Patent Application
20120167486
The present invention is in the field of mounts for display devices and more particularly a wall-mount system, for a flat display panel, with capability of adjustment over a designated range in a path that includes height and wall-to-panel spacing variation, optionally powered and remotely controllable.
The evolution from bulky CRT type TV/video displays to flat panel display technology has brought to public reality the previously wished-for picture-on-the-wall configuration. With the availability of virtually any desired size panel for optimal viewing as determined by room size, audience size, or taste, flat panel displays have opened up many new interior decorating and placement concepts, and along with the adoption of high definition standards, and an abundance of programming, including movies, sports, shows, information, games, etc., have become a highly desirable and popular feature, in business, regular homes, and particularly in high-end custom home entertainment systems.
While floor or table-top support may be required or desired for unusually large and heavy panels and/or in institutional/commercial environments, there has been considerable increasing demand for wall-mounting, especially for residential installations, typically adapted to depend upon engagement with wall studs for structural integrity.
For video flat panel mounting, a variety of wall-mounting hardware has become available. The great majority of such mounting hardware currently available provides some range of location adjustment at installation, typically in conjunction with additional rear mounting hardware, allowing an installer to initially secure basic framework to the wall studs and to then utilize the available amount of adjustment range provided by the mounting hardware to accomplish a desired final fixed location. Interior decoration and placement considerations taking into account variations in room size, shape and available wall space frequently pose difficult choices that cannot be resolved satisfactorily with available mounting hardware.
For example, if the optimal location in a room is already occupied by a fireplace, art, seating, or an electronic equipment cabinet, the user may have to make a difficult choice with an unacceptable compromise of either mounting the viewing panel on the wall above the fireplace mantel, which is typically too high for comfortable seated viewing, or mounting the viewing panel and/or center loudspeaker offset to one side, off-center to the seating and other loudspeaker placement in the room.
Known available display panel mounting products, even those made to be user-adjustable, with tilt, swivel, and/or cantilevered side to side adjustment, either by hand or powered, fail to provide a satisfactory solution to room obstacle problems such as the fireplace dilemma described above. Thus there remains an unfulfilled need and demand for special mounting hardware that provides such extraordinary additional degree of versatility.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,784,757 to Woods et al for TILTABLE WALL MOUNTS and U.S. Pat. No. 7,494,099 to Shin for WALL MOUNT USABLE WITH DISPLAY APPARATUS typify disclosures of wall mounts that are hinged to provide tilt adjustment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,661,640 to Persson for WALL MOUNTABLE STRUCTURE FOR IMAGE DISPLAY SCREEN typifies disclosures of wall mounts that provide some degree of movement in one specified direction at installation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,027 to Nye for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADJUSTING A BASKETBALL GOAL and U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,676 to Bearson et al for ADJUSTABLE BASKETBALL GOALS both disclose a parallelogram support structure wherein a goal backboard is pivotally mounted onto a main structure by pair of upper and lower radius arms, with horizontal hinge axes at each end, to enable manual height adjustment during which the goal backboard remains vertical while it moves in curved path set by the length of the radius arms, causing a variation in goal-to-support spacing. For play use, the backboard is locked in place at the adjusted location by one or more angled support struts, optionally fitted with a form of turn-buckle.
Published application US 2008/0237424 to Clary for WALL AFFIXED VERTICALLY ARTICULATED FLAT PANEL DISPLAY discloses two frame assemblies connected by pivotally connected links, counter-balanced by pneumatic springs and optionally powered by a linear actuator.
It is a primary object of the invention to provide a wall mount hardware structure for supporting a flat display panel onto a vertical wall in a manner that enables adjustment and holding in place within a travel range that includes an upper limit located in proximity to the wall and a lower location spaced out from the wall at a predetermined distance.
It is a secondary object for the wall mount hardware structure to be equipped with a motive mechanism enabling the display panel to be relocated and set for use at any user-selected location within the travel range by a remote control from any viewing location.
It is a further object to provide an embodiment wherein the display panel can be set for use in at least two designated locations within a designated range of deployment, by a hand-held, table-top or computerized remote control.
It is a further object to provide an embodiment made and arranged to locate the wall mount assembly behind a large display panel in a manner to be concealed from a normal viewpoint when the panel is located at the upper limit.
It is a further object of the invention to operate in conjunction with at least one standard and/or front-center type surround loudspeaker located so as to be concealed when the wall mount holds the panel at the upper limit location, and revealed when the wall mount holds the panel at the lower limit location.
The objects of the invention have been met by configuring wall mount hardware that enables an attached display panel to be user-movable within predetermined limits in a curved travel path including an upper limit location with the panel in proximity to the wall, and a lower working location with the panel spaced out from the wall at a predetermined distance. A parallelogram type support structure with four double-hinged coupling arms enables the required movability while holding the panel level and vertically oriented. In a powered embodiment, an electric motor/winch assembly including braking and locking capability, controlled by a local and/or remote, wireless and/or wired control unit, can relocate the panel to any desired location in the travel path.
A motorized winch assembly, formed by tubular roller 10D surrounding electric drive motor 10F (e.g. Somfy model L40 or L50), is attached to an uppermost region of wall plate 10A. At the left hand end of roller 10D, the motor 10F is attached to wall plate 10A by angle bracket 10G′; at the right hand end of roller 10D, a bearing for roller rotation is supported from wall panel 10A by angle bracket 10G″. A pair of webbing straps 10E, attached to roller 10D and spiraled around opposite end regions thereof, extend diagonally to ends that are securely clamped to a bottom region of panel plate 10B. The winch assembly motor 10F is actuated by a user control to exert tensile force via webbing straps 10E as required to relocate panel plate 10B in its arcuate travel path. Motor 10F also provides a brake-lock action to support panel plate 10B at any location including the lower limit shown in
A loudspeaker mounting hole pattern 10H may be provided in wall plate 10A, immediately beneath roller 10D, for optional mounting of a loudspeaker, typically 6-10 inch diameter, e.g. to serve as front-center speaker of a surround sound system.
