Patent Publication Number: US-2012044617-A1

Title: Panel module with simplified supporting structure and portable electronic apparatus therewith

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a panel module and a portable electronic apparatus therewith and especially relates to a panel module with a simplified supporting structure and a portable electronic apparatus therewith. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     As the technology of manufacturing display panels improves, the size of the display panel becomes larger and larger. The stiffness provided by only a panel plastic frame is insufficient obviously for the whole panel with layer structure. Therefore, the plastic frame nowadays supporting an LCD panel and a backlight panel is often added with a metal frame, which not only strengthens the fixity between the panels and the plastic frame but also enhance the stiffness of the whole panel module. During assembling the panel module to an electronic apparatus, a bracket consisting of two independent connection parts is required to connect two sides of the metal frame and a casing of the electronic apparatus, so as to achieve the purpose of fixing the panel module in the electronic apparatus. 
     Obviously, the panel module nowadays uses two independent members to satisfy the requirements of the stiffness and the fixity of the whole panel module. The design thereof can simplify the complexity of single component, but the quantity of components and the manufacturing cost thereof increase. Furthermore, as the quantity of the components increases, the failure modes for products also increase, which is disadvantageous to monitoring the assembly processes and improving the product yield. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An objective of the invention is to provide a panel module, whose supporting structure is simplified and uses fewer components than the prior art to achieve the required fixity and structure stiffness of the panel module. 
     The panel module is disposed in an electronic apparatus such as a portable electronic apparatus. The panel module includes a frame and a bracket. The frame includes a reverse U-shaped passage. The bracket includes a reverse U-shaped body and a plurality of fixing parts connected to the reverse U-shaped body. The reverse U-shaped body is accommodated in the reverse U-shaped passage. The fixing parts protrude out of the frame. The panel module is disposed on a casing of the electronic apparatus by the fixing parts. 
     The bracket used by the panel module shows to be reverse U-shaped and can provide a certain degree of structure stiffness; on the contrary, such effect does not appear on the two independent connection parts in the prior art. Therefore, the bracket of the panel module can be joined to the frame directly to provide the required structure stiffness for the frame without the metal frame in the prior art. Obviously, the panel module of the invention use fewer components to achieve the required fixity and structure stiffness, which reduces the manufacturing cost of the components and is conducive to simplification on the assembly and improvement on the assembly quality. 
     Another objective of the invention is to provide a portable electronic apparatus equipped with the panel module of the invention. The portable electronic apparatus includes a casing. The panel module is fixed on the casing by the fixing parts. Similarly, the portable electronic apparatus also has the above-mentioned advantages of the panel module, which are not to be repeated more. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a portable electronic apparatus of a preferred embodiment according to the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a partial exploded diagram of the panel module in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a cross-section diagram of apart of the panel module in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of a panel module of another embodiment according to the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1  which is a schematic diagram of a portable electronic apparatus  1  of a preferred embodiment according to the invention. The portable electronic apparatus  1  is a notebook computer; however, the invention is not limited to this. The portable electronic apparatus  1  includes a casing  12  which includes an upper casing  122 , a lower casing  124 , and a hinge  126 . The hinge  126  connects the upper casing  122  and a lower casing  124  so that the upper casing  122  and the lower casing  124  can rotate relatively. The portable electronic apparatus  1  also includes a panel module  14 , a processing module  16 , and an input module  18 . The panel module  14  is disposed in the upper casing  122 . The processing module  16  and the input module  18  are disposed in the lower casing  124 . The processing module  16  is electrically connected to the input module  18  and the panel module  14 . Thereby, a user can perform input through the input module  18  on the portable electronic apparatus  1 , and the processing module  16  can control the panel module  14  to display and response the input by the user. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 2  is a partial exploded diagram of the panel module  14  in  FIG. 1 , and the upper casing  122  connected to the panel module  14  is shown in dashed lines.  FIG. 3  is a cross-section diagram of a part of the panel module  14  in  FIG. 1 . The panel module  14  includes a frame  142 , a bracket  144 , and a display panel  146 . The frame  142  includes a reverse U-shaped passage  1422  at the fringe portion thereof. A plurality of through holes  1424  are formed at side surfaces of the frame  142  to communicate with the reverse U-shaped passage  1422 . The display panel  146  includes an LCD panel  1462  and a backlight panel  1464  (please referring to  FIG. 3 ) and is fixed on the frame  142 . The bracket  144  includes a reverse U-shaped body  1442  and a plurality of fixing parts  1444  and  1445  connected to the reverse U-shaped body  1442 . The reverse U-shaped body  1442  thereon forms a plurality of threaded holes  1446  corresponding to the through holes  1424 . The reverse U-shaped body  1442  is accommodated in the reverse U-shaped passage  1422 . For each of the through holes  1424 , a screw  1448  passes through the through hole  1424  from the outside of the frame  142  to be screwed into the corresponding threaded hole  1446 . Therefore, the reverse U-shaped body  1442  is fixed on the frame  142  by the screws  1448 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . In the embodiment, the frame  142  forms relief spaces  1426  at portions corresponding to the through holes  1424  so that protruded portions of the screws  1448  after screwed in the threaded holes  1446  can be accommodated in; however, the invention is not limited to this. For example, the length of the screw  1448  can be designed not to protrude out of the reverse U-shaped body  1442  after the screw  1448  is screwed in the threaded hole  1446 . In addition, the reverse U-shaped body  1442  in the embodiment can be formed by bending a plate material . The threaded holes  1446  can be formed with a length larger than the thickness of the plate material by way of drawing, punching, threading, so as to enhance the strength and stability of the fixing by the screws  1448 . At this case, the above relief spaces need to be reserved. 
