Patent Application
20080034540
Other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of a preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings, in which:
Aside from the preferred embodiment or embodiments disclosed below, this invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Thus, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. If only one embodiment is described herein, the claims hereof are not to be limited to that embodiment. Moreover, the claims hereof are not to be read restrictively unless there is clear and convincing evidence manifesting a certain exclusion, restriction, or disclaimer.
In one example, shaft 20,
Rotating cylinder 26 of the damping mechanism has a slotted section 24 that extends outward from the axis of rotation. The door shaft fits into this slot thus coupling the rotation of the damping mechanism to the rotation of the door itself. The door shaft has a jog 40 to ensure that the coupling point where shaft 20 joins with rotating cylinder 26 is not at the axis of rotation of either rotating cylinder 26 or the main portion of shaft 20. In an alternative design, however, if adequate space exists, shaft 20 and rotating cylinder 26 could rotate about the same axis.
Extension spring 30 fits through slot 32 in lever arm 24 and couples directly to shaft 20. Since this connection point is eccentric from the center of rotation of the cover and rotating cylinder 26, the spring force causes the door shaft 20 to rotate. The door shaft also causes the damping mechanism 26 to rotate and the resultant force balance between the rotation torque from the spring 30 and the opposing damping torque from cylinder 26 within cylinder 28 and the damping grease results in a steady lifting of cover 12,
Metal spring 30 is extended when the cover is releasably locked in the closed position as shown in
Typically, shaft 20 and spring 30 are made of steel and rotating cylinder 26, lever arm 24, and non-rotating cylinder 28 are made of ABS plastic molded pieces. In one example, lever arm 24 and rotating cylinder 26 were unitary in construction as shown in
The result, in any embodiment, is a novel, easy to manufacture, easy to assemble, and easy to use hinge system for opening a device cover in a steady and controlled fashion.
Although specific features of the invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the invention. The words “including”, “comprising”, “having”, and “with” as used herein are to be interpreted broadly and comprehensively and are not limited to any physical interconnection. Moreover, any embodiments disclosed in the subject application are not to be taken as the only possible embodiments. Other embodiments, such as hinge systems for devices other than scanners, will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the following claims.
In addition, any amendment presented during the prosecution of the patent application for this patent is not a disclaimer of any claim element presented in the application as filed: those skilled in the art cannot reasonably be expected to draft a claim that would literally encompass all possible equivalents, many equivalents will be unforeseeable at the time of the amendment and are beyond a fair interpretation of what is to be surrendered (if anything), the rationale underlying the amendment may bear no more than a tangential relation to many equivalents, and/or there are many other reasons the applicant can not be expected to describe certain insubstantial substitutes for any claim element amended.
