Patent Publication Number: US-2012025435-A1

Title: Spring and spring assembly

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application claims priority and benefits of Chinese Patent Application No. 200920131261.1 filed with State Intellectual Property Office of China on Apr. 30, 2009, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention is related to a spring and a spring assembly, particularly to a spring and spring assembly applied to mobile terminal slide driving module. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     With improvements of the standards of living, in recent years, mobile terminals, such as cell phone, individual palmtop computer, enrich human&#39;s life and become indispensable to living. In order to bring people convenience and pleasure, the structure designs of mobile terminals are more and more diversified, and the general structure designs of the mobile terminals include straight board type, sliding cover type and double cover type. For the sliding cover type design, the sliding cover of the mobile terminal is generally opened semi-automatically. That is, when the user of a mobile terminal pushes the sliding cover by a predetermined distance, the sliding cover is able to automatically slide to its open or close position. Convenient carrying and thinning has become the trend of designs of mobile terminals. 
     For the sliding cover structure, a spring as an important driven member is used very widely.  FIGS. 11A and 11B  show a conventional torsion spring widely used in the mobile terminals. Because the torsion spring is wound in a spiral way, during elastic deformation, a plurality of arc segments of the torsion spring deform, in which the stress is uniform, the spring strength is high and the life time of the spring is long. However, in the main deformation area, the spring wire is not located in the same plane. In the thickness direction, the thickness of the spring is thicker than the diameter of the spring wire, which is disadvantageous for the thinning of the driving module, and thereby obstructing the thinning of the mobile terminal. Meanwhile, the driving distance of the conventional torsion spring is too short so that the torsion spring is not suitable for the driving module having a long driving distance. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to solve the above problems in the prior art. 
     Accordingly, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spring which may reduce the stress concentration therein and realizes thinning thereof. 
     The spring according to the first aspect of the invention comprises a first end, a second end, and a spring main body between the first end and the second end, in which the spring main body comprises a compression spring portion and a torsion spring portion, and is substantially located in a same plane. 
     In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spring assembly comprising at least two springs assembled by securing their corresponding ends together, in which each of the at least two springs is the spring constructed according to the first aspect of the present invention. 
     With the spring of the present invention, the compression and torsion spring portions are combined. A plurality of segments of the spring deforms during deformation of the spring, the stress is allocated among the plurality of segments and the spring life is increased. In addition, the spring thickness may be reduced, which is advantageous for thinning of the spring driving module and mobile terminal. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a front view of the spring according to embodiment 1 of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the spring assembly according to embodiment 1 of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a front view of the spring assembly in an assembled state shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  is an exploded view of the spring assembly according to embodiment 2 of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a front view of the spring assembly in an assembled state shown in  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 6  is a front view of the spring according to embodiment 2 of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a front view of the spring according to embodiment 3 of the present invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic view of the spring driving module in use state 1 using the spring according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 9  is a schematic view of the spring driving module in use state 2 using the spring according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 10  is a schematic view of the spring driving module in use state 3 using the spring according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 11A  is a perspective view of a conventional spring. 
         FIG. 11B  is a side view of the spring shown in  FIG. 11A . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION 
     Reference will be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention. The embodiments described herein with reference to drawings are explanatory, illustrative, and used to generally understand the present invention. The embodiments shall not be construed to limit the present invention. The same or similar elements and the elements having same or similar functions are denoted by like reference numerals throughout the descriptions. 
     As show in  FIG. 1 , a spring  1  according to embodiment 1 of the present invention comprises a first end  101 , a spring main body and a second end  102 . The spring main body comprises a compression spring portion a and a torsion spring portion b, and the spring is located in the same one plane. More particularly, the compression spring portion a comprises a straight segment  114 , an arc segment  113 , a straight segment  112  which are connected in turn. The torsion spring portion b comprises a straight segment  110 , an arc segment  109 , a straight segment  108 , an arc segment  107 , and an arc segment  106  connected in turn. The compression spring portion a is connected with the torsion spring portion b via an arc segment  111 . By connecting the compression spring portion a and the torsion spring portion b so as to form the spring main body of the spring, a plurality of deformable arc segments are formed in some small areas of the spring. When the spring elastically deforms, a plurality of arc segments  113 ,  111 ,  109 ,  107 ,  106  deform to allocate stress of the spring, thus reducing the stress in each arc segment and increasing the spring life. In addition, due to all parts of the spring are substantially in the same one plane, the thickness of the spring is equal to the diameter of a spring wire of the spring, so that the thickness of the spring is reduced and the spring is advantageous for thinning the elastic driving module used in the mobile terminals. By using the compression spring portion, the operating range of the spring is increased, which is suitable for the spring driving module requiring a long driving range. 
