JP2008275139A - Two parallel shaft hinge module - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a small-sized hinge of a simple structure by combining two gears and an Oldham coupling, in a two shaft hinge module. <P>SOLUTION: The tow parallel shaft hinge module consisting of a first and a second hinge shafts 1A and 1B rotatably supported with respect to hinge axes mutually arranged in parallel, a first gear 3A unrotatably fixed with respect to a first gear shaft 2A, and a gear unit arranged to cause a second gear 3B unrotatably fixed with respect to the second gear shaft 2B to be meshed mutually freely rotatably. The first gear shaft 2A is connected with the first hinge 1A, the second gear shaft 2B is connected with the second hinge shaft 1B, and Oldham couplings 4A and 4B are constituted in at least one of the connections between the hinge shaft and the gear shaft. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a hinge module suitable as a micro biaxial hinge used in portable equipment such as a mobile phone and a notebook personal computer.

  In portable devices such as cellular phones, the folding type has been the mainstream recently. In this foldable mobile phone, as shown in FIG. 1, a hinge device 4 is used to rotatably connect the transmitter 2 and the receiver 1. There are 1-axis type and 2-axis type in the hinge device. The single-shaft type has an advantage that the structure is simple, but has a disadvantage that the rotation range is limited to 160 degrees to 170 degrees. On the other hand, although the structure is slightly complicated, the biaxial type has an advantage that the transmission / reception unit rotates around the respective axes, so that the opening / closing operation is half of the entire opening / closing angle. Recently, a composite mobile phone having not only a telephone function but also a function of a television has been developed, and usage forms are diversified. Under such circumstances, there is a demand for a function of folding a half-fold type mobile phone completely 360 degrees.

  As the most basic biaxial hinge device, there is one disclosed in Patent Document 1. In this technique, it is disclosed that a spur gear is arranged on each of two shafts and engaged with each other to drive a mounting frame connected to each shaft. Although this technique is the simplest and easy to manufacture, in order to drive two axes arranged in parallel with each other, it is necessary to use a gear having a radius larger than a half of the distance between the axes. . However, this has a problem that the hinge portion becomes larger than the thickness of the main body of a mobile phone or the like, which not only impairs the appearance but also goes against miniaturization.

  The Oldham joint has been widely known as a mechanism for connecting and driving shafts that are not coaxial, and is used in many applications. As a general configuration, a first joint member having a linear convex portion arranged on one axis, a second joint member having a linear convex portion arranged on the other axis, and a direction orthogonal to both sides And a third joint member having a linear concave portion formed in the above-described manner so that the respective convex portions and concave portions are slidably fitted. With this configuration, it is possible to transmit rotational motion between two axes that are not coaxial.

  There exists patent document 2 as an example of the electrical component using an Oldham mechanism. In this technique, in a rotary operation type electric component such as a rotary encoder, an Oldham coupling is configured to transmit rotational force in the axial direction, and an object is to reduce the axial dimension of the rotating body.

JP 2005-207465 A JP 2001-67992 A

  In view of the above-described problems, an object of the biaxial hinge module according to the present invention is to provide a hinge that is simple in structure and suitable for miniaturization by combining two gears and an Oldham coupling.

  In order to solve the above problems, a parallel biaxial hinge module according to the present invention includes first and second hinge shafts arranged parallel to each other and rotatably supported with respect to the hinge shaft, and a first gear shaft. A first gear fixed to be non-rotatable and a second gear fixed to be non-rotatable with respect to the second gear shaft, and a gear unit arranged to mesh with each other, The first gear shaft is connected to the first hinge shaft, the second gear shaft is connected to the second hinge shaft, and at least a connecting portion between any one of the hinge shaft and the gear shaft is Oldham. It is characterized in that a joint is constructed.

  In the case where an Oldham coupling is formed at the connecting portion between one of the hinge shafts and the gear shaft, it is desirable that the other gear shaft is provided coaxially with the other hinge shaft.

