1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hinge assembly, and more particularly to a hinge assembly capable of retaining a cable and being easily assembled.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional hinge connects two members that are rotatable relative to each other, and the cables connecting or passing through the two members are usually directly disposed between the two members. Such a disposition deforms the appearance, and the exposed cables tend to be peeled off and cause the short-circuit phenomenon. Furthermore, when the two members are rotated relative to each other, the cables tend to be tom. In addition, managing the cables spends a lot of time, and elements for binding the cables also have to be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,769 discloses a tunable hinge assembly capable of retaining cables, wherein a clamping part and a screw are provided to fix the hollow hub. However, in this hinge structure, two openings of the clamping part have to be aligned with each other, and then the clamping part and the hub are fixed using a screw and a nut. This assembling method is too complicated and cannot meet the requirement of mass production.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,156 discloses a hinge assembly capable of retaining cables. The hinge assembly has a helical spring disposed in the hollow shaft, and the cable passes through the helical spring. This kind of hinge assembly has a drawback that the cables have to pass through the helical spring directly in the axial direction. When a cable has two large connectors at both ends, the assembler has to cut the cable so that the cable can pass through the helical spring. Alternatively, the assembler has to penetrate the cable through the helical spring and then connects the connector to the cable. Thus, the number of parts of the hinge assembly in the '156 patent is great, and the hinge assembly cannot be easily assembled.
Therefore, it is an important object of the invention to provide a hinge assembly capable of retaining a cable and being easily assembled.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a hinge assembly capable of retaining a cable and being easily assembled, wherein an integrating member is utilized to speed up the assembling process and enhance the assembling convenience.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention provides a hinge assembly capable of retaining a cable. The hinge assembly includes a hollow hub disposed on a first body, a bracket holder disposed on a second body, and an integrating member having a through hole and an external mounting part. The hollow hub inserts into the through hole, and the integrating member is rotatable relative to the hollow hub. The external mounting part formed around an outer circumference of the through hole upholds the integrating member on the bracket holder. The cable for electrically connecting the first body to the second body passes through the hollow hub.
Thus, the cable may be protected and retained and the overall hinge assembly is easily to be assembled and disassembled.
In this embodiment, the first body 20 and the second body 30 constitute a sheet-fed scanner. Thus, the second body 30 is provided with a sheet-feeding mechanism 37 for feeding a document P, a first optical scanning module 35 for scanning a front side of the document P, and a main circuit board 36 electrically connected to the sheet-feeding mechanism 37 and the first optical scanning module 35. The first body 20 is provided with a sheet detector 24, which is electrically connected to the main circuit board 36 through the cable 46. On the other hand, the first body 20 is further provided with a second optical scanning module 26 for scanning a back side of the document P. The second optical scanning module 26 also may be electrically connected to the main circuit board 36 through the cable 46. Thus, the sheet-fed scanner can perform a duplex scan process.
The external mounting part 44 of the integrating member 40 includes a first external plane 44A and a second external plane 44B on opposite sides of the external mounting part 44, and a first external camber 44C and a second external camber 44D on opposite sides of the external mounting part 44. The external cambers 44C and 44D connect the first external plane 44A to the second external plane 44B, respectively Therefore, the integrating member 40 is placed onto the bracket holder 32 with the first external plane 44A and the second external plane 44B of the external mounting part 44 parallel to the first internal plane 34A and the second internal plane 34B of the integrating member 40 and with the first external camber 44C in contact with the internal camber 34C.
In order to enable the integrating member 40 to be fixed to the bracket holder 32, the integrating member 40 of the invention is configured such that the integrating member 40 is rotated a predetermined angle, after the integrating member 40 is placed onto the bracket holder 32, to secure the integrating member 40 with the bracket holder 32. In order to achieve such a function, the external mounting part 44 of the integrating member 40 further includes an elastic arm 44E and a first engagement structure 44F. The elastic arm 44E extends from the second external camber 44D in a radial direction. The first engagement structure (projection) 44F is formed on the elastic arm 44E so as to secure with a second engagement structure (hole) 33 of the bracket holder 32 after the integrating member 40 is rotated the predetermined angle. In the actual assembling process, when the projection 44F is rotated such that it is blocked by the bracket holder 32, the projection 44F can be slightly lifted up with respect to the plane of
In order to make the cable 46 be conveniently inserted into the hollow hub 22, the hollow hub 22 can have an axial opening 22A, through which the cable 46 can be placed into the hollow hub 22.
FIGS. 6 to 8 are pictorial views showing the sheet-fed scanner equipped with the hinge assembly of the invention. In practice, the sheet-fed scanner adopts two hinge assemblies. However, only one hinge assembly can be used in order to reduce the cost. The sheet-fed scanner of
According to the hinge assembly of the invention capable of retaining a cable, it is possible to utilize one integrating member to speed up and facilitate the assembling process, and it is also possible to integrate the hinges and the cable managing structures of two members so as to achieve the advantages of space saving, part saving, appearance glorifying, and preventing the cable from being damaged. In addition, the outer diameter of the hollow hub of the hinge may be enlarged in order to enhance the intensity of the hinge and lengthen the lifetime of the hinge.
While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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093104713 | Feb 2004 | TW | national |