TWI767257B - Electronic device and cable holder - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic device includes a first body, a second body, a pivot mechanism, a flexible printed circuit cable and a cable holder. The pivot mechanism is pivotally connected between the first body and the second body. The flexible printed circuit cable passes through the pivot mechanism and has two sides respectively fixed inside the first body and the second body. The cable holder is fixed in the first body and adjacent to the pivot mechanism. The cable holder has a top surface, a bottom surface and a cable-hold passage extended from the top surface to the bottom surface. The flexible printed circuit cable passes through the cable-hold passage from the bottom surface to the top surface, and is folded reversely on the bottom surface and then bended reversely on the top surface again. A section of the flexible printed circuit cable between the top surface and the end fixed inside the second body remains tight. A cable holder is further provided.

Description

Electronic Devices and Cable Management

The present invention relates to an electronic device and a cable management member, in particular to an electronic device including a pivot mechanism, which is provided with a cable management member to keep the flexible cable passing through the pivot mechanism in tension.

Foldable electronic devices, such as notebook computers or mobile phones, often use flexible cables to connect the host and the display.

However, the display is usually pivoted to the host, so the flexible cable inevitably has to pass through a pivot mechanism pivoted between the host and the display. Ideally, the flexible cable must be kept in a tensioned state to avoid damage due to excessive deflection when the pivot mechanism is actuated. However, the flexible cable must span the pivot mechanism, so In the closed and open states of the electronic device, the lengths that remain tensioned are not the same, creating tolerances.

In order to maintain the tension of the flexible cable during the opening, closing, or both of the electronic device, a cable pulling mechanism can be provided on the host, the display or both to absorb the tolerance of the flexible cable.

However, in order to keep the flexible flat cable in a tensioned state, the wire pulling mechanism must have complex components such as a torsion component and a wire winding component, thereby increasing the overall manufacturing cost and assembly complexity of the electronic device. In addition, there are often more than one flexible cable in an electronic device, and different flexible cables have different tolerances. Therefore, corresponding cable pulling mechanisms must be provided respectively, thereby occupying too much space inside the electronic device.

The invention provides an electronic device, which is provided with a cable management member capable of maintaining the tension of a flexible cable, and the cable management member has the advantages of low cost and small installation space.

The present invention provides a wire management member disposed in an electronic device, which has the advantages of low cost and small installation space.

The electronic device provided by the present invention includes a first body, a second body, a pivoting mechanism, a flexible cable arrangement and a cable management member. The pivoting mechanism is pivotally connected between the first body and the second body. The flexible cable has two ends respectively fixed inside the first body and the inside of the second body through a pivoting mechanism. The wire management member is fixed in the first body and is adjacent to the pivoting mechanism. The cable management member has a top surface, a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, and a cable management channel extending from the top surface to the bottom surface. The flexible cable is folded from the bottom surface of the cable management member and passes through the cable management channel, and after passing through the cable management channel, it is folded again on the top surface to face the pivot mechanism, and the flexible cable is folded back to the cable management channel. The top surface of the piece is kept in tension to the section fixed inside the second body.

The present invention also provides the above-mentioned wire management member.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the pivoting mechanism has a wire inlet leading to the inside of the first body, and the wire inlet is provided with an abutting end, and the flexible cable is bent at the abutting end. The pivoting mechanism further has a pivoting axis, the abutting end is adjacent to the pivoting axis, and when the pivoting mechanism is actuated, the abutting end rotates relative to the pivoting axis.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the flexible cable meets the pivot axis.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a circuit board adjacent to the pivoting mechanism is provided inside the first body, a limit portion protruding toward the circuit board is disposed on the top surface of the wire management member, and the flexible cable is limited to the limit between the part and the circuit board.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the limiting portion of the cable management member is provided with first positioning portions on both sides of the flexible cable, and the circuit board is provided with a plurality of second positioning portions corresponding to the first positioning portions respectively .

In an embodiment of the present invention, each first positioning portion is a positioning column, and each second positioning portion is a positioning hole.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the section between the bottom surface of the cable management member and the end fixed to the first body of the flexible cable arrangement is kept in a non-tensioned state.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the cable management member extends along an extension direction of a pivot shaft of the parallel pivot mechanism, the number of cable management channels is multiple and juxtaposed along the extension direction, and the number of flexible cables There are also multiple.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a limiting portion is protruded from the top surface of the wire management member, and the circuit board is oppositely disposed on the limiting portion.

