Patent Application
20100110620
The present invention relates to a control unit, particularly a remote control for industrial equipment, comprising a housing for accommodating the control electronics and at least one control element.
Control units of this type have been in use for years and they are employed, for example, for the remote control of cranes on construction sites. The housing is usually a box-like object that is held either directly by the hands of the user, or via a carrying strap with the aid of which the control unit is held in front of the body of the operator, who then has his hands free to operate, for example, two joysticks.
Control units of this type exist in a whole variety of technical designs and styles, which accordingly necessitates individual production measures.
It is the object of the present invention to design a control unit of the generic type in such a way that it can be manufactured from simple basic components in variable dimensions in simple processing steps.
It is another object of the invention that the housing that is designed in this manner can easily be expanded with additional components that have additional functionality in adaptation to the intended use and/or to the employed control elements, such as e.g. joysticks. The goal is, therefore, for the control unit to be configurable from standard components as individually as possible.
This object is achieved according to the present invention with the characteristics of claim 1.
The underlying concept of the invention accordingly is that the housing is composed of simple components, namely a wall part and holding elements that close the end faces, as “base modules” that can be expanded according to advantageous embodiments, which are specified in the subclaims, in many different ways so that an individually configured control unit is obtained that is designed module-like or building-block-like.
Various requirement levels regarding mechanical stability, durability, service life, production costs, etc., can be met by selecting the proper materials, and the individual configuration can thus largely be completed “off the storage rack”.
A preferred exemplary embodiment of the control unit will now be explained in greater detail based on an industrial remote control unit, with drawings as follows:
The control unit consists of only a few components, which are shown in the exploded view of
The housing 10 consists of a cuboid wall part 11 that is composed of a bottom, U-shaped component 11A and a top, cover-like component 11B, which are horizontally connectable to one another, for example via pressing or pushing in appropriate corresponding contourings of their upper edge regions. The top component 11B has circular cutouts 12A,12B for insertion of two control elements 30,31 that are shown in the exemplary embodiment in the form of joysticks. Contained within the housing are the usual electronic components, for example for a remote control transmitter; these are commonly known and are not depicted for ease of viewing.
The two components 11A,11B that form the wall part 11 are cut to the desired length from profiled bars and provided with the desired number of openings 12A,12B, so as to be able to hold the desired type and number of control elements.
The wall part 11 that is individually designed in this manner is closed at its open end faces with a holding element 13,14 in each case, which is provided for this purpose on its inside that face the wall part 11 with corresponding recesses, grooves, projections or contourings 14F, so as to allow a fixed relation of the wall part and holding element to one another. The holding elements 13, 14 can be produced as one-piece molded plastic parts via injection molding batch runs and are designed approximately X-shaped as viewed from the top, with two arms 13A,13B,14A,14B in each case facing in the direction of the control elements 30,31 and, opposite the same, feet 15A,15B,16A,16B.
The arms 13A,13B,14A,14B are dimensioned such that the plane that extends across their top ends extends above the control elements 30,31, so that these are protected, i.e. even in cases of unintentional movements of the control unit, jolts or other external influences are always reliably absorbed by at least one of the arms of a holding element. One essential function of the thusly designed holding elements accordingly consists of protecting the control elements.
The arms 13A,13B,14A,14B have a plurality of stacked recesses 13E,14E, into which three bars 17,18,19 can be inserted in the shown exemplary embodiment whose length is slightly greater than the length of the wall part 11, so that a structure is created as it is shown in
One or more of these bars may also accommodate electronic components, such as antenna arms, for example, which are then routed via one arm of a holding element into the wall part 11 and connected to the electronics that are housed there.
Between the bars 17 and 18, or also between the bar 19 and the edge of the wall part 11, there may be supported a plastic part 40 that contains additional control elements or displays.
A further embodiment provides that there is disposed in one of the holding parts 13,14 a receptacle 20 in the form of a well that is designed and dimensioned such that power supply components 21, such as, for example, batteries or rechargeable battery packs may be placed therein that supply power to the electronic components inside the wall part 11. The receptacle 20 with the power supply components 21 placed therein may be closed with a cover 20A.
The holding parts 13,14 are additionally shaped such that they contain holding means 13C,14C whereby the control unit can be carried also without a strap; however, straps also may be inserted through the openings formed by them.
A preferred embodiment of a holding part 13,14 is shown in
The component is produced in the form of a hollow part, in which webs 13G,14G effect a division into compartments that may serve for accommodation of electronic components or also of an antenna. These webs and walls then also form suitable contourings for a fixed securing and positioning of a wall part 11. The arms 13A,13B,14A,14B are closed by means of cover plates 13H,14H with openings that leave the recesses 13E,14E open.
The feet 15A,15B,16A,16B provide for a secure stand of the control unit on one hand but, on the other hand, protect the wall part itself and the control elements from damage in the event of jolts or drops.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 2006 017 127.4 | Nov 2006 | DE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/DE2007/001987 | 11/6/2007 | WO | 00 | 5/8/2009 |