  Further, in the biaxial hinge module according to the present invention, an Oldham coupling can be arranged at a connecting portion between any hinge shaft and the gear shaft.

  In order to reduce the size of the hinge module itself, it is preferable that the distance between the first and second gear shafts is smaller than the distance between the first and second hinge shafts.

  In a normal gear mechanism, the gear diameter needs to be larger than the distance between the gear shafts in order to mesh the gears. When this mechanism is applied to a hinge as it is, the size of the hinge is limited by the size of the gear. End up. In the parallel biaxial hinge module according to the present invention, by combining the Oldham coupling and two gear mechanisms, the rotational force is transmitted while the distance between the two gear shafts is narrower than the two hinge shafts. Therefore, the diameter of the gear can be reduced, thereby providing a biaxial hinge module that has a simple structure and can be miniaturized.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on examples. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a first embodiment of a parallel biaxial hinge module according to the present invention. Two hinge shafts 1A and 1B are supported by the hinge support member 11 so as to be rotatable in parallel.

  A gear shaft 2A is integrally formed at the tip of the first hinge shaft 1A, and the first gear 3A is fixed on the gear shaft 2A so as not to rotate.

  The other second hinge shaft 1B is configured to be shorter than the first hinge shaft 1A, and a substantially rectangular parallelepiped hinge shaft convex portion 4B is formed at the tip in a direction perpendicular to the hinge axis. A second gear shaft 2B (the back of the gear shaft convex portion 4C) is disposed in front of the hinge shaft convex portion 4B at a position close to the first hinge shaft 1A, and the second gear 3B is connected to the gear shaft 2B. It is fixed so that it cannot rotate. Also, a substantially rectangular parallelepiped gear shaft convex portion 4C is formed at the tip of the second gear shaft in a direction perpendicular to the axis. The hinge shaft convex portion 4B and the gear shaft convex portion 4C are slidably accommodated and connected to grooves formed in directions perpendicular to each other on both ends of the Oldham joint connecting member 4A disposed therebetween.

  The first gear shaft 2A and the second gear shaft 2B are supported at both ends by a hinge support member 17 and a gear support member 18, and are held rotatably at positions where the first gear 3A and the second gear 3B mesh with each other. Has been. The main part of these hinge shaft coupling mechanisms is shown in FIG.

  A click mechanism 13 is further provided between the hinge support member 11 and the gear support member 18. The click mechanism 13 includes a cam plate 13A fixed so as not to be interlocked with the hinge shaft and a cam follower 13B fixed to the hinge shaft. The cam follower 13B is further biased toward the cam plate 13A by a click mechanism biasing spring 14. Has been. When the hinge shaft is rotated, the mounting frames 20A and 20B can be regulated at a predetermined angle by fitting the cam follower 13B into the recess formed on the cam plate 13A.

  A hinge support member 12 is also disposed at the other end of the hinge, and is configured so that the attachment frame holding member 16 can be combined to receive the attachment frames 20A and 20B. A hinge biasing spring 15 is disposed between the mounting frame holding member 16 and the hinge support member 17 described above, and the entire hinge is elastically biased toward both sides by the elastic force of extension of the spring. 20A and 20B can be easily attached and can be held after the attachment. FIG. 5 shows an overall view of the hinge in a state where the attachment frame is attached. In addition, as shown in FIG. 11, it is desirable that the whole of these hinges be housed and held in a hinge case 19. For this case, plastic or metal can be used.

