Patent Application
20140002962
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electronic device opening/closing control mechanism, and more particularly to an electronic device opening/closing control mechanism, which includes a connection arm movable between a first position and a second position for controlling locking/unlocking of the electronic device. The connection arm can be easily mounted on the electronic device without being limited by the space or volume of the electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various electronic devices provided with covers or display screens, such as cellular phones, notebook computers, electronic books and digital imagers. The covers or display screens are pivotally mounted on the electronic devices via pivot pins (or rotational shafts), whereby the covers or display screens can be freely rotated and opened/closed under external force. For example, conventional skill discloses a sealed high-locating-force computer product rotational shaft structure. Another conventional skill discloses an elastic body assembly structure of hinge device. Another conventional skill further discloses a hinge device with multiple frictional interfaces. These Patents provide several typical embodiments of assembly of pivot pin and locating component (or locating module).
Basically, in the conventional locating module, multiple disc-shaped washers are stacked in the same direction or reverse direction and assembled on the pivot pin. The washers are tightened by a nut, whereby when the pivot pin is rotated, the washers provide an elastic holding effect or frictional resistance against the rotation of the cover or display screen so as to locate the cover or display screen in a desired position after opened.
In the above assembly of pivot pin and locating component for locating the cover or display screen of the electronic device after opened, the elastic holding effect or frictional resistance is adjustable by means of adjusting the tightness of the nut. Therefore, when a user rotates the cover or display screen around the axis of the rotational shaft (or pivot pin) to close the cover or display screen onto the device body module of the electronic device, the elastic force of the rotational shaft will make the cover or display screen slightly rebound or restore. That is, the rotational angle of the rotational shaft should be slightly larger than the closing angle of the cover or display screen so as to fully close the cover or display screen onto the device body module.
To solve the above problem, in practice, generally a locking unit is disposed on one side of the electronic device, which side is proximal to the user for forcedly locking the cover or display screen with the device body module in a fully closed state. However, there is a trend to design more lightweight, miniaturized and slimmed electronic device. Therefore, the interior space of the electronic device has become smaller and smaller. As a result, it often takes place that the proximal side of the electronic device can hardly provide sufficient space for mounting the locking unit therein. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to increase the total thickness or volume of the electronic device. This is not what we expect.
According to the aforesaid, it is known that the structural design of the cover or display screen, the device body module and the relevant components (such as the pivot pin, the locating module and the locking unit) of the conventional device has some shortcomings that need to be overcome. It is therefore tried by the applicant to provide an electronic device opening/closing control mechanism to eliminate the problems existing in the conventional device. Without changing the lightweight, miniaturized and slimmed structure of the electronic device or being limited by the interior space of the electronic device, the electronic device opening/closing control mechanism can be mounted on one side of the electronic device, which side is proximal to the user.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an electronic device opening/closing control mechanism. The control mechanism includes a connection arm movable between a first position and a second position. The connect ion arm has a first end and a second end. An elastic unit is disposed at the first end of the connection arm to normally apply an elastic force to the connection arm for keeping the connection arm positioned in the first position. A locking section is disposed at the second end of the connection arm. The locking section is held in a dent formed on the electronic device. When the connection arm is moved to the second position, the locking section is released from the held state, permitting the electronic device to be opened. The control mechanism overcomes the problem existing in the conventional locking device that under limitation of the space of the electronic device, the locking device cannot be easily mounted on the electronic device.
To achieve the above and other objects, the electronic device opening/closing control mechanism of the present invention is assembled with an electronic device. The electronic device includes a movable module (such as a cover or a display screen) and a device body module. The connection arm is disposed on the movable module. The dent is formed on the device body module. The locking section has a latch and a guide section. The dent is formed with a stop section and a sidewall corresponding to the latch and the guide section respectively. When the connection arm is moved between the first and second positions, the guide section of the locking section is moved along the sidewall of the dent and the latch is latched with the stop section to lock the movable module in a fully closed state or unlatched from the stop section, permitting the movable module to be opened.
The connection arm is formed with at least one restriction section and at least one stop section is disposed on the movable module corresponding to the restriction section. The restriction section is assembled with the stop section of the movable module to together define a move range of the connection arm. The restriction section is in the form of a slot, while the stop section is in the form of a pile corresponding to the slot form of the restriction section.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
Please refer to
In a preferred embodiment, the connection arm 10 is a T-shaped plate member disposed on the movable module 21. To speak more specifically, the movable module 21 is formed with a cavity 25 for receiving the connection arm 10. The connection arm 10 is movable between a first position and a second position within the cavity 25. As shown in
It should be noted that the first position means a start position of the connection arm 10 or a closed or locked position where the movable module 21 is fully closed onto the device body module 22. The second position means a position where the connection arm 10 is positioned after pushed by an external force or an opened or unlocked position where the movable module 21 can be rotated and opened.
Referring to
At least one locking section 40 is disposed at the second end 12 of the connection arm 10. In this embodiment, there are two locking sections 40, which are perpendicularly symmetrically disposed on two sides of the second end 12 respectively. Two slits 27 are formed on the cavity 25. The locking sections 40 protrude through the slits 27 out of the movable module 21 and can be held in dents 28 formed on the device body module 22. In this embodiment, the slits 27 are substantially L-shaped.
Please now refer to
Please now refer to
It should be noted that when the push force applied to the push section 35 disappears, the elastic unit 30 will release the previously stored energy to make the connection arm 10 move from the second position back to the first position.
When a user attempts to rotate and close the movable module 21 onto the device body module 22, the user can push the push section 35 to make the latch 40a avoid the stop section 28a. After the push section 35 is released, the elastic unit 30 will make the connection arm 10 move back to the first position where the latch 40a is latched with the stop section 28a in a locked state.
In another preferred embodiment, the latch 40a is formed with a slope 40d and/or the stop section 28a is formed with guide side 28d. With the slope 40d and the guide side 28d, a user can directly press the movable module 21 onto the device body module 22 into the locked state without pushing the push section 35.
According to the above arrangement, the electronic device opening/closing control mechanism of the present invention is lightweight, miniaturized and slimmed. In comparison with the conventional mechanism, the present invention has the following advantages:
The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
