JPH0979482A - Tripod - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To tighten easily even when a bolt to fix the upper end of a leg is loosened, and to support the legs stably. SOLUTION: At each leg installing part 15 of a base body 12, stopper walls 31, 32, and 33 are provided. A slide member 70 is provided to an end member 43 fixed to the upper end of a leg 13. The slide member 70 is movable in the longitudinal direction, and its upper end 77 can be engaged to either one of the stopper walls 31, 32, and 33. The slide member 70 furnishes arms 72 and 73. By making the width of the arms 72 and 73 in the up and down direction narrower than a main part 71, and positioning them at the lower side of a bolt 20, the head 22 of the bolt 20 is exposed. A guide projection 55 is provided on the side surface of the end member 43. On the inner surface of the slide member 70, ribs 74 and 75 which can contact to both the upper and the lower surfaces of the guide projection 55, and can fit slidable in the longitudinal direction to the guide projection 55, are provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tripod used for supporting photographing equipment such as a camera or a telescope or other equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a tripod has a base on which a tripod head is mounted, and the upper ends of the legs are pivotally attached to each other by means of pivots such as bolts so as to be rotatable in a radial manner. In general tripods, the opening angle of the leg can be regulated by bringing the upper end of the leg into contact with the stopper portion on the base body side or by separately providing a leg opening stop mechanism. In addition, actual public Sho 63-
Prior art in which the opening angles of three legs can be individually adjusted, such as the tripod described in Japanese Patent No. 26635, has also been developed. In this prior art, a stopper wall whose height is changed stepwise is provided on a base body on which a platform is mounted, and a slide member which can be engaged with any one of the plurality of stopper walls is provided at an upper end portion of a leg. It is a thing. The above-mentioned prior art has good usability because the opening angle of each leg can be individually adjusted by a simple operation.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned prior art tripod has a bolt (pivot) for fixing the upper ends of the legs.
Since the head of the slide is hidden inside the slide member, it is necessary to remove the slide member from the leg in order to re-tighten the bolt when the bolt is loosened, and there is room for improvement in terms of ease of handling. To address this point, the inventors have
Attempts have also been made to expose the bolt heads by narrowing the width (vertical dimension) of the slide member, but it has been found that simply narrowing the width of the slide member causes the problems described below. .

That is, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art, when the leg opening angle is increased, it is necessary to engage the slide member with the stopper wall having the largest protrusion height, so that the slide member needs to be pulled out to the outside. In that case, since the contact area between the slide member and the base material is reduced, “rattle” is likely to occur in the slide member, and when the width of the slide member is narrowed as described above, the rigidity of the slide member itself is reduced. There will be a shortage. For this reason, when the upper ends of the legs are supported via the slide members, the legs become unstable, and the pan head may sway depending on the surrounding conditions when the leg opening angle is large.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a tripod having a slide member and a stopper wall, which can be easily tightened even if the bolts that hold the upper ends of the legs to the base body are loose, and stabilize the legs regardless of the position of the slide member. It is to provide a tripod that can be supported by.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, which has been developed to achieve the above object, rotatably pivots an end member at an upper end of a leg by a bolt to a leg mounting portion of a base body on which a platform is mounted. In the tripod, a plurality of stopper walls projecting in the radial direction of the bolt and having stepwise different heights so that the projecting height from the bolt increases toward the upper side of the bolt are attached to the leg mounting portion of the base of the tripod. Around the end member, the end member is movable in the front-rear direction of the end member and has a plurality of positions corresponding to the height of each stopper wall so as to engage with any one of the plurality of stopper walls. A slide member that can be stopped is provided, and guide convex portions extending in the front-rear direction are provided on both side surfaces of the end member. The slide member includes a main portion located on the front surface side of the end member and both sides of the main portion. Extend rearward from the end members from both sides A pair of left and right arm portions are provided, the vertical width of the arm portion is made narrower than the main portion, and the arm portion is positioned below the bolt to expose the head of the bolt, and A rib is provided on the inner surface of the slide member so as to be able to contact both upper and lower surfaces of the guide protrusion and to be slidably fitted in the front-rear direction with respect to the guide protrusion.

