This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Flat panel displays, such as plasma and liquid crystal displays, are often secured to a bezel then attached to a housing that stores the electronics used to operate the display. Unfortunately, existing bezels do not adequately accommodate displays of different dimensions, e.g., length, width, and/or height. Thus, bezels may be made for each particular display size, which can be quite costly due to the bezel tooling. In addition, the fasteners used to secured displays to bezel generally increase costs due to installation time, labor, tooling, and so forth.
Existing bezels may be secured to the display via screws or snap tabs integral to the bezel. For example, the display may include a frame, such as a sheet metal frame, with screw holes. A screwdriver is used to thread screws into the bezel and the screw holes in the display frame to secure the bezel to the display. This attachment method is time-consuming and labor intensive due to the use of a tool (i.e., screwdriver) and independent attachment of each screw. Alternatively, the bezel may include integral snap tabs to secure the display. This attachment method presents further drawbacks. For example, the costs are quite high for machining and tooling the bezel with integral snap tabs, and the bezel materials are limited to those suitable for snap tabs. In other words, the bezel and integral snap tabs are made of a single material. In addition, replacement displays often do not have the same dimensions as an original display. As a result, the bezel supporting the original display may not be able to support the replacement display.
Advantages of one or more disclosed embodiments may become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:
One or more exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
By providing display fasteners 12 separate from the bezel 16, manufacturing costs may be greatly reduced. For example, the cost of machining and tooling the bezel 16 decreases greatly as the design is much simpler. Furthermore, the bezel 16 is not limited to materials which make a good fastener. That is, the display fastener 12 may be composed of a resilient material which allows for elastic deformation, such as, for example, nylon, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), or another suitable plastic or metal. The bezel 16 may be composed of a different material from the display fastener 12, such as, for example, a polycarbonate and ABS composite or an acrylic and ABS composite, or may be composed of ABS. Additionally, as described in more detail below, the bezel 16 need not be replaced if a replacement display panel 14 has different dimensions from the original display panel 14. Rather, the display fasteners 12 may be replaced to accommodate the replacement display panel 14.
Referring generally to
The display snap region 20 may include a cam surface 34, an engaging surface 36, and a display abutting surface 38, as illustrated in the present embodiment. Again, the cam surface 34 may be tapered, angled, or generally wedge-shaped relative to an engagement direction 39. A fastener length 40 is defined between the engaging surface 36 of the display snap region 20 and the locking surfaces 28 of the bezel snap region 18. As will be described in more detail below, the fastener length 40 may be altered to accommodate display panels of varying depths in the system 10. In addition, a depth 42 of the display snap region 20 may be altered to accommodate display panels of varying facial dimensions (e.g., length and/or width).
Finally, an engaging slot 44 may be defined between the bezel snap region 18 and the display snap region 20. The engaging slot 44 may be characterized by a depth 46. Furthermore, a height 48 of the engaging slot 44 may be defined as the distance from the top of the slot 44 to the locking surface 28 of the bezel snap region 18. The purpose of the engaging slot 44 will become apparent upon further description of the system 10. In another embodiment, the display fastener 12 may not include a portion of the display snap region 20 which protrudes below the junction region 22, thereby eliminating the engaging slot 44.
Turning to
In accordance with an embodiment of the present technique, the engaging slot 44 may be configured such that, in conjunction with the locking surfaces 28 of the bezel snap region 18, the display fastener 12 is substantially prevented from moving vertically when the fastener 12 is snapped into the engaging member 50. That is, the height of the engaging slot 44, as illustrated by the line 48 in
Regardless of the configuration of the engaging slot 44, a metric of the display fastener 12 and the bezel 16 may be defined as a bezel/fastener distance 60 from a front wall 62 of the bezel 16 to the engaging surface 36 of the display fastener 12. The bezel/fastener distance 60 may be dictated by the fastener length 40. Again, a variety of different display fasteners 12 may be used with different dimensions to accommodate display panels 14 with different dimensions, thereby substantially reducing the number of different bezels 16.
Furthermore, display fasteners 12 may be selected based on the dimensions of the display panel 14 and may be swapped to accommodate displays (e.g., new or replacement) of varying dimensions. The bezel/fastener distance 60 (
In addition, the depth 42 of the display engaging region 20 (
The distances 74 and 76 may be altered without changing the bezel 16 by replacing the fasteners 12 with fasteners having a different display engaging region depth 42. For example, if the display panel 14 is replaced with a display panel 14 having a greater width 70 and a lesser length 72, the display fasteners 12 on sides A and C of the bezel 16 may be replaced with display fasteners 12 having a lesser depth 42 than the previous display fasteners 12, while the display fasteners 12 on sides B and D of the bezel 16 may be replaced with display fasteners 12 having a greater depth 42 than the previous display fasteners 12. Additionally, display fasteners 12 having different display engaging region depths 42 may be used on opposing sides of the bezel 16. That is, the display panel 14 may be slightly off-center in the bezel 16.
Finally,
Once the display panel 14 has been installed in the bezel 16, the system 10 may be secured to a casing containing electronics to operate the display panel 16 (Block 90). The casing may be, for example, a television or a monitor. If the display panel 14 needs to be replaced, the display panel 14 and fasteners 12 may be removed, and the process 80 may be repeated with a new display panel 14.
As appreciated, the fastener 12 may have a variety of latch features and/or snap features (e.g., male or female) for both the bezel snap region 18 and the display snap region 20. Similarly, the display panel 14 and the bezel 16 may have a variety of mating latch features and/or mating snap features (e.g., male or female) to releasably interlock with those of the fastener 12. These latch/snap features may include hooks, slots, catches, receptacles, wedged members, and/or surfaces of the various components. Thus, the disclosed embodiments are not limited to any particular type of latch or snap. However, the separation of the fastener 12 from both the display panel 14 and the bezel 16 enables a wider range of display panels 14 to be mounted in a particular bezel 16.
In addition, the fastener 12 may be used to mount a variety of panels to frames without limitation to displays. For example, the fasteners 12 may be used to mount circuit boards in electronics housings. In the illustrated embodiment, the display panel 14 mounted within the bezel 16 may be part of a television, a computer, a display, or another electronic device. For example, a computer may include the display panel 14, the bezel 16, and the fastener 12 along with a processor, memory, video circuitry, audio circuitry, network circuitry, a disc drive, or a combination thereof, in a single panel shaped housing (e.g., an all-in-one computer, a tablet PC, etc.). In addition, a system having the display panel 14 may further include, connect with, or generally function with a stereo system, speakers, a television receiver, a digital video disc player/recorder, a compact disc player/recorder, a VCR, a video camera, a home theater PC, a game system (e.g., Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation, etc.) and various games, a satellite system, a router, or a combination thereof.
While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following appended claims.