Abstract:
A dual-axis hinge includes at least a connecting section, an upper hinge and a lower hinge. The connecting section has two sides orthogonally connected to the upper and lower hinges respectively. The connecting section has a circuit cavity that communicates with circuit outlets of the upper and lower hinges to form a passage for accommodating a transmission circuit. The upper hinge is connected to a first sleeve for joining the top cover of a folding electronic product, and the lower hinge is connected to a second sleeve for joining the body of the folding electronic product. These connections enable the top cover to rotate in at least two different directions.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 94130924, filed Sep. 8, 2005, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0002]     1. Field of Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates generally to a dual-axis hinge, and more particularly to a dual-axis hinge with bi-directional rotatability.  
         [0004]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0005]     People use numerous kinds of portable electronic devices in their daily lives, such as pagers, cellular phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These devices bring great convenience for people, so manufacturers make every endeavor to design more user-friendly products in order to meet the demand of consumers.  
         [0006]     One major improvement is the design of a foldable device. There are two advantages to this design. First, the amount of information displayed at a time increases because the size of the screen can be made larger; second, the operation interface can contain more functions because the arrangement of the interface can be made diversified. The foldable device includes three parts, i.e. an upper cover, a body and a hinge module coupled between the upper cover and the body. In general, this kind of foldable structure can only be opened and closed in one direction, which may limit the practical use of the foldable device. Furthermore, the screen, in order to match the cover and body, must be shaped like a rectangle and oriented in only one direction, which is not convenient for users to read documents or websites that are oriented otherwise.  
         [0007]     The new designs provide different operating modes, in which the upper cover can open and close in two orthogonal directions selectively, making the screen presented in either portrait or landscape modes to fit the visual demand.  
         [0008]      FIGS. 1 and 2  show a conventional portable electronic device  100 , which can open and close in two orthogonal directions selectively. The portable electronic device  100  includes a body  110 , an upper cover  120  and a hinge  130 .  
         [0009]      FIG. 1  shows the upper cover  120  of the portable electronic device  100  opened in landscape mode. In the landscape mode, the upper cover  120  is attached to an embedded structure  111  by an indentation  121 , and positioned by a lock member  113  so as to prevent the upper cover  120  from being detached from the body  110  and to make the electronic device  100  fold up smoothly.  
         [0010]      FIG. 2  shows the upper cover  120  of the portable electronic device  100  opened in portrait mode. When the upper cover  120  is closed to the body  110 , the lock member  113  is pushed first to release its lock in the lock hole  122 , and then the upper cover  120  can be opened as shown in  FIG. 2 . When the upper cover  120  is opened, the lock member  123  positions in the lock hole  114  (shown in  FIG. 1 ) of the raised base  112 , preventing the upper cover  120  from being detached from the body  110  and making the electronic device  100  fold up smoothly.  
         [0011]     However, there are some disadvantages in the known portable electronic device. For example,  
         [0012]     1. Since the hinge  130  is a right angle hinge on the top surface of the body  110 , the upper cover  120  and the body  110  must be designed to have some corresponding indentations and raised parts. These parts may degrade the appearance of the expensive electronic product and therefore make it look cheap.  
         [0013]     2. Regarding general operating habits of users or long-term service products, the raised parts are easily damaged by impacts and also affect the convenience of input by interfering with handling postures of users.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0014]     It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a bi-directional and dual-axis hinge. When the dual-axis hinge is applied to a portable electronic product, the upper cover and the body are foldable in at least two directions and have no additional indentations and raised parts formed thereon. When the upper cover is opened normally, the appearance of the upper cover and the body is smooth thereby effectively improving the aesthetic design and increasing the value of the electronic products.  
         [0015]     It is another objective of the present invention to provide a dual-axis hinge which makes portable electronic products have a smooth appearance without raised parts, so as to avoid collision and damage and improve handling and input behaviors for the portable electronic products.  
         [0016]     It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a dual-axis hinge, which has a transmission circuit hidden therein for connecting with the circuits of the upper cover and the body of the portable electronic product, thereby avoiding exposing the transmission circuit and thus reducing malfunction probability resulting from external forces.  