When the leg is spread during use, the slide member abuts against the stopper wall having a height corresponding to the position of the slide member, so that further opening of the leg is restricted and a desired opening angle depending on the position of the stopper wall. Can be set to.
When the legs are folded, the legs can be folded like an ordinary tripod by rotating the legs inward without operating the slide member. In the tripod of the present invention, the bolt head is exposed, and therefore, the tightening can be easily performed even if the bolt is loosened. Further, even if the width (vertical dimension) of the slide member is small, the slide member can be provided with a large rigidity, and the contact area between the slide member and the end member can be made large. Even if the pull-out amount of the slide member is increased in order to increase the size, “backlash” is less likely to occur in the slide member, and the leg support is stable.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The tripod 10 shown in FIG.
The base 12 is provided with a platform 11 and three legs 13 attached to the base 12. As shown in FIG. 1, the leg mounting portions 15 are radially provided at three circumferential positions on the outer peripheral portion of the base body 12.
Is formed, and a bolt insertion hole 16 is formed in the leg mounting portion 15. A bolt 20 functioning as a pivot is inserted into the bolt insertion hole 16, and a nut 21 is screwed on the tip end side of the bolt 20. The head portion 22 of the bolt 20 is formed with a hexagonal concave portion 23 that functions as an operating portion, and a hexagonal bar wrench as a tightening tool can be fitted into the concave portion 23. The head 22 of the bolt 20 may have a shape capable of fitting the tip of a plus-type driver or a minus-type driver in place of the hexagonal recess 23, that is, any shape that allows the bolt 20 to rotate.

The leg mounting portion 15 has stopper walls 31, 32, 3
3 are provided. As shown in FIG. 6, each stopper wall 3
1, 32, and 33 have different heights around the axis of the bolt 20 and project in the radial direction of the bolt 20. The heights h1 and h1 are such that the projecting height from the bolt 20 is higher on the upper side. h2 and h3 are set.

The leg 13 is made up of a plurality of pipes made of aluminum alloy or the like having different thicknesses, and clamps 40, 41.
An expandable tube 42 is used which is sequentially connected via (shown in FIG. 2), and each pipe can be fixed at a position of an arbitrary length by clamps 40 and 41. An end member (a part called a foot) 43 formed separately from the expandable tube 42 is fixed to the upper end of the leg 13 by a bolt 44 and a nut 45. The end member 43 is a die cast part made of, for example, a zinc alloy or the like, and the leg mounting portion 1 is provided on the upper part thereof.
A pair of left and right holding parts 50 and 51 for sandwiching 5 from both sides are formed. A hole 52 through which the bolt 20 is inserted is formed in each of the holding portions 50 and 51. One holding part 50
A concave portion 53 (shown in FIG. 4 and the like) into which the head portion 22 of the bolt 20 is inserted is formed in the. On the other holding part 51, the nut 2
A recess 54 is formed to accommodate 1 in a non-rotatable manner. To attach the end member 43 to the leg attachment portion 15, the holding portion 50,
The bolt 20 is passed through the holes 16 and 52 while the leg mounting portion 15 is inserted between the bolts 51, and the bolt 20 is fixed to the nut 45.
Tighten by screwing.

Guide convex portions 55 are formed on both side surfaces of the holding portions 50 and 51, respectively. Guide grooves 56 and 57 are formed on both upper and lower sides of each guide protrusion 55. The guide grooves 56 and 57 extend in the front-rear direction of the end member 43.
A ball receiving hole 60 (shown in FIG. 4) is provided in one of the guide protrusions 55. The ball accommodating hole 60 accommodates a steel ball 61 and a compression spring 62 that biases the ball 61 in the direction of pushing the ball 61 out of the hole 60.

A slide member 70 is provided on the end member 43. The slide member 70 is a die cast component made of, for example, a zinc alloy, and includes a main portion 71 located on the front side of the end member 43, and a pair of left and right arm portions 72, 73 extending rearward from both sides of the main portion 71. ing. The main portion 71 is formed in a shape that can be grasped by fingers. Arm 7
Reference numerals 2 and 73 have a shape in which the holding portions 50 and 51 are sandwiched from both sides. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the vertical width W of the arm portions 72 and 73 is smaller than the vertical width of the main portion 71, and the arm portions 72 and 73 are positioned below the bolt 20. I have to. Ribs 74 and 75 are formed on the inner surfaces of the arms 72 and 73 so that they can contact the upper and lower surfaces of the guide protrusion 55, and the ribs 74 and 75 are fitted into the guide grooves 56 and 57 to slide. The member 70 can slide in the front-back direction, and the upper end 77 of the slide member 70 can be stopped at a position corresponding to the height of the stopper walls 31, 32, 33.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the slide member 7
When 0 is fully pushed, the upper end 77 of the slide member 70 is located at a height at which it can engage with the first stopper wall 31. As shown in FIG. 7, when the slide member 70 is slightly pulled out, the upper end 77 of the slide member 70 can be engaged with the stopper wall 32 at the second height at an intermediate position. When the ball 61 is engaged with 80, the slide member 70 can be stopped. When the slide member 70 is further pulled out as shown in FIG. 8, the retaining screw 82 engages with the end surface 81 of the guide convex portion 55 to prevent the slide member 70 from being further pulled out. The upper end 77 of the slide member 70 has a height at which it can be engaged with the third stopper wall 33. The retaining screw 82 is provided on the arm portion 72.