In the electronic device of the embodiment of the present invention, a cable management member is arranged in the first body, and the flexible cable can be kept in a tensioned state by folding twice in the cable management channel of the cable management member, and Does not occupy too much lateral space of the first body. In addition, even if a plurality of flexible cables with different tolerances must be provided in the electronic device, the cable management member of the embodiment of the present invention can also have a plurality of parallel cable management channels. In addition, the cable management member only needs to fold the flexible cable twice, so there is no need to design an overly complicated structure, thereby reducing the cost required for arranging the flexible cable.

In order to make the above-mentioned and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the following specific embodiments are given and described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of an electronic device with a cable management member and a flexible cable installed in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a partial cross-sectional view of the second body of the electronic device closed to the first body according to an embodiment of the present invention A schematic view, FIG. 1C is a schematic partial cross-sectional view of the second body of the electronic device opened to the first body according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 1A to 1C , the electronic device 10 of this embodiment includes a first body 100 , a second body 200 , a pivot mechanism 300 , a flexible cable 400 and a cable management member 500 .

As shown in FIG. 1A , the pivoting mechanism 300 is pivotally connected between the first body 100 and the second body 200 , so that the second body 200 can be opened and closed with the first body 100 . Specifically, the pivot mechanism 300 has a pivot axis R1, so that the second body 200 can rotate relative to the first body 100 according to the pivot axis R1. In this embodiment, the first body 100 may be the host of the electronic device 10 , the second body 200 may be a screen, and the electronic device 10 may be a notebook computer or a mobile phone, but not limited thereto. The flexible cable 400 has two ends respectively fixed inside the first body 100 and the inside of the second body 200 through the pivot mechanism 300 . Two ends of the flexible flat cable 400 are respectively provided with an electrical connection portion 401 and an electrical connection portion 402 to be electrically connected to the interior of the first body 100 and the interior of the second body 200 respectively.

As shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C , in this embodiment, the pivoting mechanism 300 has a cable inlet 301 leading to the inside of the first body 100 , and the cable inlet 301 is provided with an abutting end 310 , and the flexible cable 400 is The abutting end portion 310 is bent to extend into the interior of the first body 100 and the second body 200 respectively. The abutting end portion 310 is adjacent to the pivot axis R1. When the pivot mechanism 300 is actuated, the abutting end portion 310 will rotate relative to the pivot axis R1, however, since the abutting end portion 310 is adjacent to the pivot axis R1, the rotation radius of the abutting end portion 310 relative to the pivot axis R1 is extremely small. Preferably, if the distance between the abutting end portion 310 and the pivot axis R1 is zero, when the pivot mechanism 300 rotates, the flexible cable 400 can also rotate around the pivot axis R1 without being caused by the pivot. There is a change in length due to the rotation of the connecting mechanism 300 . The first body 100 is provided with a circuit board 120 for electrically connecting the electrical connecting portion 401 of the flexible cable 400 .

The cable management member 500 is fixed in the first body 100 and is adjacent to the pivot mechanism 300 . The cable management member 500 has a top surface 510 , a bottom surface 520 opposite to the top surface 510 , and a cable management channel 530 extending from the top surface 510 to the bottom surface 520 . The flexible cable 400 is adapted to be folded back through the cable management channel 530 by the bottom surface 520 of the cable management member 500 , and folded again on the top surface 510 after passing through the cable management channel 530 to face the pivot mechanism 300 , and is flexible. The flexible cable 400 is kept in a tensioned state from being folded on the top surface 510 of the cable management member 500 to a section 403 fixed inside the second body 200 . Because the abutting end portion 310 is adjacent to the pivot axis R1 and does not significantly rotate relative to the pivot axis R1 , when the second body 200 is opened and closed on the first body 100 , the flexible cable 400 will not be abutted. The ends 310 pull to visibly change the length required to maintain tension.

When installing the flexible cable 400 , the flexible cable 400 can be connected between the cable management member 500 and the electrical connection portion fixed to the second body 200 when the second body 200 is closed to the first body 100 . The section between 402 is pulled to a tensioned state, and the section 404 of the flexible flat cable 400 between the bottom surface 520 of the cable management member 500 and the electrical connection portion 401 is maintained in a non-tensioned state. Since the flexible flexible cable 400 is folded twice in the cable management member 500 , the section 403 of the flexible flexible cable 400 that maintains tension and the section 404 that maintains a non-tensioned state can be clearly separated. Even if the second body 200 is repeatedly opened and closed for a long time, the flexible cable 400 becomes slack or too tight due to the wear of the pivot mechanism 300 or other reasons. Adjustment can also be made by maintaining section 403 with a non-tensioned state.