         [0017]     According to the aforementioned objectives of the present invention, a new dual-axis hinge is provided. In one embodiment of the present invention, the dual-axis hinge utilizes a connecting section to connect an upper hinge and a lower hinge, such that the upper hinge and the lower hinge are orthogonal to each other and respectively locate at two parallels that are perpendicular to the connecting section. The upper hinge and the lower hinge are respectively connected to the upper cover and the body such that the upper cover can be foldable around an axis defined by the upper hinge and foldable around an axis defined by the lower hinge.  
         [0018]     The structure of the dual-axis hinge of the present invention is constructed by two components, which define a circuit cavity for containing the transmission circuit. The two components are combined together by a connecting structure, and concave ring portions of the upper hinge and the lower hinge respectively have circuit outlets for the transmission circuit to pass through. In addition, two ends of the transmission circuit loops around the concave ring portions and then connect with the upper cover and the body respectively. The transmission circuit is hidden inside the dual-axis hinge, thereby reducing the damage and breakage of the transmission circuit when the upper cover is folded repeatedly.  
         [0019]     It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]     The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,  
         [0021]      FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional dual-axis hinge applied to a foldable device;  
         [0022]      FIG. 2  illustrates a conventional dual-axis hinge applied to a foldable cellular phone;  
         [0023]      FIG. 3  shows an exploded view of a dual-axis hinge according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0024]      FIG. 4  shows a perspective view of a dual-axis hinge according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0025]      FIG. 5  shows an exploded view of a dual-axis hinge according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0026]      FIG. 6  shows a connecting structure of a dual-axis hinge according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0027]      FIG. 7  depicts a perspective view of the transmission circuit looping around the dual-axis hinge according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0028]      FIG. 8  shows a cross-sectional view of a foldable device, which includes the dual-axis hinge and the transmission circuit of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0029]      FIG. 9  shows a perspective view of a foldable device, which includes the dual-axis hinge and the transmission circuit of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0030]      FIG. 10  illustrates a portable electronic device, in which the upper cover opens in portrait mode; and,  
         [0031]      FIG. 11  illustrates a portable electronic device, in which the upper cover opens in landscape mode. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0032]     Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.  
         [0033]     While the specification concludes with claims defining the features of the invention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that the invention will be better understood from a consideration of the following description in conjunction with the figures, in which like reference numerals are carried forward.  
         [0034]      FIG. 3  illustrates a dual-axis hinge  200  of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. The dual-axis hinge  200  includes a connecting section  210 , an upper hinge  220 , a lower hinge  230 , a first sleeve  300 , and a second sleeve  400 .  
         [0035]     The upper end and the lower end of the connecting section  210  orthogonally connect the upper hinge  220  and the lower hinge  230  respectively, and the upper hinge  220  and the lower hinge  230  are orthogonal to each other.  
         [0036]     The upper hinge  220  has a concave ring portion  221  and a connecting hole  222 , and the lower hinge  230  has a concave ring portion  231  and a connecting hole  232 . The concave ring portions  221  and  231  have corresponding circuit outlets  223  and  233 , respectively. A circuit cavity  211  is formed within the connecting section  210  and communicates with the outlets  223  and  233 . Moreover, the upper hinge  220  and the lower hinge  230  have through-holes  224  and  234  respectively formed thereon and communicating with the connecting holes  222  and  232  for combining with connecting components  225  and  235 , respectively.  
         [0037]     The first sleeve  300  includes a joint rod  310 , which has a protrusion  312  disposed on the front end of the joint rod  310  and a hole  311  formed on the protrusion  312 . The protrusion  312  can plug into the connecting hole  222  (as shown in  FIG. 4 ) and be positioned and fixed at the upper hinge  220  with the connecting component  225  passing through the through-holes  224  and the hole  311 . Besides, the first sleeve  300  includes a flange  314 , which has two holes  313  formed thereon.  
         [0038]     The second sleeve  400  includes a joint rod  410 , which has a protrusion  412  disposed on the front end of the joint rod  410  and a hole  411  formed on the protrusion  412 . The protrusion  412  can plug into the connecting hole  232  (as shown in  FIG. 4 ) and be positioned and fixed at the upper hinge  320  with the connecting component  235  passing through the through-holes  234  and the hole  411 . Besides, the second sleeve  400  includes a flange  414 , which has two holes  413  formed thereon.  
