Patent Application
20230415505
The present invention relates to an electronic device including a housing in which constituent articles are disposed and a lid body which is opened/closed when disposing the constituent articles in the housing.
In recent years, printers that print information have been used in order to output electronically input information. For example, in an order entry system for the food service industry, a kitchen printer that outputs order data input from and transmitted by a handy terminal at a remote location is being used.
Such a kitchen printer is provided with a housing and a lid that is set after an article is housed in the housing.
Patent Literature 1 describes an electronic device in which a lid body is provided on a housing in an openable and closable manner via a hinge.
As illustrated in
Herein, in some cases, the bearing unit is deformed due to external force such as a large load when the lid is being opened or an excessive impact applied due to an object falling on the printer cover in an opened state. In view of the above-described problem, the purpose of the present disclosure is to provide an electronic device that prevents deformation of a bearing unit due to an influence of external force.
The electronic device according to the present example embodiment includes a housing unit, a hinge unit, and a lid body configured to be provided on the housing unit in an openable and closable manner via the hinge unit, wherein the hinge unit includes: a shaft unit configured to serve as a rotating shaft when the lid body is opened/closed with respect to the housing unit; a bearing unit configured to have a U-shaped opening to which the shaft unit is fitted in a detachable manner; and a reinforcing unit configured to abut, when external force that causes deformation in a widening direction of the U-shaped opening of the bearing unit is applied to the bearing unit, against the bearing unit to which moving force is applied by the external force.
Thereby, deformation of the bearing unit can be prevented.
Hereinafter, an example embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As illustrated in
The housing unit 11 is a main body portion of a kitchen printer 1. A replaceable roll paper is disposed inside the housing unit 11. The roll paper can be replaced by bringing the lid body 12, which is provided in an opening 11a on the front surface of the housing unit 11, to a state of being opened (hereinafter referred to as an opened state).
Note that, on the left and right sides of the front surface-side of the opening 11a, edges 11b and 11c having surfaces on the forward-side and the inside of the housing unit 11 are formed.
The lid body 12 performs an opening/closing operation with a shaft unit 21 (described later) provided in the hinge unit 13 as a rotation center. As a result, the lid body 12 is able to bring the opening 11a on the front surface of the housing unit 11 to the opened state and bring the opening 11a to a state of being closed (hereinafter referred to as a closed state).
Herein, it is assumed that the hinge unit 13 is disposed in the vicinity of the lower end of the front surface of the housing unit 11. The lid body 12, in an initial state wherein the opening 11a of the housing unit 11 is in the closed state, is able to bring the opening 11a to the opened state, upon receiving force applied in such a way that the front-side upper section thereof is pulled out in the forward direction and by operating with the shaft unit 21 provided in the hinge unit 13 as a rotation center.
Note that, shifting from the opened state to the closed state of the opening 11a with use of the lid body 12 can be performed by applying force to the lid body 12 in a direction opposite to that in the case of shifting from the closed state to the opened state.
Herein, as illustrated in
That is, a first hinge unit 13a is disposed in the vicinity of the edge 11b on the left-side of the opening 11a of the housing unit 11, and a second hinge unit 13b is disposed in the vicinity of the edge 11c on the right-side of the opening 11a of the housing unit 11. Hereinafter, the first hinge unit 13a will be described as the hinge unit 13, but the same applies to the second hinge unit 13b.
The shaft unit 21 has a columnar shape with the left-right direction as an axial direction. The shaft unit 21 serves as a rotating shaft when the lid body 12 is opened/closed with respect to the housing unit 11. Note that the shaft unit 21 is connected to the vicinity of the lower section of the lid body 12 in a state where the opening 11a is in the closed state.
The bearing unit 22 is a U-shaped bearing having an upper side being open. The bearing unit 22 and the shaft unit 21 are detachably fitted to each other.
Herein, typically, the bearing unit 22 is a bearing metal plate formed through processing of providing a U-shaped opening in a metal plate.
Further, in the bearing unit 22, a U-shaped part which is detachably fitted to the shaft unit 21 is a bearing main body portion 31, and a first bearing end portion 32 and a second bearing end portion 33 are formed so as to sandwich the bearing main body portion 31.
The first bearing end portion 32 is an end portion disposed on the housing unit 11-side, that is, the rear side, in the bearing unit 22, and is connected to the edge 11b of the housing unit 11. Further, for example, the first bearing end portion 32 is connected in the vicinity of the lower section of the edge 11b.
Note that, the edge 11b may have a hole portion that allows the bearing unit 22, which is a bearing metal plate, to pass through. That is, the first bearing end portion 32 may be fixed to the edge 11b of the housing unit 11 in a state of penetrating the hole portion. Note that, the first bearing end portion 32 may be connected to the housing unit 11 in a movable state so as to be interlocked with the operation of the lid body 12.
The second bearing end portion 33 is an end portion disposed on the distal end-side, that is, the forward side, of the bearing unit 22.
The reinforcing unit 14 is disposed at a position that prevents deformation of the bearing unit 22 when external force that causes deformation in the widening direction of the U-shaped opening of the bearing unit 22 is applied to the bearing unit 22.
Herein, the external force that causes deformation in the widening direction of the U-shaped opening is force applied toward the forward direction with respect to the lid body 12 in which the opening 11a is in the closed state, or downward force applied from above to the lid body 12 being in the opened state. In these cases, force is applied to the bearing unit 22 so as to move the second bearing end portion 33 in the forward direction from the shaft unit 21.
When external force that may move the second bearing end portion 33 in the forward direction is applied to the bearing unit 22, the reinforcing unit 14 prevents deformation of the bearing unit 22 by being disposed in a position that abuts against the second bearing end portion 33.
