JPH07131850A - Foldable portable radio equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability of the radio equipment by opening the upper housing and lower housing of the fold able portable radio equipment by one hand. CONSTITUTION:The hinge mechanism 8 of the upper housing 1 and lower housing 2 is provided with a coil spring 82 which energizes the both in the opening direction; and equipped with a lock mechanism 9 which locks the upper housing 1 and lower housing 2 in a closed state. The lock mechanism has a fixed magnet 90 provided to the upper housing 1 and a movable magnet 91 which is provided on the lower housing 2 and shift in position by the operation of an operation part 96. When the radio equipment is not used, the upper housing 1 and lower housing 2 are held in the closed state with the attractive forces of both the magnets 90 and 91. When the equipment is used, the movable magnet 91 is moved to weaken the attractive force of the fixed magnet 90, and then the upper housing 1 and lower housing 2 are automatically opened with the elastic force of the coil spring 82, so that they can be operated by one hand.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable wireless device, and more particularly to a casing structure for a folding portable wireless device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 5, a mobile phone as one of foldable portable radios has an upper housing 1 provided with an antenna 3, a display section 4, a receiving section 5, etc., and various keys. The lower housing 2 provided with the section 6, the transmitter 7, etc. is connected by a hinge mechanism 8, and the lower housing 2 can be folded with respect to the upper housing 1 by using the hinge mechanism 8. . In this telephone, the upper and lower casings 1 and 2 are opened at the time of use to increase the distance between the transmitter 7 and the receiver 5 so that the user's ear and mouth can receive the receiver and transmitter. Can be brought close to each other, and when not in use, the lower housing 2 can be folded to downsize the telephone and enhance portability.

[0003]

In such a foldable telephone, it is necessary for the user to open the upper housing 1 in a folded state with respect to the lower housing 2 when using the telephone. It is necessary to hold the lower casing 2 with one hand and to hold the lower casing 2 with the other hand to rotate the hinge with the hinge mechanism 8 as a fulcrum to open the upper casing 1. On the other hand, when folding after use, the upper casing 1 is pressed by pressing the upper casing 1 against a part of the body or another object while holding the lower casing 2 with one hand. Since it can be folded, it can be operated with one hand. Therefore, both hands are required to open the upper housing 1 during use, and there is a problem in that it is inconvenient to use when only one hand is free. An object of the present invention is to provide a foldable mobile phone that enables the use of the phone with one hand operation.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A foldable portable wireless device according to the present invention comprises elastic urging means for urging an upper casing and a lower casing in an opening direction, and an upper casing and a lower casing closed. And a lock means for releasing the holding by manual operation. For example, the lock means includes a fixed magnet provided on one of the upper housing and the lower housing, and a movable magnet provided on the other housing, and when the upper housing and the lower housing are closed, both magnets are locked. The magnets are arranged so as to face each other and have an attraction relationship with each other, and the attraction force of both magnets is reduced when the movable magnets are moved manually. Further, in this case, the movable magnet of the lock means is fixedly supported on the tip of the movable piece that is movable in the housing, and the movable piece is attached in the tip direction by the spring means that is hooked between the movable piece and the housing. It is possible to employ a configuration in which an operating portion that is biased and that is provided in a part of the movable piece is projected from the housing, and the operating portion is manually operated to move the movable piece in the proximal direction.

[0005]

When the portable wireless device is not used, the upper casing and the lower casing are kept closed by the lock means, and when the portable wireless device is used, the lock of the lock means is released so that the upper portion is elastically biased. The case and the lower case are automatically opened. By operating the lock means with the finger holding the wireless device to release the lock, the opening / closing operation of the wireless device can be performed with one hand.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front view of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a mobile phone. In the figure, the upper housing 1
Is provided with an antenna 3, a liquid crystal display unit 4, and a receiver unit 5,
The lower housing 2 is provided with various key portions 6 and a transmitter portion 7. One end portion of the upper housing 1 and one end portion of the lower housing 2 are coupled by a hinge mechanism 8 to connect the lower housing 2 to the upper housing 2. It is configured so that it can be rotated and folded with respect to the body 1.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the hinge mechanism 8. Cylindrical parts 11 and 21 are integrally provided at one end of each of the upper housing 1 and the lower housing 2, the cylindrical parts 11 and 21 are coaxially arranged, and the pin shaft 81 is inserted through each cylindrical part. The cylindrical portions 11 and 21 are configured to be rotatable about the pin shaft 81. Then, the pin shaft 81
The coil spring 82 is fitted to the
By hooking one end and the other end of each of the casings 1 and 2 respectively, the elastic force of the coil spring 82 causes the cylindrical portions 11,
21 are applied with rotational forces in opposite directions to each other, and the upper housing 1
And the lower housing 2 is urged in the opening direction.

