Missing part checking structure

A structure is provided for checking a missing part in an electric device with an accommodation space for an electric component (6) and an exterior cover (11) to close the space. The structure includes cover male screws (12a, 12b) and base members (4A, 4B) which are detachably fixed in the accommodation space, on which the electric component (6) is inseparably fixed, and which include cover female screws (8a, 8b, 9a, 9b) receiving the cover male screws (12a, 12b) to detachably fix the exterior cover (11). When one of the base members (4A, 4B) with the electric component (6) is removed from the accommodation space, the exterior cover (11) is unfixable to the electric device.

TECHNICAL ART

The present invention relates to a structure to checking a missing part, more particularly to a structure to externally checking whether or not a collected machine is usable for a recycled product.

TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Electronic machinery manuracturers have been promoting recycling by collecting their used products to recover reusable ones. There are two ways to collect used products; one is that users directly send used products to a collection facility and the other is that users send them to business offices of local distributors which temporarily store the used products and send various kinds of used products to a collection facility together. Then, the collection facility determines reusability of collected products and delivers non-reusable products to a recycling facility to destroy them while delivering reusable products to a reproduction facility. These collected products, however, may include defective products lacking some components which have been removed by users before disposal for their own purposes. This may cause a problem that the reproduction facility needs to spend a lot of time and resource to find reproducible products from the collected products.

Meanwhile, in order for manuracturers to continuously promote the environmental conservation, cost efficiency is an important factor. In view of achieving satisfiable cost performance, there is a need for a device or a method which can cost-efficiently check missing components in collected products. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-69811 (Reference 1) discloses a device which allows a collector to easily find that a collected machine is a recycled product from the exterior thereof. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-347899 (Reference 2) discloses an electronic substrate mounting structure of an electrophotographic imaging device which achieves a reduced number of screws by concurrently releasing fastening of an occasionally detached component such as an exterior cover and an electric wave shield cover. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-211484 (Reference 3) discloses system and method of checking a missing component and an assembly error by an inspection program which is boosted according to a manipulation to a keycap in a production process for assembling in the same production line a complex machine which comprises a plurality of functions of copying, facsimile, printing and the like, a controller executing the functions, a panel with keycaps to be manipulated by users for execution of the respective functions.

However, the device in Reference 1 is intended for determining whether a collected machine is a reproduced machine and determining an outer condition of the machine but not for determining if there is a missing part inside the machine. Also, the substrate mounting structure in Reference 2 has features in the reduced number of screws but it cannot check if there is a missing part inside a collected machine. Further, the system in Reference 3 can check a missing component and an assembly error by boosting an inspection program according to a manipulation to a keycap but has a problem in terms of cost efficiency and checkup sustainability since buildup of the system requires a great amount of money and a checkup of a missing part is not feasible without turning on the machine. Moreover, turning on the machine without knowing its internal condition may cause a problem such as short-circuit.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an electric device (for example, an image generation device) which comprises a cost-effective mechanism to check a missing component without being powered on, in order for manuracturers to provide reproduced products to make continuous contribution to the environmental conservation.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a missing part checking structure is mounted in an electric device having an accommodation space for a main component and an exterior cover to close the accommodation space, to allow presence or absence of the main component to be checked from exterior of the electric device. The structure is configured to include a fastening member; a base member which is detachably fixed in the accommodation space, on which the main component is inseparably fixed, and which comprises a receive portion receiving the fastening member to detachably fasten the exterior cover with the fastening member, in which when the base member together with the main component is removed from the accommodation space, the exterior cover is configured to be unfixable to the electric device.

In one features of this aspect, the fastening member is a male screw and the receive portion is a female screw into which the male screw is screwed.

In the other features of this aspect, the missing part checking structure is configured to further include a first stick member standing on the base member, in which the receive portion is provided at one end of the first stick member.

In the other features of this aspect, the missing part checking structure is configured to further include a second stick member standing on the base member, in which the exterior cover comprises a hole through which the fastening member passes to be fitted into the receive portion, and an opening from which an end portion of the second stick member protrudes.

In the other features of this aspect, the end portion of the second stick member is different in color from the exterior cover.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it is to be understood that components, and types, combinations, shapes thereof, and their relative positions in the following embodiments are only illustrative and exemplary of the present invention and is made merely for the purpose of providing a full and enabling disclosure of the invention.

A structure of the present invention is configured to check whether or not a main component is removed from inside of an electric device according to presence or absence of a screw to fasten an exterior cover and/or a predetermined indication, with the exterior cover attached. The following embodiments will describe an example in which two base members each with a printed circuit board5(main component) undetachably mounted by rivets are provided in a housing, for the sake of simplicity. The structure is configured that in order to detach the printed circuit board on purpose, the base member need be concurrently detached.