     Furthermore, as shown in  FIG. 2 , the fixing part  1444  and  1445  protrudes out of the frame  142  and are fixed on fixing pillars  1222  of the upper casing  122 , for example by screws. Thereby, the panel module  14  is disposed on the cupper casing  122  of the portable electronic apparatus  1  through the fixing parts  1444  and  1445 . In addition, in the embodiment, the rotatable mechanism and the supporting structure are realized on the upper casing  122  and the lower casing  124  through the hinge  126 . The panel module  14  fixed on the upper casing  122  rotates together with the upper casing  122 , so the fixing part  1445  of the panel module  14  can be also fixed on a side of the hinge  126  for enhancing the stability of the upper casing  122  and the panel module  14  during rotating. 
     It is added that, in the embodiment, the frame  142  is made of engineering plastic and the bracket  144  is made of metal; however, the invention is not limited to this. The reverse U-shaped body  1442  thereon can form a strengthened structure for enhancing the stiffness of its structure, for example by forming rib structures at bended portions. The above embodiment is demonstrated by a notebook, but the invention is also applied to tablet computer. For the latter case, the portable electronic apparatus includes a single casing in principle. All components are disposed in the casing. The input module of the portable electronic apparatus is a touch panel and integrated into the panel module thereof; that is, the panel module provides the functions of displaying and inputting simultaneously. 
     In addition, in the above embodiment, the reverse U-shaped passage  1422  for accommodating the bracket  144  is a slot passage, so that the reverse U-shaped body  1442  can be placed downward into the reverse U-shaped passage  1422 . However, in practice, the reverse U-shaped passage  1422  is not limited to a slot passage. Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a schematic diagram of a panel module  14  of another embodiment according to the invention. For the panel module  14  in  FIG. 4 , in logic, the reverse U-shaped passage  1423  is a through hole with rectangle section, which the reverse U-shaped body  1442  is accommodated in. The reverse U-shaped passage  1423  only needs to form openings at portions for the fixing parts  1444  and  1445  to protrude in principle, and the other portions encapsulates the reverse U-shaped body  1442 . Thereby, the purpose of jointing the bracket  144  and the frame  142  can be achieved without the fixing by screws, and the enough strength and stability of the jointing is also provided. In practical manufacturing, the above structure can be realized by insert molding. In this casing, the section of the bracket  144  can be any shape to enhance the geometric constraint between the bracket  144  and the frame  142 . 
     Based on the above explanation, the panel module of the invention uses the reverse U-shaped bracket which itself has a certain degree of stiffness and also uses the reverse U-shaped passage of the frame to accommodate the bracket. It makes the bracket and the frame jointed tightly. The bracket is used to provide the stiffness required by the frame (and the panel with layer structure fixed thereon) and is also used to fix the whole panel module in the electronic apparatus through the fixing parts of the bracket. Therefore, the reverse U-shaped bracket of the invention cannot be replaced individually with either the metal frame or the bracket for connecting and fixing in the prior art. In other words, the invention uses a single member to achieve the effect by at least two components in the prior art, which not only reduces the manufacturing cost of components but also is conducive to simplification on the assembly and improvement on the assembly quality. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.