One example of a specific structure and arrangement of the reinforcing unit 14 will be described.
The reinforcing unit 14 includes a fixed portion fixed to the housing unit 11 and a protruding portion provided to protrude in the forward direction. Herein, the reinforcing unit 14 is described as including a first fixed portion 41 being fixed to the housing unit 11, a second fixed portion 42, and a protruding portion 43 at least a part of which protrudes further than the first fixed portion 41. Note that, it is assumed that the first fixed portion 41, the second fixed portion 42, and the protruding portion 43 are each made of a stopper metal plate, and the shape of each of the portions is formed by processing a single sheet.
Herein, the first fixed portion 41 is a three-surface metal fitting-like metal plate having three surfaces provided perpendicularly to each other, and is formed long in the up-down direction.
More specifically, the first fixed portion 41 is a metal plate having three surfaces, which are a first surface 41a, a second surface 41b, and a third surface 41c. Note that, the first fixed portion 41 is disposed above a part where the first bearing end portion 32 of the bearing unit 22 is connected to the edge 11b, and is fixed to the edge 11b.
For example, the first surface 41a is disposed in such a way that the normal direction is the front-rear direction of the housing unit 11, and is disposed so as to be in contact with a front-side surface of the edge 11b. Note that, the first surface 41a is provided with a hole penetrating in the front-rear direction, and is fixed to the edge 11b by screwing through the hole.
For example, the second surface 41b is disposed in such a way that the normal direction is the left-right direction of the housing unit 11, and is fixed to a surface having a normal line in the inner side and in the left-right direction of the housing unit 11. For example, the second surface 41b may be fixed to the housing unit 11 by screwing in a similar manner as the first surface 41a.
The third surface 41c is disposed at a lower section of the first fixed portion 41 in such a way that the surface faces the up-down direction. For example, since the first fixed portion 41 is formed to be long in the up-down direction, the third surface 41c is formed to have a smaller area than the first surface 41a and the second surface 41b.
The second fixed portion 42 is a metal plate disposed in such a way as to be partially fixed in the outside direction of the housing unit 11 and extend in the inside direction. For example, an L-shaped metal plate can be used as the second fixed portion 42.
As one example, the second fixed portion 42 has a first surface 42a (not illustrated) disposed in such a way that the normal direction is the left-right direction of the housing unit 11 and fixed to the housing unit 11, and a second surface 42b disposed in such way that the surface faces the up-down direction. In other words, the first surface 42a and the second surface 42b have a shape in which the surfaces are vertically arranged.
Herein, the second fixed portion 42 is slightly lower than the third surface 41c of the first fixed portion 41 and is disposed in front of the third surface 41c.
The protruding portion 43 is provided in such a way that at least a part thereof protrudes in the forward direction in the vicinity of the third surface 41c of the first fixed portion 41.
Herein, the protruding portion 43 includes an extending portion 43a configured to extend in the front-rear direction, and a bent portion 43b that is a distal end of the extending portion 43a and configured to bend downward from the extending portion 43a. Note that, in the protruding portion 43, a portion on the distal end-side of the bent portion 43b is referred to as a distal end portion 43c.
It is assumed that the protruding portion 43 is made of a metal plate different from that of the first fixed portion 41 and the second fixed portion 42. The protruding portion 43 is reinforced by being connected, through welding, to a metal plate forming the first fixed portion 41 and the second fixed portion 42.
For example, as illustrated in
Further, the bent portion 43b is disposed further in the forward-side than a part of the protruding portion 43 being fixed to the upper surface of the second fixed portion 42. As a result, the distal end portion 43c of the protruding portion 43 is disposed in such a way that the surface faces the front-rear direction.
Herein, the rear surface of the distal end portion 43c is disposed in such a way that the second bearing end portion 33 abuts the rear surface of the distal end portion 43c when the lid body 12 is in the opened state and external force is applied to the bearing unit 22.
As a result, when external force that causes deformation in a widening direction of the U-shaped opening is applied to the bearing unit 22, the rear surface of the distal end portion 43c of the protruding portion 43 comes into contact with the second bearing end portion 33, and thereby prevents the second bearing end portion 33 from being deformed in the forward direction.
Therefore, deformation of the bearing unit 22 can be prevented by fixing a part of the reinforcing unit 14 to the housing unit 11 of the electronic device 1 and disposing another part of the reinforcing unit 14 in a direction in which the bearing unit 22 deforms due to external force.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to example embodiments thereof, the invention is not limited to these embodiments. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the claims.
For example, the first fixed portion 41 and the housing unit 11 have been described as being fixed by screwing, but a screw for fixing the housing can be used in co-tightening.
Further, for example, the first fixed portion 41 of the reinforcing unit 14 has been assumed to have a shape having three surfaces, and the second fixed portion 42 has been assumed to have an L-shape, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In the reinforcing unit 14, the protruding portion 43 needs to be fixed to the housing unit 11. Typically, as described above, a part extending in a plate shape of the protruding portion 43 may be fixed by being sandwiched from above and below and welded, but the method of fixing is not limited thereto.
Further, as illustrated in
Further, the rear surface of the distal end portion 43c of the protruding portion 43 has been described to be disposed in such a way that the second bearing end portion 33 abuts the rear surface of the distal end portion 43c when the lid body 12 is in the opened state and external force is applied to the bearing unit 22, but is not limited thereto. In other words, the distal end portion 43c and the second bearing end portion 33 may be abutted against each other regardless of whether the lid body 12 is in the closed state or the opened state, may be abutted against each other only when the lid body is in the opened state, or may be abutted against each other only when the lid body is in the opened state and external force is being applied.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-200167, filed on Dec. 2, 2020, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-200167 | Dec 2020 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2021/032959 | 9/8/2021 | WO |
