Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Nec Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Sakae Higano

Hitoshi Sato

Minoru Ohiraki

Yasuhiro Mitsui

Masatomo Mizuta

Kenichi Sakamoto

Katsumasa Yamaguchi

Mitsuru Sendouda

Masanori Sano

Satoshi Kosugi

Shinji Ikeuchi

Hiroaki Kato

Two-shaft hinge mechanism components enabling harness wiring are provided to realize durability, reduction in size and weight and a mechanism to restrict rotation, in cellular phones, notebook computers and remote controllers required to have a smaller size, less weight and new functions. Rotation shaft and opening/closing shaft are inserted into coil spring, concave and convex cams, and a caulking component, to assemble a rotation shaft torque unit and an opening/closing torque unit. The units are attached to a hinge housing to constitute the two-shaft hinge. The opening/closing torque unit is disposed either on the left or right side of the hinge housing. A pipe-like shaft with a hollow is employed as rotation shaft, whereby harness wiring is provided easily. The torque unit is configured independently from the rotation shaft and the opening/closing shaft to achieve generation of a stable torque and click, improvement of durability, easy assembly of the components, reduction of size and weight by reducing the number of components, and ensuring of space by disposing the components in a concentrated manner.

Two-shaft hinge mechanism enabling harness wiring

A hinge mechanism that generates a stress at the start and end points of arbitrary opening and closing range can be constructed by causing one cam set of two cam sets in which a rotating cam and a fixed cam engage only once in 360&#xb0; rotation to generate a stress at the start point of the rotating range or opening and closing range of the hinge mechanism, and causing the other cam set to generate a stress at the end point of the rotating or opening and closing range. The hinge mechanism of the present invention achieves durability, good feeling, and size and weight reduction.

Hinge mechanism

A two-shaft hinge component equipped with a rotation limiting mechanism in which a construction is adopted that makes possible a rotation limiting mechanism with increased durability, reduced size and lighter weight. A torque unit is constituted by a fixed cam and a rotary cam being in coaxial abutment with a rotary shaft and an opening/closing shaft, in a hinge of two-shaft construction in which a rotary shaft passes through an opening/closing shaft, sliding frictional torque and a click action being generated during rotation and opening/closing operation by an abutting cam surface. The torque unit is constructed independently on the rotary shaft and the opening/closing shaft and, in addition, there is provided a rotation limiting mechanism whereby the rotary action of the rotary shaft is subjected to limitation in accordance with the opening/closing angle of the opening/closing shaft. With the two-shaft hinge according to the present invention, a reduction in size and weight is achieved by reducing the number of components, a stable torque and click action are generated, durability is improved and additional space is secured by a concentrated arrangement of the components.

Two-shaft hinge equipped with a rotation limiting mechanism

A biaxial hinge having a rotating mechanism that realizes durability, a good tactile feedback, smaller size and more lightweight is provided for use in a notebook computer or a portable telephone that needs to be smaller and more lightweight. The biaxial hinge is constituted such that a rotating shaft support member is fixed to a rotational shaft support member, a rotation-side member is inserted and attached to the outer periphery of the rotating shaft member, and an opening/closing torque unit mechanism for opening and closing operations is disposed at the rotation-side member, wherein sliding friction torque and click torque are generated by the load produced by a coil spring between pressing members and the rotating shaft support member or a sliding member attached to the rotating shaft member. The rotating mechanism of the biaxial hinge of the present invention affords good durability, a good tactile feedback, and a reduction in size and weight. And, this rotating mechanism is applied to a portable telephone.

Rotating mechanism of biaxial hinge and portable telephone with the same

A foldable and portable mobile communication terminal is formed as a two-folded type in which a lower-side body unit and upper-side unit are coupled openably and closably by a two-shaft hinge mechanism. The two-shaft hinge mechanism includes a first hinge unit that allows the upper-side body unit to rotate with respect to the lower-side body unit up to the open state defining a predetermined talking position, and a second hinge unit that allows the first hinge unit to rotate in a direction different from the aforementioned rotational direction of the first hinge unit. The first and second hinge units are coupled so that the rotational center axes thereof orthogonally intersect each other.

Foldable and portable mobile communication terminal

A single-shaft hinge component is provided that can be made durable, of small size and light weight. The single-shaft hinge device is made up of a plurality of torque-generating sections wherein, a single-shaft hinge is formed of a single shaft, rotary camsfitted onto this shaftthat are capable of rotation about the shaftand axially moving on the shaft, fixed camsfitted on the shaftthat are capable of axially moving on the shaft but incapable of relative rotation with respect to the shaft, and elastic membersarranged coaxially with the shaftand that cause abutment of side faces of the rotary camand the fixed camagainst each other, the rotary camsand fixed camsbeing arranged coaxially with the single shaftso that abutment of the rotary camand fixed camis achieved at their side faces at two or more locations.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Sakae Higano