FIG. 1D is an exploded schematic view of the wire management member and the circuit board of FIG. 1B , and FIG. 1E is a perspective schematic view of the wire management member of FIG. 1B . Referring to FIG. 1D and FIG. 1E , and referring to FIG. 1B , the first body 100 is provided with a circuit board 110 adjacent to the pivot mechanism 300 . The cable management member 500 is provided with a limiting portion 511 protruding toward the circuit board 110 on the top surface 510 , and the flexible cable 400 can be limited between the limiting portion 511 and the circuit board 110 . The limiting portion 511 of the cable management member 500 may be provided with a plurality of first positioning portions 512 , and the circuit board 110 may be provided with second positioning portions 112 corresponding to the first positioning portions 512 . In this embodiment, the first positioning portion 512 can be a positioning column, and the second positioning portion 112 can be a positioning hole, but it is not limited to this. For example, the forms of the first positioning portion 512 and the second positioning portion 112 can also be reversed .

In this embodiment, the structure in which the first positioning portion 512 is positioned on the second positioning portion 112 can also limit the position of the flexible cable 400 in addition to the function of positioning the cable management member 500 . The flexible cable 400 can enter the cable management channel 530 between the two first positioning portions 512 , so when the first positioning portion 512 is positioned at the second positioning portion 112 , the flexible cable 400 can be limited to two groups Between the first positioning portion 512 and the second positioning portion 112 positioned with each other.

In this embodiment, the wire management member 500 may extend along the extension direction F, and the extension direction F may be parallel to the pivot axis R1 of the pivot mechanism 300 , but not limited to this. In the extending direction F, the cable management member 500 may have a plurality of cable management channels 530. In addition to fixing the flexible cable 400, other flexible cables can also be fixed, and the tolerances of these flexible cables can be adjusted. Different from the flexible cable 400 .

In this embodiment, two sides of the cable management member 500 in the extending direction F may respectively extend out fixing pieces 540 , the fixing pieces 540 may have openings 541 , and the first body 100 of the electronic device 10 may further include fixing pieces 60 . The fixing member 60 can be, for example, a screw, so as to fix the wire management member 500 in the first body 100 .

In this embodiment, a plurality of buffer pads 550 may be disposed on the bottom surface 520 of the cable management member 500 to prevent the flexible row Line 400 deals damage. The cushion pad 550 is, for example, a sponge, but not limited thereto.

In the electronic device 10 of this embodiment, a cable management member 500 is disposed in the first body 100 , and the flexible cable 400 can be kept in the open position by folding twice in the cable management channel 530 of the cable management member 500 . It is in a tight state and does not occupy too much lateral space of the first body 100 . In addition, the cable management member 500 only needs to fold the flexible flat cable 400 twice, so there is no need to design an overly complicated structure, thereby reducing the cost required for arranging the flexible flat cable 400 .

FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a first body having a cable management member and a plurality of flexible cables installed on the first body according to another embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 2 and FIG. 1B . The difference between this embodiment and the embodiment of FIGS. 1A to 1E is that the cable management member 500 is not only penetrated by the flexible cable 400 , but also penetrated by another flexible cable 400 a It is assumed that the flexible cable 400 and the flexible cable 400a have different tolerances. In this embodiment, although the tolerances of the flexible flexible cable 400 and the flexible flexible cable 400a are different from each other, the flexible flexible cable 400 has the section 404 in a non-tensioned state by adjusting the cable management member 500 . The lengths of the sections 404a that are in a non-tensioned state with the flexible cable 400a are different from each other, eg, the length L1 of the section 404a is shorter than the length L2 of the section 404, so that the flexible cable 400 and the flexible cable All sections of the wire 400a through the pivoting mechanism 300 can maintain a tensioned state.

In the electronic device of the embodiment of the present invention, a cable management member is arranged in the first body, and the flexible cable can be kept in a tensioned state by folding twice in the cable management channel of the cable management member, and Does not occupy too much lateral space of the first body. In addition, even if a plurality of flexible cables with different tolerances must be provided in the electronic device, the cable management member of the embodiment of the present invention can also have a plurality of parallel cable management channels. In addition, the cable management member only needs to fold the flexible cable twice, so there is no need to design an overly complicated structure, thereby reducing the cost required for arranging the flexible cable.

In addition, after more than 20,000 opening and closing tests of the second body relative to the first body were performed on the electronic device of the embodiment of the present invention, it was found that the flexible cable maintains a normal signal transmission capability. Therefore, the electronic device of the embodiment of the present invention uses The cable management structure in which the flexible cable is kept in tension by the cable management member has a high degree of reliability.

Although the present invention has been disclosed as above with examples, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Those with ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the scope of the appended patent application.