     As show in  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 , a spring assembly  100  according to embodiment 2 of the present invention is provided. The spring assembly  100  is formed by welding a plurality of springs described in the above embodiment 1 of the present invention. More particularly, the spring assembly  100  is formed by welding the corresponding ends of the springs together. In other words, the first ends of the springs are welded together and the second ends of the springs are welded together. Except for the ends, the other parts of the springs are separated from each other. In order to improve assembly performance, two bearings  118  and  115  are welded in the two ends of the spring assembly  100  respectively. 
     As show in  FIG. 3 , in the embodiment 1 of the present invention, the torsion spring portion b has a substantial S-shape. the main axis b 1  of the torsion spring portion b is at an angle to a line connecting the center of the first and second ends  101 ,  102  of the spring, and the angle is about 90 degree, such as 93 degree in  FIG. 3 , so that the arc segments deform more sufficiently during elastically deforming of the spring, thus allocating stress to each arc segment so as to increase the spring life. 
       FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5  show a spring assembly  200  according to embodiment 2 of the present invention. The spring assembly  200  is formed by welding two ends of three springs  220 ,  221  and  222  together. Each of the springs  220 ,  221  and  222  comprises a compression spring c and a torsion spring d. The axis d 2  of S-shaped torsion spring portion d of the spring is at an angle in a range 0-90 degree to the line c 2  connecting the center of the two ends of the spring. The spring forming the spring assembly  200  of embodiment 2 is easier to manufacture, with comparison to that the stress is allocated more uniformly in the spring forming the spring assembly  100  of embodiment 1. The aforementioned embodiments are only exemplary, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the angle formed by the axis of S-shape torsion spring portion and the line connecting the two ends of the spring is not limited to the range of 0-90 degree, as long as the torsion spring portion and the compression spring portion are in the same one plane. 
       FIG. 6  shows a spring  300  according to embodiment 3 of the present invention. The spring  300  comprises a first end, a first torsion spring portion e, a compression spring portion f, a second torsion spring portion g and a second end which are connected in turn. 
       FIG. 7  shows a spring  400  according to embodiment  4  of the present invention. The spring  400  comprises a first end, a torsion spring portion h, several compression spring portions i, and a second end which are connected in turn. 
     The use states of the spring assembly will be described with reference to  FIGS. 8 ,  9 , and  10  hereinafter. A rivet is fitted in each of two bearings disposed in each end of the spring assembly  25 . The two ends of the spring assembly  25  are secured to a first sliding plate  26  and a second sliding plate  24  of a sliding mechanism respectively. The rivet is pivotable relative to the bearing, but the rivet can not pivot or slide relative to the first and second sliding plates  24 ,  26 , and at this position, the spring assembly  25  is slightly compressed to ensure the first and second sliding plates  26 ,  24  in a relatively static state at the initial position, as shown in  FIG. 8 . An external force is needed to apply to the first sliding plate  26  in order to move the first sliding plate  26  relative to the second sliding plate  24 . 
     Under applying the external force to the first sliding plate  26 , the first sliding plate  26  is slid relative to the second sliding plate  26  from the position shown in  FIG. 8  to the position shown in  FIG. 9 . During this, the spring assembly  25  stores energy, and the deformation of the spring becomes bigger gradually. 
     During the first sliding plate  26  sliding from the position shown in  FIG. 9  to the position shown in  FIG. 10 , it is not required to apply an external force to the first sliding plate  26 , because the spring assembly  25  may constantly release energy so as to move the first sliding plate  26 , so that the first sliding plate  26  may automatically slide relative to the second sliding plate  24 . The deformation of the spring will become less gradually because of the spring assembly  25  constantly releases energy. 
     With the embodiments of the present invention, the compression spring portion and the torsion spring portion are combined in the spring. Compared with conventional spring only comprising a compression spring portion, the deformed arc segments are increased, which is advantageous for allocating stress and thereby increasing the spring life. In addition, compared with conventional spring only comprising a torsion spring portion, the thickness of the spring is reduced, which is advantageous for thinning of spring driving module and the mobile terminals using the spring driving module. 
     Although explanatory embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes, alternatives, and modifications can be made in the embodiments without departing from spirit and principles of the invention. Such changes, alternatives, and modifications all fall into the scope of the claims and their equivalents.