board, only the torque for closing the display board due to the weight of the display board acts between the movable shaft 2 and the bracket 3. The torque becomes smaller than the torque due to the frictional resistance between the movable shaft 2 and the bracket 3, and the position is fixed at an arbitrary angle. Here, since the contact between the movable shaft 2 and the cylindrical portion 16 is a surface contact, the area thereof can be increased, and a large friction resistance can be secured, so that the diameter of the movable shaft 2 and the cylindrical portion 16 can be reduced. You will be able to do it.

At the time of this rotation, in each of the cylindrical portions 16, the winding directions around the movable shaft 2 are opposite to each other, and thus the frictional force differs depending on the relationship with the rotating direction. That is, when the movable shaft 2 is rotated clockwise in FIG. 5, the frictional force between the movable shaft 2 and the cylindrical portion 16 acts in the direction of opening the cylindrical portion 16 in the portion of FIG. Although it acts in the direction of weakening the urging force, it acts in the direction of tightening the cylindrical portion 16 in the portion of FIG. 5B to strengthen the urging force. However, in this embodiment, since the frictional force as the sum of the frictions in the two directions acts when rotating in any direction, the same torque is generated by the friction, and the operability is good.

In addition, when such uniform torque is not required, for example, when the weight of the panel is considerably large, a large force is required for opening, so that the friction is reduced in that case. It is possible to set it. When the frictional force has directionality, for example, in addition to the method of making all the winding directions of the cylindrical portion 16 the same, it is divided into three or five odd numbers and the forward and reverse directions are 1: 2 or By setting the ratio to 2 to 3, it is possible to set the torque difference in the forward and reverse directions to an appropriate value. Furthermore, as shown in other embodiments to be described later, it is also possible to change the axial lengths of the two cylindrical portions and to give a torque difference proportional to the difference in the lengths.

At least one of the movable shaft 2 and the cylindrical portion 16 is provided with an oil groove or a recess serving as an oil reservoir, and grease is supplied to the recess to prevent seizure, oil dripping, and smooth sliding. It will be possible to realize motions and the like.

7 and 8 show another embodiment of the present invention, which is the same as the above embodiment except the structures of the movable shaft 18 and the supporting member 19. In the support member 19 of this embodiment, one of the two cylindrical portions 20, 21 has a longer axial length than the other, and the protrusion 22 is formed inside the smaller cylindrical portion 21. Has been done. The movable shaft 18 is formed with a recess 23 that engages with the protrusion 22 at an axial position corresponding to the protrusion 22 of the cylindrical portion 21. The base portion 24 of the support member 19 is formed to bend at the boundary with the cylindrical portions 20 and 21.

In this embodiment, the functions of the two cylindrical parts 20, 21 are different. That is, the larger cylindrical portion 20 has a function of supporting the weight of the panel by the frictional force of the inner surface of the larger cylindrical portion 20 which is in close contact with the movable shaft 18 and grips the movable shaft 18. On the other hand, the inner surface of the smaller cylindrical portion 21 is separated from the surface of the movable shaft 18 in the vicinity of the protrusion 22, and only the tip of the protrusion 22 is in contact. Therefore, when the movable shaft 18 is rotated, the projection 22 thereof slides on the surface of the movable shaft 18 and is fitted into the recess 23 when it reaches the recess 23. That is, the smaller cylindrical portion 21 has a positioning function of locking the support member 19 and the movable shaft 18 at a predetermined rotational position. The position of this positioning is set to, for example, the most standard position when the panel is closed or when the panel is opened. Further, although there is one recess in the embodiment, a plurality of recesses may be provided around the movable shaft 18, and the height of the protrusion 22 and the depth of the recess 23 may be set arbitrarily. If these are properly set, the projection 22 and the recess 23 are elastically fitted at a predetermined rotation position, and a so-called click feeling is generated, so that it is more comfortable to use.

[0023]

[Effect of device]

 As described above in detail, according to the shaft locking device of the present invention, there is an appropriate amount of frictional resistance between the shaft body and the cylindrical portion, the relative rotation of the shaft body and the locking state at an appropriate position. Can be maintained with a simple structure. Since the shaft body and the cylindrical part are in surface contact, the same friction force can be secured with a smaller diameter compared to the conventional contact between the spring and the shaft body, and as a result, the shaft lock device can be made smaller and lighter, and the parts Since the number of points is small and the structure is simple, it can be manufactured at low cost.

The support member having the cylindrical portion can be easily manufactured by bending a part of one member. Further, by dividing the cylindrical portion into a plurality of parts in the axial direction of the shaft body, the length of each cylindrical portion can be shortened, and the roundness of each cylindrical portion can be easily improved. Yes, this also stabilizes the torque required for rotation. Furthermore, by including the winding directions of the respective divided parts around the shaft body in mutually opposite directions, it becomes possible to appropriately adjust the frictional resistance due to the rotation direction, that is, the way the rotational torque is applied. The torque can be applied according to the situation to which this device is applied. Further, by providing a projection on one of the surfaces of the cylindrical portion and the shaft body that face each other and forming a recess on the other side that engages with this projection, the engagement between the support member and the shaft body is fixed by these engagements. Positioning can be performed in a relative positional relationship. Also, by forming an oil supply groove on at least one of the surfaces of the cylindrical portion and shaft that face each other and supplying a lubricating oil such as grease to this, seizure between these surfaces is prevented and good sliding is achieved. The situation can be maintained for a long time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the overall structure of a shaft locking device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a left side view of the shaft locking device of FIG.

3 is a right side view of the shaft locking device of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG.

5A is a view taken along the arrow (a-a) in FIG. 4, and FIG. 5B is a view taken along the arrow (bb) in FIG.

6 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 5 (b).

FIG. 7 is a front view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view of FIG. 7.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Axis locking device 2,18 Movable shaft 8,19 Support member 15,24 Base part 16,20,21 Cylindrical part 17 Gap 22 Protrusion 23 Recess

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location G12B 9/08 C 6947-2F

Claims (5)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A shaft member and a support member rotatable relative to the shaft member relative to the shaft member, the support member surrounding the shaft member and elastically gripping the shaft member. And a base portion extending radially outward of the shaft body from the cylindrical portion, and a gap extending in the axial direction is formed in the cylindrical portion. 2. The shaft lock device according to claim 1, wherein the gap is formed along a connecting portion between the cylindrical portion and the base portion. 3. The shaft lock device according to claim 2, wherein the cylindrical portion is divided into a plurality of parts in the axial direction of the shaft body. 4. The shaft lock device according to claim 1, wherein a protrusion is formed on one surface of the cylindrical portion and the shaft body facing each other, and a recess is formed on the other surface to engage with the protrusion. 5. The shaft lock device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the cylindrical portion and the shaft body is formed with a recess for supplying a lubricating oil.