FIGS. 1A to 1Cshow an assembly of each component of a structure100according to a first embodiment. A top view ofFIG. 1Ais a plain view of a housing and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along a C-C line. A top view ofFIG. 1Bis a plain view of the housing to which a base member is attached and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along an A-A line. A top view ofFIG. 1Cis a plain view of the housing to which an exterior cover is attached after the base member is detached and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along a B-B line. The top view ofFIG. 1Ashows a housing1which is surrounded by a frame1aand has base female screws2ato2d,3ato3din a bottom portion1bto fix base members4A,4B (top view ofFIG. 1B). The housing1is made of a metal member such as aluminum or an iron plate, therefore, it is easy to form the base female screws in the bottom portion1bby tapping.

Next, the top view ofFIG. 1Bshows the base members4A and4B to which a printed circuit board5is fixed with rivets7. An electronic component6is mounted on the printed circuit board5in advance. In order to attach the base member4A to the housing1, cover female screws (receive portion)8a,8bare disposed in alignment with through holes11c,11dof the exterior cover11. Then, to fasten the base member4A, a base male screw2A is screwed into the base female screw2a, a base male screw2B is screwed into the base female screw2b, a base male screw2C is screwed into the base female screw2c, and a base male screw2D is screwed into the base female screw2d. Similarly, in order to attach the base member4B to the housing1, cover female screws9a,9bare disposed in alignment with through holes11b,11aof the exterior cover11. Then, to fasten the base member4B, a base male screw3A is screwed into the base female screw3a, a base male screw3B is screwed into the base female screw3b, a base male screw3C is screwed into the base female screw3c, and a base male screw3D is screwed into the base female screw3d. Now, the base members4A,4B are fixed to the housing1with the four base male screws and the cover female screws8a,8b,9a,9bare positioned in the four corners of inside the frame1a. The printed circuit boards5are mounted over the base member4A,4B via spacers10. The first embodiment uses the rivets7to fix the printed circuit boards5. However, the printed circuit boards5can be fixed by an adhesive or in other manners.

Then, as shown in the top view ofFIG. 1C, the exterior cover11is placed on the housing1to cover it. The exterior cover11is configured to include the through holes11ato11dthrough which four cover male screws (fastening member)12are inserted. The cover female screws8a,8b,9a,9bare disposed in alignment with the through holes11ato11dso that the cover male screws12are screwed into the cover female screws8a,8b,9a,9b. Next, the housing1without the base member4A will be described, for example. In the bottom view ofFIG. 1C, a cover male screw12ais screwed into the cover female screw9b, and a cover male screw12bis screwed into the cover female screw9a. However, without the base member4A, the cover female screws8a,8bfor the through holes11c,11dof the exterior cover11are absent so that the two other cover male screws cannot be screwed into the cover female screw8a,8b. Accordingly, the two other cover male screws are missing in the through holes11c,11d. Thus, a removal of the base member is recognizable from exterior of the electric device.

FIGS. 2A to 2Cshow an assembly of each component of a structure110according to a second embodiment. A top view ofFIG. 2Ais a plain view of a housing and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along a C-C line. A top view ofFIG. 2Bis a plain view of the housing to which a base member is attached and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along an A-A line. A top view ofFIG. 2Cis a plain view of the housing to which an exterior cover is attached after the base member is detached and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along a B-B line. The same components as those inFIGS. 1A to 1Cwill be given the same numeric codes.

The structure110inFIG. 2AtoFIG. 2Cis different from that inFIGS. 1A to 1Cin including female stick screws (stick member)13to16which pass through through holes11ato11dto be screwed with four cover male screws. As in the top view ofFIG. 2B, a printed circuit board5is fixed to each of base members4A,4B by rivets7. An electronic component6is mounted on the printed circuit board5in advance. In order to fix the base member4A to a housing1, cover female screws8a,8bare disposed in alignment with the through holes11c,11dof the exterior cover11, respectively. Then, to fasten the base member4A, a base male screw2A is screwed into a base female screw2a, a base male screw2B is screwed into a base female screw2b, a base male screw2C is screwed into a base female screw2c, and a base male screw2D is screwed into a base female screw2d. Similarly, in order to fix the base member4B to the housing1, cover female screws9a,9bare disposed in alignment with through holes11b,11aof the exterior cover11, respectively. Then, to fasten the base member4B, a base male screw3A is screwed into a base female screw3a, a base male screw3B is screwed into a base female screw3b, a base male screw3C is screwed into a base female screw3c, and a base male screw3D is screwed into a base female screw3d. Thereby, the base members4A,4B are each fixed to the housing1with the four base male screws, and the cover female screw8a,8b,9a,9bare placed in the four corners of the frame1a. In the second embodiment, the female stick screws (first stick member)13to16stand in the cover female screws8a,8b,9a,9bto reach the through holes11ato11dof the exterior cover11. Further, female end screws13ato16aare provided at the respective ends of the female stick screws13to16. Cover male screws are screwed into the female end screws13ato16ato fix the exterior cover11. The printed circuit boards5are mounted over the base members4A,4B by spacers10. The second embodiment uses the rivets7to fix the printed circuit boards5. However, the printed circuit boards5can be fixed by an adhesive or in other manners.