The operation of the tripod 10 will be described below. When the position of the slide member 70 is selected from any of the three stages and the leg 13 is widened, the slide member 70 is placed on any of the three stopper walls 31, 32, 33 depending on the position of the slide member 70. The opening angle of the leg 13 is regulated by hitting the upper end 77 of the leg 13. That is, by selecting the slide member 70 at a position corresponding to the opening angle, the opening angles of the three legs 13 can be independently adjusted.

For example, when all the legs 13 are spread at the same angle, they can be used in the manner shown in FIGS. In addition, if the angles of the legs 13 are made different from each other and widened, as shown in FIG.
As illustrated in A and B, it can be used in a mode according to the situation of the installation place. In this case, the length of each leg 13 may be adjusted appropriately. As described above, according to the present embodiment, various usages are possible by independently adjusting the angles, lengths, etc. of the three legs 13.

Further, when the leg 13 is folded, it is not necessary to operate the slide member 70, and the leg 1 is the same as a normal tripod.
It suffices to rotate 3 as it is and fold it. Therefore, no troublesome operation is required. Although the leg opening angle can be adjusted in three steps in the above embodiment, the number of stopper walls can be set so that the opening angle can be adjusted in two steps or four steps or more in implementing the present invention. Good.

The tripod 10 of this embodiment is a slide member 70.
By making the width W of the arm portions 72, 73 of the head portion 22 narrower than that of the main portion 71, the concave portion 2 of the head portion 22 as the operating portion of the bolt 20
Since 3 is exposed, it is possible to easily tighten the bolt 20 with a tool such as a bar wrench without removing the slide member 70 when the bolt 20 is loosened. In this case, since the ribs 74 and 75 having large thickness are provided even if the width W of the arm portions 72 and 73 is narrow, the arm portions 72 and 7 are
The bending rigidity of 3 can be improved.

Moreover, since the ribs 74 and 75 are fitted so as to sandwich the guide convex portion 55 of the end member 43 from both the upper and lower sides, even if the slide member 70 is fully pulled out as shown in FIG. And end member 43
A large contact area can be obtained. For these reasons, regardless of the position of the slide member 70, the end member 4
The mounting state of the slide member 70 with respect to 3 is stable, and the leg 13 can be supported in a stable state even if the opening angle of the leg 13 is large.

[0019]

According to the present invention, even if the bolts for fixing the upper ends of the legs to the base body are loosened, the tightening tool can easily perform the additional tightening without removing the slide member. In this case, the width of the arm portion of the slide member is narrowed to expose the head portion of the bolt, but in the present invention, the rigidity of the arm portion can be increased and the contact area between the slide member and the end member of the leg is increased. Therefore, the slide member can be securely held by the end member regardless of the position of the slide member, and the leg can be stably supported even if the opening angle of the leg increases.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a part of a tripod showing an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an overall perspective view of the tripod shown in FIG.

3 is a side view of the upper end of a leg used in the tripod shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the end member taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

5 is a rear view of a slide member used in the tripod shown in FIG.

6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a part of the tripod shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a state in which the legs are partially opened.

FIG. 8 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a state in which the legs are fully opened.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing a usage state of the tripod shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing another usage mode of the tripod shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Tripod 11 ... Platform 12 ... Base | substrate 13 ... Leg 15 ... Leg attachment part 20 ... Bolt 23 ... Recessed part (operation part) 31, 32, 33 ... Stopper wall 43 ... End member 55 ... Guide convex part 70 ... Slide member 71 ... Main part 72,73 ... Arm part 74,75 ... Rib

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tripod in which an end member at the upper end of the leg is rotatably pivotally attached to a leg mounting portion of a base body on which a platform is mounted by a bolt, in the leg mounting portion of the base body in a radial direction of the bolt. A plurality of stopper walls that project and are different in height stepwise so that the protruding height from the bolt becomes larger toward the upper side are provided around the bolt, and the end member is provided in the front-rear direction of the end member. A slide member that is movable and that can be stopped at a plurality of stages according to the height of each stopper wall is provided so as to engage with any one of the plurality of stopper walls. A guide convex portion is provided along the front-rear direction, and the slide member includes a main portion located on the front surface side of the end member, and a pair of left and right arm portions that extend rearward from both sides of the main portion and sandwich the end member from both sides. The vertical width of the arm part The arms with narrower than it is positioned below the bolt to expose the head of the bolt,
A tripod characterized in that an inner surface of the slide member is provided with a rib which is capable of contacting both upper and lower surfaces of the guide protrusion and slidably fitted in the front-rear direction with respect to the guide protrusion.