         [0039]     Referring to  FIG. 5 , the body formed by the connecting section  210 , the upper hinge  220  and the lower hinge  230  is split into an upper component  212  and a lower component  213 . The upper component  212  includes a top connecting portion  218 , a first top hinge portion  226  and a second top hinge portion  236 ; and the lower component  213  includes a bottom connecting portion  219 , a first bottom hinge portion  227  and a second bottom hinge portion  237 . When the upper component  212  is coupled to the lower component  213 , the first top hinge portion  226  and the first bottom hinge portion  227  are combined together to form the upper hinge  220 , and the second top hinge portion  236  and the second bottom hinge portion  237  are combined together to form the lower hinge  230 . The upper component  212  and the lower component  213  respectively have an upper groove  214  and a lower groove  215  formed on the split section of the connecting section  210  and the concave ring portions  221  and  231 . Further, the upper component  212  and the lower component  213  respectively have connecting slots  216  and connecting hooks  217 , which form the connecting structure for connecting the upper component  212  and the lower component  213  (as shown in  FIG. 6 ). The space formed by the upper groove  214  and the lower groove  215  is the circuit cavity  211 , through which a transmission circuit  500  passes (as shown in  FIG. 7 ).  
         [0040]     Referring to  FIG. 7 , the transmission circuit  500  passes through the circuit cavity  211 , wherein two ends of the transmission circuit  500  respectively pass through the circuit outlets  223  and  233 , loop around the concave ring portions  221  and  231 , and then connect with an upper cover  600  and a body  700  of a foldable device, e.g. a portable electronic product, so that the circuit between the upper cover  600  and the body  700  is connected (as shown in  FIG. 8 ). In this embodiment, the transmission circuit  500  may be implemented by an electric wire, a flat cable or a flexible circuit board.  
         [0041]     Referring to  FIG. 9 , the upper cover  600  and the body  700  respectively have an indentation at corresponding corners, and the indentation is fitted to be coupled with the connecting section  210 . The lower hinge  230  and the second sleeve  400  are configured in the interior of body  700 , and the upper hinge  220  and the first sleeve  300  are configured in the interior of upper cover  600 . The upper cover  600  may rotate around an axis defined by the upper hinge  220  and the first sleeve  300  such that the foldable device can be open in portrait mode as shown in  FIG. 10 .  
         [0042]     In order to open the foldable device in another direction, the upper cover  600  should be closed to the body  700  as shown in  FIG. 9 ; then, the upper cover  600  can rotate around another axis defined by the lower hinge  230  and the second sleeve  400  such that the foldable device can be open in landscape mode as shown in  FIG. 11 .  
         [0043]     According to the aforementioned composition and embodiments, the present invention provides many advantages over the prior art, for example:  
         [0044]     1. The upper hinge and the lower hinge of the dual-axis hinge according to the present invention are respectively disposed at an upper plane and a lower plane and orthogonal to each other by respectively connecting to two sides of the perpendicular connecting section. Therefore, the body and the upper cover of the portable electronic device (such as a cellular phone, PDA, etc.) have no raised parts formed thereon such that the appearance of the portable electronic device can be smoother and thus increase the competitiveness and value.  
         [0045]     2. Utilizing the structure of the bi-directional and dual-axis hinge, the portable electronic device only needs an indentation at the corresponding corners of the body and the upper cover for coupling the dual-axis hinge such that the installation, molding, manufacture, or fabrication of the body and the upper cover are much easier without adding unnecessary fabricating cost.  
         [0046]     3. The entire electronic product has no any raised part, thereby avoiding damage of raised parts in long-term operation and thus removing operation inconvenience from consumers.  
         [0047]     4. The dual-axis hinge has the circuit cavity for the transmission circuit to pass through and the concave ring portions for the transmission circuit to loop around, such that when the transmission circuit connects with the body and the upper cover, it is not only hidden but also able to increase space to move, granting the electronic products more durability and avoiding wear and breakage in long-term operation.  
         [0048]     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.