10: Electronics 100: The first body 200: Second body 300: Pivot mechanism 301: Line entry 310: abutting end 400, 400a: Flexible cable 401, 402: Electrical connection part 403, 404, 404a: Sections 110, 120: circuit board 500: Wire management 510: Top surface 511: Limiting part 520: Bottom 530: Cable management channel 540: fixed piece 541: Opening 550: Cushion 60: Fixing parts F: extension direction L1, L2: length R1: pivot axis

FIG. 1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of an electronic device with a cable management member and a flexible cable installed according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1B is a schematic partial cross-sectional view of the second body of the electronic device closed to the first body according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1C is a schematic partial cross-sectional view of the second body of the electronic device opened to the first body according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1D is an exploded schematic view of the wire management member and the circuit board of FIG. 1B . FIG. 1E is a schematic three-dimensional view of the cable management member of FIG. 1B . FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a first body having a cable management member and a plurality of flexible cables installed on the first body according to another embodiment of the present invention.

10: Electronics

100: The first body

200: Second body

300: Pivot mechanism

301: Line entry

310: abutting end

400: Flexible cable

401: Electrical connection part

403, 404: Section

110, 120: circuit board

500: Wire management

510: Top surface

511: Limiting part

520: Bottom

530: Cable management channel

R1: pivot axis

Claims (13)

An electronic device, comprising: a first body; a second body; a pivoting mechanism, pivotally connected between the first body and the second body; a flexible cable, passing through the pivoting mechanism and having the two ends of the inside of the first body and the inside of the second body are respectively fixed; and a wire management member is fixed on the first body and adjacent to the pivot mechanism, the wire management member has a top surface opposite to the top surface a bottom surface and a cable management channel extending from the top surface to the bottom surface; wherein, the flexible cable is folded back through the cable management channel from the bottom surface of the cable management member, and is passed out of the cable management channel The channel is then folded again on the top surface to face the pivoting mechanism, and the flexible cable is kept in tension from the top surface of the cable management member to a section fixed inside the second body. A tight state. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pivoting mechanism has a cable inlet leading to the inside of the first body, and an abutting end portion is arranged at the cable inlet, and the flexible cable is abutting on the cable inlet. The end is bent, the pivoting mechanism further has a pivot axis, the abutting end is adjacent to the pivoting axis, and when the pivoting mechanism is actuated, the abutting end rotates relative to the pivoting axis. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the flexible cable meets the pivot axis. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first body has a circuit board adjacent to the pivot mechanism inside, and the wire management member is provided with a limiting portion protruding toward the circuit board on the top surface, The flexible flat cable is limited between the limiting portion and the circuit board. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the limiting portion of the cable management member is respectively provided with a first positioning portion on both sides of the flexible cable, and the circuit board is provided with corresponding first positioning portions respectively A plurality of second positioning parts of the part. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein each of the first positioning portions is a positioning post, and each of the second positioning portions is a positioning hole. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a section of the flexible cable arrangement between the bottom surface of the cable management member and an end fixed to the first body is kept in a non-tensioned state. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the cable management member extends along an extension direction parallel to a pivot axis of the pivot mechanism, and the cable management channels are multiple in number and juxtaposed along the extension direction. A flexible cable management member is suitable for an electronic device. The electronic device includes a first body, a second body, a pivot mechanism and a flexible cable. The pivot mechanism is pivotally connected to the Between the first body and the second body, the flexible cable passes through the pivot mechanism and has two ends respectively fixed inside the first body and the second body, wherein: The wire management member is suitable for being fixed in the first body and adjacent to the pivoting mechanism. The wire management member has a top surface, a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, and a wire management member extending from the top surface to the bottom surface. channel; the flexible cable is adapted to be folded back through the cable management channel from the bottom surface of the cable management member, and folded again on the top surface to face the pivot mechanism after passing through the cable management channel, And the flexible cable is kept in a state of tension from the top surface of the cable management member to a section fixed inside the second body. The flexible cable management member according to claim 9, wherein the cable management member is protruded with a limiting portion on the top surface, and the first body includes a circuit board, and the circuit board is disposed opposite to the circuit board. The limiting portion is adjacent to the pivoting mechanism. The flexible cable management member of claim 10, wherein the limiting portion of the cable management member is provided with a plurality of first positioning portions, and the circuit board is provided with corresponding first positioning portions respectively a plurality of second positioning parts. The flexible cable management member of claim 11, wherein each of the first positioning portions is a positioning post, and each of the second positioning portions is a positioning hole. The flexible cable management member according to claim 9, wherein the cable management member extends along an extension direction parallel to a pivot axis of the pivot mechanism, and the number of the cable management channels is plural along the juxtaposed in the direction of extension.

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