Then, as shown in the top view ofFIG. 2C, the exterior cover11is placed on the housing1to cover it. The exterior cover11is configured to include the through holes11ato11dthrough which the four cover male screws are inserted. The female stick screws13to16are disposed in alignment with the through holes11ato11d. Cover male screws17,18are screwed into the female end screws13a,14aof the female screws13,14, respectively. Next, the housing1without the base member4A will be described, for example. In the bottom view ofFIG. 2C, the cover male screw17is screwed into the female end screw13a, and the cover male screw18is screwed into the female end screw14a. However, without the base member4A, the female stick screws15,16for the through holes11c,11dof the exterior cover11are absent so that the two other cover male screws cannot be screwed into the female end screws15a,16a. Accordingly, the two other cover male screws are absent in the through holes11c,11d. Thus, a removal of the base member is recognizable from exterior of the electric device.

FIGS. 3A to 3Cshow an assembly of each component of a structure120according to a third embodiment. A top view ofFIG. 3Ais a plain view of a housing and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along a C-C line. A top view ofFIG. 3Bis a plain view of the housing to which a base member is attached and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along an A-A line. A top view ofFIG. 3Cis a plain view of the housing to which an exterior cover is attached after the base member is detached and a bottom view thereof is a cross section of the housing along a B-B line. The same components as those inFIGS. 1A to 1Cwill be given the same numeric codes.

The structure120inFIG. 3AtoFIG. 3Cis different from that inFIGS. 1A to 1Cin including openings11aato11ddin the exterior cover11in addition to through holes11eto11hand stick members (second stick member)20to23which stand on the base member4A,4B and whose ends protrude through the openings11aato11dd. As in the top view ofFIG. 3B, printed circuit boards5each with an electronic component6mounted thereon are fixed to base members4A,4B by rivets7. In order to fix the base member4A to a housing1, the stick members22,23and cover female screws26,27are disposed in alignment with the openings11cc,11ddand the through holes11e,11fof the exterior cover11, respectively. Then, to fasten the base member4A, a base male screw2A is screwed into a base female screw2a, a base male screw2B is screwed into a base female screw2b, a base male screw2C is screwed into a base female screw2c, and a base male screw2D is screwed into a base female screw2d. Similarly, in order to fix the base member4B to the housing1, the stick members20,21and cover female screws24,25are disposed in alignment with the openings11aa,11bband the through holes11g,11hof the exterior cover11, respectively. Then, to fasten the base member4B, a base male screw3A is screwed into a base female screw3a, a base male screw3B is screwed into a base female screw3b, a base male screw3C is screwed into a base female screw3c, and a base male screw3D is screwed into a base female screw3d. Thereby, the base members4A,4B are each fixed to the housing1with the four base male screws, and the stick members20to23are placed in the four corners of the frame1a. In the third embodiment, to fix the exterior cover11, the stick members20to23stand in the cover female screws8a,8b,9a,9bto reach the openings11aato11ddof the exterior cover11, and four cover male screws (28,29inFIG. 3C) are screwed into the cover female screws24to27. The printed circuit boards5are mounted over the base members4A,4B by spacers10. The third embodiment uses the rivets7to fix the printed circuit boards5. However, the printed circuit boards5can be fixed by an adhesive or in other manners.

Then, as shown in the top view ofFIG. 3C, the exterior cover11is placed on the housing1to cover it. The exterior cover11is configured to include the openings11aato11ddthrough which the stick members are inserted. The stick members are disposed in alignment with the openings11aato11dd. Next, the housing1without the base member4A will be described. In the bottom view ofFIG. 3C, the stick member20is screwed into the cover female screw9b, and the stick member21is screwed into the cover female screw9a. However, without the base member4A, the stick members22,23corresponding to the openings11cc,11ddand the cover female screws26,27corresponding to the through holes11e,11fof the exterior cover11are absent so that the ends of the stick members cannot protrude from the openings11cc,11ddof the exterior cover11and the two corresponding cover male screws cannot be screwed. Accordingly, the cover male screws are absent in the openings11cc,11dd. Thus, a removal of the base member is instantly recognizable from exterior of the electric device. In addition, the ends (20a,21ainFIG. 3C) of the stick members can be formed in different colors from the exterior cover11. This can facilitate visual checking.

FIG. 4shows an example of a collected electric device (such as a copier, a printer, or a facsimile machine) comprising the structure according to any one of the first to third embodiments. A back cover31and a side cover32are attached to a housing30with cover male screws33,34, respectively. In a case where the back cover31is opened on purpose to detach a printed circuit board5or the like from inside and then the back cover31is put into the original place, cover female screws corresponding to cover male screws passing through through holes33a,33bare absent so that the corresponding male screws cannot be fastened, for example. Accordingly, without turning on the electric device, it is possible to visually determine from outside that the collected device is not suitable for reproduction.

As described above, the structure according to the prevent invention is configured not to be able to detach a main component from a base member. In order to remove the main component, the base member needs to be detached concurrently. Without the base member, it is not possible to fasten the exterior cover with male screws so that a removal of the main component can be easily determined from outside of the structure.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it is not limited thereto. It should be appreciated that variations may be made in the embodiments described by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.