The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 94130924, filed Sep. 8, 2005, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to a dual-axis hinge, and more particularly to a dual-axis hinge with bi-directional rotatability.
2. Description of Related Art
People use numerous kinds of portable electronic devices in their daily lives, such as pagers, cellular phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These devices bring great convenience for people, so manufacturers make every endeavor to design more user-friendly products in order to meet the demand of consumers.
One major improvement is the design of a foldable device. There are two advantages to this design. First, the amount of information displayed at a time increases because the size of the screen can be made larger; second, the operation interface can contain more functions because the arrangement of the interface can be made diversified. The foldable device includes three parts, i.e. an upper cover, a body and a hinge module coupled between the upper cover and the body. In general, this kind of foldable structure can only be opened and closed in one direction, which may limit the practical use of the foldable device. Furthermore, the screen, in order to match the cover and body, must be shaped like a rectangle and oriented in only one direction, which is not convenient for users to read documents or websites that are oriented otherwise.
The new designs provide different operating modes, in which the upper cover can open and close in two orthogonal directions selectively, making the screen presented in either portrait or landscape modes to fit the visual demand.
However, there are some disadvantages in the known portable electronic device. For example,
1. Since the hinge 130 is a right angle hinge on the top surface of the body 110, the upper cover 120 and the body 110 must be designed to have some corresponding indentations and raised parts. These parts may degrade the appearance of the expensive electronic product and therefore make it look cheap.
2. Regarding general operating habits of users or long-term service products, the raised parts are easily damaged by impacts and also affect the convenience of input by interfering with handling postures of users.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a bi-directional and dual-axis hinge. When the dual-axis hinge is applied to a portable electronic product, the upper cover and the body are foldable in at least two directions and have no additional indentations and raised parts formed thereon. When the upper cover is opened normally, the appearance of the upper cover and the body is smooth thereby effectively improving the aesthetic design and increasing the value of the electronic products.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a dual-axis hinge which makes portable electronic products have a smooth appearance without raised parts, so as to avoid collision and damage and improve handling and input behaviors for the portable electronic products.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a dual-axis hinge, which has a transmission circuit hidden therein for connecting with the circuits of the upper cover and the body of the portable electronic product, thereby avoiding exposing the transmission circuit and thus reducing malfunction probability resulting from external forces.
According to the aforementioned objectives of the present invention, a new dual-axis hinge is provided. In one embodiment of the present invention, the dual-axis hinge utilizes a connecting section to connect an upper hinge and a lower hinge, such that the upper hinge and the lower hinge are orthogonal to each other and respectively locate at two parallels that are perpendicular to the connecting section. The upper hinge and the lower hinge are respectively connected to the upper cover and the body such that the upper cover can be foldable around an axis defined by the upper hinge and foldable around an axis defined by the lower hinge.
The structure of the dual-axis hinge of the present invention is constructed by two components, which define a circuit cavity for containing the transmission circuit. The two components are combined together by a connecting structure, and concave ring portions of the upper hinge and the lower hinge respectively have circuit outlets for the transmission circuit to pass through. In addition, two ends of the transmission circuit loops around the concave ring portions and then connect with the upper cover and the body respectively. The transmission circuit is hidden inside the dual-axis hinge, thereby reducing the damage and breakage of the transmission circuit when the upper cover is folded repeatedly.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
While the specification concludes with claims defining the features of the invention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that the invention will be better understood from a consideration of the following description in conjunction with the figures, in which like reference numerals are carried forward.
The upper end and the lower end of the connecting section 210 orthogonally connect the upper hinge 220 and the lower hinge 230 respectively, and the upper hinge 220 and the lower hinge 230 are orthogonal to each other.
The upper hinge 220 has a concave ring portion 221 and a connecting hole 222, and the lower hinge 230 has a concave ring portion 231 and a connecting hole 232. The concave ring portions 221 and 231 have corresponding circuit outlets 223 and 233, respectively. A circuit cavity 211 is formed within the connecting section 210 and communicates with the outlets 223 and 233. Moreover, the upper hinge 220 and the lower hinge 230 have through-holes 224 and 234 respectively formed thereon and communicating with the connecting holes 222 and 232 for combining with connecting components 225 and 235, respectively.
The first sleeve 300 includes a joint rod 310, which has a protrusion 312 disposed on the front end of the joint rod 310 and a hole 311 formed on the protrusion 312. The protrusion 312 can plug into the connecting hole 222 (as shown in
The second sleeve 400 includes a joint rod 410, which has a protrusion 412 disposed on the front end of the joint rod 410 and a hole 411 formed on the protrusion 412. The protrusion 412 can plug into the connecting hole 232 (as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
In order to open the foldable device in another direction, the upper cover 600 should be closed to the body 700 as shown in
According to the aforementioned composition and embodiments, the present invention provides many advantages over the prior art, for example:
1. The upper hinge and the lower hinge of the dual-axis hinge according to the present invention are respectively disposed at an upper plane and a lower plane and orthogonal to each other by respectively connecting to two sides of the perpendicular connecting section. Therefore, the body and the upper cover of the portable electronic device (such as a cellular phone, PDA, etc.) have no raised parts formed thereon such that the appearance of the portable electronic device can be smoother and thus increase the competitiveness and value.
2. Utilizing the structure of the bi-directional and dual-axis hinge, the portable electronic device only needs an indentation at the corresponding corners of the body and the upper cover for coupling the dual-axis hinge such that the installation, molding, manufacture, or fabrication of the body and the upper cover are much easier without adding unnecessary fabricating cost.
3. The entire electronic product has no any raised part, thereby avoiding damage of raised parts in long-term operation and thus removing operation inconvenience from consumers.
4. The dual-axis hinge has the circuit cavity for the transmission circuit to pass through and the concave ring portions for the transmission circuit to loop around, such that when the transmission circuit connects with the body and the upper cover, it is not only hidden but also able to increase space to move, granting the electronic products more durability and avoiding wear and breakage in long-term operation.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
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