Patent Application
20100300745
This invention relates to enclosures for magnetic metering equipment for use in an industrial environment where sealing of the enclosure against the environment is required and a specific environmental rating is essential.
There is a requirement for easier servicing of equipment inside a sealed, environmentally rated enclosure, during installation in an industrial environment. Mag meters are used on potable liquid lines or for measurement of liquids such as reclaimed water or raw sewage, or where the meter location is difficult for maintaining the meter, or when increased accuracy is paramount. There is a need for better serviceability of the electronics during installation and a need to achieve a specific environmental rating.
These enclosures typically have a body with an interior cavity and a front or top cover. Typically, there is a numerical display on the front cover and a circuit board may be attached to an underside of the front cover. It is important that when the cover is opened that the seal not be damaged, so that the cover can be closed again while maintaining the seal. The cover must sometimes be opened for access and testing of the electronics inside.
Weisz et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,714,678, discloses a basic ball joint for use in hinges in a sewing machine. As seen in
Lutz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,821, shows a box with a lid hinged to a body with integrally formed spherical ball head members that are received in externally projecting sockets that allow a cover of the box to pivot to an open position.
Motyka et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,496, provides ball-and-socket hinged joints for a plate assembly in which the ball can travel in a groove to allow translational movement before the plate is pivoted. The ball is not externally accessible and the hinges project significantly above the plate assembly for a non-flush construction.
Akkala et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,000, shows a single ball socket hinge for a sewer lid in various types of sewer apparatus to allow pivoting in more than one direction.
Fowler et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,612 shows application of ball-in-socket connectors to a laptop computer, to pivot the screen, for example.
None of the above prior art constructions provides the combination of features provided by the present invention in addition to low manufacturing cost.
The present invention is incorporated in a hinged enclosure using two ball-headed screws at the corners of a rectangular cover and using two other fasteners. The screws and other fasteners are loosened to allow the cover to be moved outwardly of the body, and the fasteners are then removed so that the cover can then pivoted around the two loosened ball-headed screws. There are restrictions at the corners of the enclosure body to restrict pivoting of the cover until it has been moved a distance away from the body to a partially open position, before pivoting the cover on the ball-headed screws to a fully open position. There is a seal around the lip of the cover, such that the cover must be moved linearly first, before the cover is pivoted.
In a preferred embodiment, the cover contains an electronic display and a display circuit board is attached on the underside of the cover. The invention prevents the cover and display from dangling by a ribbon cable connecting the display to the bottom box electronics. This could cause the cable to be damaged or the cover to drop as a result of the ribbon cable separating from the electronics.
In one aspect of the invention, custom-made hemispherical ball-headed screws are used to provide a hinged connection at two corners. The hinges are disposed inside the cover to provide a flush outer surface, with recessed holes for accessing the screws with a tool.
Restrictions are provided at the corners of an enclosure body so that the cover must be translated in a linear movement away from the body, before pivoting the cover on the ball-headed screws. It should be apparent that restrictions are only necessary at the hinging corners to restrict pivoting during movement to a first partially open position, but for appearances and standardization and better operation, restrictions are provided at all four corners. Preferably, the restrictions are provided by stand-offs in the form of small upstanding projections molded into the enclosure body at the four corners. The stands-offs are also used to align the cover to the bottom to aid in sealing repeatability.
The invention allows access to the interior of the enclosure during installation, testing and servicing without damaging the seal. This provides an enclosure that can obtain the necessary sealing rating for the environments in which it is used.
The enclosure can have various installation orientations without departing from the scope of the invention.
The invention provides a flush front cover in which the hinge parts are not visible and in which the hinge parts do not project forward of a front surface of the cover.
In a more detailed embodiment of the invention, the other two fasteners are also ball-headed screws providing for standardization of parts and possible hinged opening and closing along two sides of the enclosure body.
Other aspects of the invention, besides those discussed above, will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the description of the preferred embodiments which follows. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which illustrate examples of the invention.
The invention concerns the mounting of the cover 12 to the body 11 of the enclosure. The cover 12 is fastened to the body 11 by four screws 16a-16d positioned in the four corners of the cover 12. As seen in
It should be apparent that only two stand-offs 20a-20d are necessary to restrict an initial movement of the cover 12 relative to the pivoting elements, but for standardization of parts and better balance, four stand-offs 20a-20d are provided at four respective corners of the enclosure cover 12. These take the form of small upstanding projections 20a-20d molded into the enclosure cover 11 at the four corners.
The screws 16a-16d are loosened from the position seen in
In opening the cover 12, first, all four screws 16a-16d are loosened to allow the cover 12 to be translated upwardly or forwardly away from the body 11 to clear the stand-offs 20a-20d and to reach a partially open position. This protects a seal 21 on a back side of the cover 12 from being damaged and it also protects a ribbon cable that is connected to the circuit module 19. It may be necessary to open the cover 12 as part of the process of installing equipment in a water processing system. Two of the screws 16c and 16d are then completely removed to allow the cover 12 to pivot or hinge on the remaining two screws 16a and 16b to the fully open position seen in
It can be seen from this description, how the invention provides a flush front cover in which the hinge parts are not visible and in which the hinge parts do not project forward of a front surface of the cover. It can also be seen how the structure provides an opening motion that protects the seal and the electronic module attached to the cover.
This has been a description of a preferred embodiment, but it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that variations may be made in the details of these specific embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention, and that such variations are intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