  Another embodiment of a parallel biaxial hinge module according to the present invention is shown in FIG. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the Oldham coupling is used to connect the hinge shaft and the gear shaft on one side. In this embodiment, both sides are connected by the Oldham coupling. Although the mechanism is slightly complicated as compared with the case of only one side, since the positional deviation between the hinge shaft and the gear shaft can be reduced, the gear can be made smaller. FIG. 8 is an enlarged view showing a main part of the embodiment shown in FIG. Other elements are almost the same as those in the embodiment shown in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the configuration of the intermediate connecting member 4A of the Oldham joint used in the above-described embodiment. Square grooves are formed in both ends of the cylindrical member in a direction perpendicular to each other. FIG. 4 shows an assembly drawing of the Oldham joint. A convex portion 4B formed at the tip of the hinge shaft is fitted on one side of the Oldham joint coupling member 4A, and a convex portion 4C formed at the tip of the gear shaft is fitted on the other side. With this configuration, the rotational power can be transmitted between the hinge shaft and the gear shaft that are not coaxial. However, this is merely an example, and it goes without saying that many modifications can be made without departing from the object of the present invention.

  FIG. 6 shows the movement of the hinge module in the mobile phone using the embodiment of the hinge module shown in FIG. Flexible operation by sliding connection operation of Oldham's joint from the closed state (a) to the slightly opened state (180) of (b) and the opened state (360) (c). It shows how it can be done. FIG. 10 shows the movement of the hinge module in the mobile phone using the hinge module embodiment in which Oldham couplings are arranged on both sides shown in FIG.

  In the parallel biaxial hinge module according to the present invention, by combining the Oldham coupling and two gear mechanisms, the rotational force is transmitted while the distance between the two gear shafts is narrower than the two hinge shafts. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the diameter of the gear, thereby providing a biaxial hinge module that has a simple structure and can be miniaturized. Therefore, the hinge of a small electronic device such as a mobile phone can be reduced in size. Can contribute to

It is a front view which shows the principal part of the parallel biaxial hinge module 1st Example by this invention. It is the figure which expanded the principal part of the Example shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the connection piece of the Oldham coupling used for the Example shown in FIG. It is an assembly drawing which shows the connection part of the Oldham coupling used for the Example shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is an overall view of the biaxial hinge module of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the mobile telephone using the biaxial hinge by the Example shown in FIG. It is a front view which shows another Example of the biaxial hinge module by this invention. It is an enlarged view which shows the principal part of the Example shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is an overall view of the biaxial hinge module of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the mobile telephone using the biaxial hinge by the Example shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a final completed view of the hinge module shown in FIGS. 1 and 7.

Explanation of symbols

1A 1st hinge shaft 1B 2nd hinge shaft 2A 1st gear shaft 2B 2nd gear shaft 3A 1st gear 3B 2nd gear 4A Oldham joint coupling member 4B Hinge shaft convex part 4C Gear shaft convex part 11 Hinge support member 12 Hinge support member 13 Click mechanism 13A Cam plate 13B Cam follower 14 Click mechanism biasing spring 15 Hinge biasing spring 16 Mounting frame holding member 17 Hinge bearing member 18 Gear bearing member 19 Hinge case 20A Mounting frame 20B Mounting frame 30A Equipment Body A
30B Device body B

Claims (4)

First and second hinge shafts arranged in parallel to each other and supported to be rotatable with respect to the hinge shaft, a first gear fixed to the first gear shaft so as not to rotate, and a second gear shaft A second gear fixed in a non-rotatable manner with respect to the gear shaft, and a gear unit arranged so as to freely mesh with each other, the first gear shaft being connected to the first hinge shaft; The parallel biaxial hinge module, wherein the second gear shaft is connected to the second hinge shaft, and an Oldham joint is formed at a connection portion between at least one of the hinge shaft and the gear shaft. The first gear shaft is provided coaxially with the first hinge shaft, and an Oldham coupling is formed at a connecting portion between the second hinge shaft and the second gear shaft. The parallel biaxial hinge module according to claim 1. The parallel biaxial hinge module according to claim 1, wherein an Oldham coupling is formed at a connecting portion between any one of the hinge shaft and the gear shaft. The parallel biaxial hinge module according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a distance between the first and second gear shafts is smaller than a distance between the first and second hinge shafts. .

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