A fixed magnet 90 is arranged at a position close to the surface inside the upper housing 1, and is fixed, for example, with the N pole facing the front surface side of the housing 1. On the other hand, inside the lower housing 2, a movable magnet 91 is disposed so as to be movable in a position corresponding to the fixed magnet 90. The fixed magnet 90 and the movable magnet 91 form the lock mechanism 9. That is, as shown in FIG. 3 which is a schematic configuration in which the lock mechanism 9 is disassembled into parts, a rectangular hole 92 is formed in the side surface of the lower housing 2, and an L surface is formed on the inner surface of the lower housing facing the rectangular hole 92. A pair of rails 93 having a V-shaped cross section are extended and a strip-shaped movable piece 94 is inserted into the rails 93 so that the movable piece 94 can slide along the rails 93. However, stoppers 95 are provided at both end positions of the rail 93, and the end portions of the movable pieces 94 abut against these stoppers 95 to regulate the moving range of the movable pieces 94. Further, a protruding piece 94a provided at the tip of the movable piece 94 is bent at a right angle, and the movable magnet 91 is fixed to the protruding piece 94a with its S pole facing the surface side of the lower housing. .

An operating portion 9 is provided on one surface of the movable piece 94.
6 is provided in a protruding manner, and the operating portion 96 is projected to the outside of the lower housing 2 through the rectangular hole 92. A compression spring 98 is inserted between a locking portion 94b formed by bending at the base end of the movable piece 94 and a locking portion 97 provided on the lower housing 2, and the elastic force of the compression spring 98 is inserted. By the movable piece 94
Is urged toward the tip. At the position of the biased movable piece 94, the movable magnet 91 moves to the fixed magnet 9
The position is set to correspond to 0. That is, when the lower housing 2 and the upper housing 1 are folded, the fixed magnet 90 and the movable magnet 91 are set to face each other.

Therefore, according to the foldable portable telephone having this structure, as shown in FIG. 4, the upper casing 1 and the lower casing 2 are closed by the hinge mechanism 8 when not in use. At this time, in the lower housing 2, since the movable piece 94 is urged by the elastic force of the compression spring 98 in the distal direction to move, the movable magnet 91 supported by the movable piece 94 and the upper housing 1 are fixed. The fixed magnet 90 is directly faced, and the upper casing 1 and the lower casing 2 are held in a closed state by the attraction forces of the S and N poles of both magnets. At this time, a force in the opening direction acts between the upper housing 1 and the lower housing 2 by the coil spring 82 provided in the hinge mechanism 8, but both magnets 90, 9
This state can be maintained by setting the attraction force of No. 1 to be larger than the opening direction force of the coil spring 82.

On the other hand, when the telephone is used, when the operating portion 96 is slid to move the movable piece 94 in the proximal direction against the elastic force of the compression spring 98, the movable magnet 91 is also moved accordingly. , Is moved to a position removed from the position facing the fixed magnet 90. Therefore, the attraction force of both magnets 90 and 91 is weakened, and the elastic force of the coil spring 82 becomes larger. Therefore, the upper housing 1 is rotated by the hinge mechanism 8 as shown by the arrow in FIG. 4, and the upper housing 1 is opened with respect to the lower housing 2 as shown by the chain line in FIG. Although not described, the hinge mechanism 8 is provided with a stopper for restricting the open position of the upper housing and the lower housing, and the position regulated by this stopper when the upper housing is opened. Is opened until.

