MECHANISM UTILIZED TO ADJUST INCLINATION ANGLE AND HORIZONTAL ROTATION ANGLE
A mechanism utilized to adjust an inclination angle and a horizontal rotation angle of a unit includes at least one pressing plate and at least one supporting portion. The pressing plate is disposed inside an installing space, and a curved surface of the pressing plate includes a first fixture. The supporting portion is disposed on the unit at a location corresponding to the pressing plate. The supporting portion includes a second fixture, fixing to the first fixture of the pressing plate to determine the inclination angle of the unit.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mechanism utilized to adjust an inclination angle and an horizontal rotation angle, and more particularly to a mechanism for engaging a supporting portion of a unit with a curved pressing plate to decide the inclination angle of the unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To provide convenience to users, display panels disposed on machines or portable devices are configured to offer viewing angle adjustments or horizontal rotation in order to view the information displayed on the display panels from any angle or at any position. Conventional flip cellular phones and laptops have hinges disposed between the screen and the main body of the housing for rotating the screen with respect to the main body of the housing. The structure of the hinge is complicated, however, and the cost of the hinge is high. Besides, the conventional hinge cannot adjust the viewing angle of the screen and horizontally rotate the screen at the same time. Therefore, the present invention provides an adjusting mechanism different from conventional hinges.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONOne objective of the invention is to provide a mechanism utilized to adjust an inclination angle and a horizontal angle of a unit at the same time in order to overcome placement limitations of the unit. The structure of the mechanism is simple, and the mechanism can be mass mold produced, solving the problems encountered by the prior art effectively.
A mechanism utilized to adjust an inclination angle and a horizontal rotation angle of a unit is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The mechanism includes at least one pressing plate and at least one supporting portion. The pressing plate is disposed inside an installing space, and a curve surface of the pressing plate includes a first fixture. The supporting portion is disposed on the unit at a location corresponding to the pressing plate. The supporting portion includes a second fixture, fixing to the first fixture of the pressing plate to decide the inclination angle of the unit.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, electronic equipment manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms “include” and “comprise” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “include, but not limited to . . . ”.
Please refer to
A pressing plate 150 with a curved surface is disposed in the installing space 140. The curved surface has a plurality of protrusions and a plurality of indentations forming a first fixture similar to a wave-shaped structure or a gear shape.
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As shown in
It should be noted that the structure of the supporting portion 160 is simply one exemplary embodiment of the present invention but not the limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, the supporting portion 160 wedges into the indentations of the pressing plate 150 with only one protrusion, or the second fixture comprises at least one indentation part wedged with the protrusions of the pressing plate 150. In another embodiment, the supporting portion 160 comprises a plurality of protrusions and a plurality of indentations, forming a fixture similar to the wave-shaped structure, and the first fixture of the pressing plate 150 comprises at least one protrusion or at least one indentation for wedging with the wave-shaped fixture of the supporting portion 160. In yet another embodiment, the protrusions and indentations of the supporting portion 160 or the pressing plate 150 are not limited to being in a wave-shaped structure. Additionally, the present invention is not limited to having supporting portions 160, installing spaces 140, bases 130 and pressing plates 150 disposed at both sides of the unit 110. In another embodiment of the present invention, the mechanism can be configured to have the above-mentioned components positioned at one side of the unit 110, and a conventional inclination angle adjusting mechanism (e.g., a typical hinge structure) applied to the other side of the unit 110. These alternative designs also belong to the scope of the invention.
Besides, the elastic unit 170 is not limited to be placed between the base 130 and the pressing plate 150. In another embodiment, the elastic unit 170 is configured to be situated between the base 130 and the supporting portion 160. As shown in
Similarly, the number and shape of the snaps 610 and the blocking board 630 are simply for illustrative purposes, but not meant to be limitations of the present invention. Another variation of the embodiment is that the outer housing 620 has a plurality of snaps, and the housing 120 has a fillister and a blocking board. This also enables the unit 110 to rotate horizontally.
Known from the above embodiments of the present invention, the inclination angle is decided and adjusted via wedging the pressing plate 150 with the supporting portion 160, and the snaps configured on the housing 120 or on the outer housing 620 enable the unit 110 to rotate horizontally. This enables users to adjust the inclination angle and the horizontal rotation angle at the same time. Although the housing 120 shown in the figures is a round plate, the invention is not limited to it. The housing 120 may have other shapes and may not be limited to surround the entire unit 110. The unit 110 is, of course, not limited to being a display panel. That is, the present invention can be employed to adjust the inclination angle and the horizontal rotation angle of any units. Besides, the housing 120, the base 130, the pressing plate 150 and the supporting portion 160 can be made by plastic material, saving more cost than conventional hinges under mass mold production.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.
Claims
1. A mechanism utilized to adjust an inclination angle of a unit, comprising:
- at least a pressing plate, disposed inside an installing space, wherein a curved surface of the pressing plate includes a first fixture disposed thereon; and
- at least a supporting portion, disposed on the unit at a location corresponding to the pressing plate, including a second fixture disposed thereon for engaging with the first fixture of the pressing plate to determine the inclination angle of the unit.
2. The mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first fixture comprises a plurality of protrusions and a plurality of indentations, and the second fixture comprises at least one protrusion or at least one indentation.
3. The mechanism of claim 2, wherein the plurality of protrusions and the plurality of indentations form a wave-shaped structure.
4. The mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second fixture comprises a plurality of protrusions and a plurality of indentations, and the first fixture comprises at least one protrusion or at least one indentation.
5. The mechanism of claim 4, wherein the plurality of protrusions and the plurality of indentations form a wave-shaped structure.
6. The mechanism of claim 1, further comprising:
- a housing; and
- a base, fixed to the housing, comprising the installing space disposed therein.
7. The mechanism of claim 6, further comprising:
- a first assembling portion, positioned at one side of the pressing plate, and
- a second assembling portion, positioned on the base at a location corresponding to the first assembling portion;
- wherein the pressing plate is fixed in the installing space through the first assembling portion and the second assembling portion.
8. The mechanism of claim 7, wherein the first assembling portion is fixed on the second assembling portion in a moveable way, the mechanism further comprising:
- at least one elastic unit, disposed in the installing space, for providing an elastic force to maintain contact between the pressing plate and the supporting portion.
9. The mechanism of claim 8, wherein one of the first and second assembling portions is an opening and the other of the first and the second assembling portions is a pillar inserting into the opening; and the opening has an outline for guiding movement of the pillar.
10. The mechanism of claim 6, wherein the housing comprises an inner housing surrounding the unit and an outer housing surrounding the inner housing.
11. The mechanism of claim 10, wherein one of the inner housing and the outer housing comprises a plurality of snaps, and the other of the inner housing and the outer housing comprises a fillister for guiding the plurality of snaps into and out of the outer housing or the inner housing to thereby fix the inner housing to the outer housing in a moveable way.
12. The mechanism of claim 11, wherein the fillister comprises at least one blocking board for blocking movement of a specific snap of the plurality of snaps to control a rotation angle of the inner housing with respect to the outer housing.
13. The mechanism of claim 6, wherein the housing, the pressing plate and the supporting portion are made of plastic material.
14. The mechanism of claim 1, wherein the unit is a display panel.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 5, 2007
Publication Date: Feb 19, 2009
Inventor: Chih-Hsien Huang (Taipei County)
Application Number: 11/867,699
International Classification: A47G 29/00 (20060101);