Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.

Yoshikazu Iino

Toru Amano

Atsushi Shirata

Shunsuke Taki

A cellular phone has an upper casing and a lower casing. The upper casing has a pair of slide grooves defined in a substantially lower half region thereof along respective opposite side faces of said upper casing, and the lower casing has a pair of slide grooves defined in a substantially upper half region thereof along respective opposite side faces of said lower casing. Slide connection members are fastened to the lower casing by screws threaded into respective joint holes in the lower casing through the respective slide grooves of the upper casing, and a bifurcated joint slide connection member and a slide connection member are fastened to a joint bar of the upper casing by screws threaded into respective joint holes in the joint bar through the respective slide grooves of the lower casing. The upper and lower casings are made slidable by the slide connection members, and are stably connected to each other against wobbling movement.

Portable terminal device

Disclosed is a novel mobile phone wherein a one-push open/close mechanism slideably intercoupling upper and lower housings causes a tension of a spring member to function for sliding movements of the upper and lower housings along an open direction in an opening event, and inverts the tension of the spring member for the sliding movements of the upper and lower housings along a close direction in a closing event. An elevation mechanism operates in association with the sliding movement of the upper housing to perform ascending control of a key operation section in the opening event, and operates in association with the sliding movement of the upper housing to perform descending control of the key operation section in the closing event. Thereby, the mobile phone can be set by a one-push operation to an open state or closed state. In the opening event, the key operation section automatically ascends; and in the closing event, the key operation section automatically descends to be store in the lower housing.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yoshikazu Iino