Therefore, in this mobile phone, the user holds the lower housing 2 of the wireless device in the folded state with one hand and slides the operating portion 96 with the finger of the hand to move the fixed magnet 90 to the fixed magnet 90. The movable magnet 91 releases the locked state of both, the upper housing 1 can be opened by the elastic force of the coil spring 82, and the telephone can be set to the used state. This makes it possible to operate with one hand,
It is possible to simplify the handling of the telephone and improve the operability of the telephone. When the telephone is stopped and the telephone is folded, the telephone can be folded with one hand as in the conventional case. At this time, since the operation portion 96 is not operated, the movable magnet 91 is moved by the compression spring 98.
4, the movable magnet 91 and the fixed magnet 90 are immediately brought into correspondence with each other when the upper housing 1 is closed, and the housings 1 and 2 are again connected.
Is locked and the closed state is maintained.

In the above embodiment, a magnet is used as a lock mechanism for holding the upper case and the lower case in a closed state, but a hook elastically supported on one case is used. A hook receiver that is engaged with the hook may be provided on the other housing, and the hook may be manually moved to release the engagement with the hook receiver.
However, in the case where the lock mechanism is composed of a magnet as in the above-described embodiment, when the upper housing and the lower housing are forcibly opened without releasing the lock mechanism, or when both housings are opened by an external force. When a force in the opening direction is applied, no force is applied to the lock mechanism, and the lock mechanism and a part of the housing are not damaged. Also, when the lock mechanism is composed of a magnet, it is sufficient to simply move the movable magnet, so that an operating force is stronger than that of a hook structure that requires a force to release the engagement between the hook and the hook receiver. Can be reduced.

Further, ring-shaped magnets may be used as the movable magnet and the fixed magnet, and the movable magnet may be rotationally moved by the operation lever to eliminate the attraction force between the movable magnet and the fixed magnet. In this case, the movable magnet is provided with a spring that gives a force to rotate the movable magnet in one direction. Alternatively, a push button may be integrally provided at the end of the movable piece that supports the movable magnet, and the movable magnet may be moved by pressing the push button. Further, although the compression spring is used to move the movable magnet, it goes without saying that this may be a tension spring.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the elastic urging means for urging the upper casing and the lower casing in the opening direction and the upper casing and the lower casing are kept closed. , Because it has a locking means to release its holding by manual operation,
When the portable wireless device is not in use, the upper casing and the lower casing are kept closed by the lock means, and when the portable wireless device is in use, the lock of the lock means is released, so that the elastic urging means separates the upper casing from the upper casing. By automatically opening the lower housing and holding the transceiver with one hand and simultaneously operating the locking means to unlock, it is possible to open and close the transceiver with one hand. Become

Further, the locking means is composed of a fixed magnet provided on one of the upper casing and the lower casing and a movable magnet provided on the other casing, and both magnets are provided when the upper casing and the lower casing are closed. Are opposed to each other and are in an attraction relationship with each other, and the attraction force of both magnets is reduced when the movable magnet is moved by a manual operation. Even if added, the locking means is not damaged. In this case, since the lock can be released by simply moving the movable magnet, the operation force can be reduced as compared with the hook structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front view of an embodiment of a folding portable wireless device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a hinge mechanism of the wireless device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partially exploded perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a movable magnet that constitutes a lock mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway side view for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an example of a conventional foldable portable wireless device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Upper case 2 Lower case 8 Hinge mechanism 9 Lock mechanism 11, 12 Cylindrical part 82 Coil spring 90 Fixed magnet 91 Movable magnet 94 Movable piece 96 Operating part 98 Compression spring

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A foldable mobile phone comprising a lower housing and an upper housing hingedly connected to the upper housing to open and close, and an elastic member for urging the upper housing and the lower housing in an opening direction. A foldable portable wireless device comprising: a biasing unit; and a locking unit that holds the upper housing and the lower housing in a closed state and manually releases the holding. 2. The locking means comprises a fixed magnet provided on one of the upper housing and the lower housing, and a movable magnet provided on the other housing, and the two magnets when the upper housing and the lower housing are closed. 2. The foldable portable wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the magnets are opposed to each other and are in an attraction relationship with each other, and when the movable magnets are moved manually, the attraction force of both magnets is reduced or disappears. 3. The movable magnet is fixedly supported on the tip of a movable piece that is movable in the housing, and the movable piece is urged in the tip direction by spring means mounted between the movable piece and the movable piece. The foldable portable wireless device according to claim 2, wherein an operating portion provided on a part of the piece is projected from the housing, and the operating portion is manually operated to move the movable piece in the proximal direction.