JPH1070594A - Opening-closing detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an opening/closing detecting structure excellent in durability by equalizing the opening force and the closing force of a folding device. SOLUTION: A lifter 30 forming a projecting part 14 at a position deviated from the rotation center axis of the side face of a first hinge 11 by R and provided with an elliptical O ring 34 for engaging with this converts a circular motion drawn by the projecting part 14 of a first hinge side face into the straight reciprocating motion of only the direction of a sensor 24 by opening and closing a first housing 10 by the support of a holder 22 provided inside of a second housing 20, and the lifter 30 jumps out from the holder 22 at an optional opening and closing angle to be inserted to a sensor 24 to allow the sensor 24 to detect opening/closing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a foldable device such as a portable telephone, a word processor and a personal computer, and more particularly to a structure for detecting the opening and closing of the foldable device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, this type of foldable device is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a first hinge 11 that rotates integrally with the first housing 10 and a second hinge 21 that rotates integrally with the second housing 20 are rotatably connected to each other. The first housing 10 and the second housing 20 have a structure that can be opened and closed. Further, a cylindrical hinge 12 having a hollow inside of the hinge is provided, and the electronic components mounted in the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are connected through electric wiring.

[0003] The configuration of such a conventional open / close detection structure of a folding device will be described with reference to FIG. Since the cam 13 is formed on the side surface of the first hinge 11 and the lifter 30 having the flat plate 31 is in contact with the cam 13 by the elastic force of the spring 32, the lifter 30 moves along the shape of the cam 13. . Further, the holder 22 fixed to the inner surface of the second housing 20 has a hole 23 through which the lifter 30 passes. As a result, the lifter 30 is restricted only by the linear reciprocating motion. The sensor 24 is provided on a substrate 33 on which electronic components are mounted, and has a detection hole 25 for detecting the lifter 30.
By inserting 0, power ON / OFF control is performed.

Next, the operation of this prior art will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Note that FIG.
When the second housing 20 and the second housing 20 are opened by 90 °, the sensor 24 detects opening and closing. When the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are closed, the lifter 30 and the sensor 24 are in a non-contact state as shown in FIG. When the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 start opening, the first housing 10
The lifter 30 is pushed out according to the shape of the cam 13, and moves in the direction of the sensor 24. The first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are 9
When opened by 0 °, as shown in FIG.
The lifter 30 starts to be inserted into the detection hole 25 of the first housing 10 and the second housing 20.
Are opened by 90 °. The opening / closing detection structure as described above is used for setting ON / OFF of lighting and the like of a device at an arbitrary opening / closing angle.

As a prior art adopting the above-described configuration, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 2-76775 can be referred to.

[0006]

The first problem is that in the prior art, a difference occurs between the opening force and the closing force of the housing. The reason is that a spring is used to press the lifter against the cam, so when opening the housing, it must be opened against the elastic force of the spring, and when closing the housing, the spring elasticity This is because the force acts in a direction that is easy to close.

A second problem is that the durability of the open / close detecting structure is uneasy. The reason is that the opening and closing of the housing tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of times may cause the spring to set or break.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art, to provide an opening / closing detection structure which does not use a spring, equalizes the opening force and closing force of a housing, and has excellent durability.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, an open / close detection structure according to the present invention performs open / close detection without using a spring. More specifically, a protrusion (14 in FIG. 2) is provided on the side of the hinge at a position shifted from the hinge rotation center position,
An O-ring (34 in FIG. 2) provided on the lifter is engaged with the projection, the lifter is slidably held in a mounting hole of a holder provided inside the second housing, and the projection is hinged. By converting the circular motion drawn by rotating the to the linear reciprocating motion, the relationship between the lifter and the sensor is brought into contact or non-contact state, and the open / close position of the housing is detected.

According to the present invention, the open / closed state is detected by a convex portion provided on the side surface of the hinge without using a spring, a lifter engaged with the convex portion, and a sensor for detecting the lifter.
For this reason, there is no fear of malfunction due to spring settling or breakage, and it is possible to provide open / close detection with excellent reliability and durability.

[0011]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the embodiments described below, the same parts as those in the conventional example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description will be omitted.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an open / close detecting structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Further, as shown in FIG. 3A, a convex portion 14 having a radius r is provided on a side surface of the first hinge 11 at a position shifted by a radius R from the hinge rotation center axis.
As a result, when the first housing 10 opens and closes from 0 ° to 90 °, the convex portion 14 becomes a circle on the radius R as shown in FIG. The trajectory is drawn, and the object moves R in the X direction and R in the Y direction from the 0 ° position.
As shown in FIG. 3B, the lifter 30 includes an O-ring 34 having an elliptical hole of h (h ≧ R + 2r) in the X direction and 2r in the Y direction according to the moving range of the projection 14. doing. The lifter 30 is in a state where the O-ring 34 and the projection 13 are engaged while being inserted into the hole 23 of the holder 22 as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b). Here, it is assumed that when the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are opened by 90 °, opening / closing detection is performed. When the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are closed (at 0 °), the lifter 30 and the sensor 24 are in a non-contact state as shown in FIG. Is not detected. First housing 10 and second housing 2
When 0 and 90 are opened by 90 °, the convex portion 14 becomes the point A in FIG.
By moving from the point B to the point C, the lifter 30 does not move because the movement of the convex portion 14 in the R and Y directions in the X direction is only moving within the hole of the O-ring 34. That is, since the lifter 30 is movable only in the X direction (the direction of the sensor 24) and starts to be inserted into the detection hole 25 of the sensor 24, it detects that the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are opened by 90 °. be able to.

Here, the sensor 24 is set to detect the open / closed state when the first housing 10 and the second housing 20 are opened by 90 °, but the setting of the position of the convex portion 14 and the setting of the lifter 3
The opening / closing angle to be detected can be freely set by setting the length of 0 and the position of the sensor 24. Also, in order to reduce the frictional resistance between the O-ring 34 and the projection 14, even if a bearing or the like is used for the projection 14, the projection 14 can be moved with the same function.

[0015]

The first effect of the present invention is that the improvement of the durability of the open / close detection is excellent in preventing malfunction. The reason is that since no spring is used, there is no need to worry about setting or breaking of the spring.

A second effect is that a constant housing opening / closing force can be obtained. The reason is that since no spring is used, no extra force is applied to opening and closing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating open / close detection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

3A is a side view of a hinge showing a relationship between a convex portion and a hinge, and FIG. 3B is a front view showing an O-ring shape of a lifter.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating open / close detection according to the related art.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a conventional technique.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of the foldable device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 First housing 11 First hinge 12 Cylindrical hinge 13 Cam 14 Convex part 20 Second housing 21 Second hinge 22 Holder 24 Sensor 30 Lifter 31 Flat plate 32 Spring 33 Substrate 34 O-ring

Claims (2)

[Claims] A first hinge integrated with the first housing and a second hinge integrated with the second housing for opening and closing the first housing and the second housing; A lifter having an O-ring for engaging with a protrusion formed on a side surface of the first hinge portion is slidably held in a mounting hole of a holder provided inside the second housing, and the first housing The opening and closing movement is converted into a linear reciprocating movement in the second housing, the lifter pops out of the holder at an arbitrary opening and closing angle and is inserted into a sensor, and the sensor is connected to the first housing and the second housing. An open / close detection structure for detecting an open / close state. 2. The open / close detection structure according to claim 1, wherein the structure is applied to a foldable device including at least a mobile phone, a word processor, and a personal computer.