The four coupling arms 10C with their eight hinged ends form a variable-angle corner-hinged dual parallelogram assembly that defines the arcuate travel path for panel plate 10B, ranging from the lower limit shown in
According to a second installation option, along with the relatively lower location of wall mount 10A′ on wall 12, panel plate 10B is attached by rear panel mounting hardware to a central region of panel 16′ as shown. This second installation option, with panel 16′ sufficiently large, e.g. 80″×45″, enables the wall mount assembly 10′ to remain totally concealed throughout its full travel range including the lower viewing location shown in
Power and signal cables may be dressed alongside or within one or more of the coupling arms 10C, extending from the wall to the display panel. The motor and roller assembly may be enclosed by a decorative cover.
Either of the first or second illustrative embodiments, characterized mainly by the relative panel size and height dimensions of wall plates 10A and 10A′ and plate-mounting versus wall-mounting of the winch assembly, can be utilized in conjunction with either the first or second installation option described above as well as with other installation options relating to panel size and the choice of height for attachment of the wall plate onto the wall and the choice of height on the panel for attachment to the panel plate via panel attachment hardware, with regard to consequences regarding viewer concealment/exposure of the wall mount assembly and optional loudspeaker(s) at the travel range limits.
In the first illustrative embodiment described above in connection with
It is a normal design objective that the panel is to be held accurately in a vertical (or designated near-vertical) plane at all locations within the travel range. Excessive clearance or “play” in the fit of the hinge pins can allow the weight of the panel to allow some downward tilt of the panel plate and the panel, especially at the upper end of the travel range where the parallelogram shape has approached or folded into a straight line and the bulk of the weight has been shifted from the hoist system onto the vertically-oriented coupling arms. Also, in a powered embodiment, when relocating the panel from the upper location, there could be potential difficulty in initiating the transfer of the weight load from the vertically-oriented coupling arms back onto the flexible straps of the powered hoist system, depending on the system design and configuration. This “dead center” effect could require the design to include a mechanical “boost” to ensure positive automatic start-up outward from the upper end location. Either or both of these two issues can be addressed by the inclusion of at least one compressible resilient buffer, e.g. in the form of steel coil spring or equivalent made from suitably-resilient material, attached to a corresponding coupling arm at a designated distance near the panel plate or the wall plate, made and arranged to become compressed between the coupling arm and the panel plate or the wall plate by the hoist system in the final approach to the upper travel limit location such that, when docked at the limit location, the panel remains held securely in the desired non-tilted vertical orientation by compression of the buffer(s), and then, in panel relocation, the needed initial “boost” is provided by the buffer(s).
In an alternative implementation of the first illustrative embodiment, wall plate 10A could be made with a substantially smaller height dimension, e.g. same height as panel plate 10B, and the motor-driven winch assembly could be supported in a functionally equivalent manner at the desired location above wall plate 10A by alternative smaller structure, e.g. a pair of structurally adequate members, attached to wall plate 10A, extending upwardly and attached to each end of motor-driven winch assembly.
In addition to the ability to move the panel in the travel path described above, the invention could be practiced with the addition of further user-controllable movement capabilities such as tilting the panel about a horizontal axis and/or rotating the panel about a vertical axis.
Actuation of the wall-mounted panel 16 by the motor/winch assembly requires some form of user control, e.g. operable by a pushbutton or switch, preferably including sensor-controlled automatic motor shutoff and braking, e.g. at the lower and upper limit locations. The control could be local, e.g. located nearby on wall 12 or elsewhere in the room, since location on the movable panel 16 is impractical. The control could be wired and/or wireless (e.g. IR, RF and/or Wi-Fi), hand-held and/or affixed. The control can be made to activate only a transition between the lower and the upper limit location of the panel, or it can be made to further stop and hold the panel 16 at any setting between the upper and lower limit to provide a desired display condition.
In an “automatic” powered embodiment, wherein it desired for panel 16 to remain “parked” in the upper limit location whenever the associated electronic unit, e.g. television receiver and/or video player, is not in use, the system may include limit sensors controlling an automatic relay that activates the motor to lower the panel to the lower limit location automatically whenever the associated electronic unit is turned on (typically by remote control), and to return the panel to the “parked” upper limit location automatically whenever the electronic unit is turned off.
To reduce the power requirements of the motor, the winch assembly could be further fitted with a counterbalancing mechanism such as a coil spring, counterweight, hydraulic or pneumatic system. Typically any counterbalancing would be made under-equilibrium so the power winch would never become unloaded. A coil spring could be enclosed in the roller 10D.
The invention could be practiced in a manual embodiment to be raised and lowered directly by the user; the motor of the winch assembly could be replaced by a counterbalancing mechanism such as a coil spring, counterweight, hydraulic or pneumatic system along with suitable user handling hardware including a friction/braking/locking mechanism. A mechanical manual system could provide toggling or detent between two stable locations at the travel limits, e.g. with over-equilibrium counterbalancing at each of the two limits. Optionally, the upper limit location could be positively secured by a user-releasable latching mechanism.
In addition to the travel path described in connection with the illustrative embodiment above, i.e. an arc of about 90 degrees, the available travel path could be extended downwardly to increase the angle to substantially greater than 90 degrees, to provide a greater range of height selection, for example in a large room with an unusually high ceiling.
The invention may be embodied and practiced in other specific forms without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description; and all variations, substitutions and changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.
