Electric hinge device and office equipment, etc. using the same

Abstract

To downsize an electric hinge device that opens and closes an opening / closing body such as office equipment, etc.SOLUTION: The present invention is constituted by a hinge unit and an electric unit for driving the hinge unit. The hinge unit is constituted by an attachment member which is attached to at least the equipment body side of the office equipment, etc., a support member which is attached to the attachment member so as to be rotatable via a hinge shaft and attached to the opening / closing body, and elastic means for swingably biasing the support member in the opening direction of the opening / closing body. The electric unit is constituted by a drive motor which is attached to the equipment body side in adjacency to the attachment member, and driving force transmission means for transmitting the driving force of the drive motor to the support member. The driving force transmission means has its one end side fixedly attached to the revolving shaft of the drive motor and the other end side connected to the free end side of the support member.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an electric hinge device suitable for use in automatically opening and closing an opening / closing body that is openably and closably attached to office equipment such as copiers and printers, furniture such as cabinets, or machine tools (hereinafter, all three devices will be referred to as office equipment, etc.), and to office equipment, etc. that uses this electric hinge device. [Background technology]

[0002] Among office machines, copying machines, printers, and other such machines have a contact glass for reading documents on the top surface of the machine body, and an original cover is used to cover the top surface of the contact glass and press the document placed on the contact glass onto the contact glass. An example of an electric hinge device for automatically opening and closing this original cover is described in Patent Document 1 below. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2009-122141 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The electric hinge device described in Patent Document 1 has a support member attached to an original cover, which is rotatably attached via a hinge shaft to a mounting member attached to the device body, and the rotational driving force is transmitted to the hinge shaft via a drive motor, which requires a motor with a relatively large rotational torque. Furthermore, the use of multiple gears as a driving force transmission mechanism results in problems such as an increased device size and high manufacturing costs. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electric hinge device that does not use a driving force transmission mechanism using multiple gears and can function sufficiently even with a small motor with a relatively small rotational torque, as well as office equipment and the like that use this electric hinge device. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] In order to solve the above problem, the electric hinge device of claim 1 of the present invention is an electric hinge device that connects an opening / closing body to a main body of an apparatus such as an office machine so that it can be opened and closed, and is composed of a hinge unit and an electric unit that drives the hinge unit, and the hinge unit is composed of an attachment member that is attached to at least the main body side of the apparatus such as the office machine, a support member that is rotatably attached to the attachment member via a hinge shaft and attached to the opening / closing body side, and an elastic means that urges the support member to rotate in the opening direction of the opening / closing body, and the electric unit is composed of a drive motor that is attached adjacent to the attachment member on the main body side of the apparatus, and a drive force transmission means that transmits the drive force of the drive motor to the support member, and the drive force transmission means is composed of a connecting member that is fixedly attached at one end to the rotating shaft of the drive motor and connected at the other end to the free end side of the support member.

[0006] Furthermore, the electric hinge device described in claim 2 of the present application is characterized in that the connecting member is formed by overlapping a plurality of connecting plates.

[0007] Furthermore, the electric hinge device described in claim 3 of the present application is characterized in that the connecting member has one end side rotatably attached to a drive shaft attached to the free end side of the support member.

[0008] Furthermore, the electric hinge device described in claim 4 of the present application is characterized in that the drive shaft is fixedly attached to the support member, and the connecting member is rotatably connected to the drive shaft.

[0009] Furthermore, the electric hinge device described in claim 5 of the present application is characterized in that the drive shaft is rotatably attached to the support member, and the connecting member is fixedly attached to the drive hinge shaft.

[0010] The office equipment and the like described in claim 6 of the present application is characterized by using each of the electric hinge devices. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] The electric hinge device of the present invention is configured so that the support member is rotated by rotating the free end of the support member rather than by rotating the hinge shaft. This allows a small drive motor to be used in the electric unit, and does not require multiple drive gears to transmit driving force from the electric unit to the hinge unit, thereby significantly reducing manufacturing costs compared to conventional known devices. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a perspective view schematically showing a copying machine, which is an example of an office machine using an electric hinge device according to the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the electric hinge device shown in FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a partially exploded perspective view of the electric hinge device shown in FIG. 2. [Figure 4]4(d) is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 4(b). [Figure 5] 3A and 3B are explanatory diagrams illustrating the rotational bias applied to the support member by the elastic means of the electric hinge device shown in FIG. 2, where (a) is a plan view of the electric hinge device, (b) is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB of (a), (c) is a cross-sectional view of the support member in the opened state from the state of (b), and (d) is a cross-sectional view of the support member in the previous state from the state of (c). [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating torque generated by a hinge unit. [Figure 7] 10A and 10B are explanatory diagrams illustrating a method of attaching the hinge unit and the electric unit. [Figure 8] 1A, 1B, and 1C show an electric hinge device according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a plan view thereof, FIG. 1B is a front view thereof, and FIG. [Figure 9] 1 is a perspective view of a machine tool using an electric hinge device according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An electric hinge device according to the present invention and an office machine or the like using this electric hinge device will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Example]

[0014] Fig. 1 shows a multifunction peripheral A as an example of an office machine or the like that uses an electric hinge device B according to the present invention. In Fig. 1, the multifunction peripheral A is composed of a device main body A1 and an opening / closing body A2 (document cover) that covers a contact glass A3 provided on the device main body A1. The opening / closing body A2 is connected to the device main body A1 so as to be openable and closable around a first rotation shaft 22a via an electric hinge device B with an electric unit and a hinge device B' without an electric unit. Note that the hinge device B' may also be an electric hinge device B with an electric unit.

[0015] 2 to 8 are diagrams specifically showing an example of an electric hinge device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view showing the hinge unit U1 coupled to the electric unit U2. In FIG. 2, the hinge unit U1 is composed of a mounting portion SU20, a biasing portion SU30 (FIG. 3), and an opening / closing portion SU40. The mounting base 20 (mounting member) constituting the mounting portion SU20 is positioned with respect to the device main body A1 by the main body positioning hole 20j and is screwed through the main body coupling hole 20i. Furthermore, the support member 40 (opening / closing member) constituting the opening / closing portion SU40 is screwed to the opening / closing body A2 by the opening / closing body mounting hole 40e. The support member 40 is supported by the hinge shaft 22 relative to the mounting base 20 so as to be rotatable around the first rotation axis 22a. The support member 40 is biased to rotate in the direction of arrow 22b by the biasing portion SU30, which will be described later using FIG. 5.

[0016] The electric unit U2 is made up of a drive section SU50 and a transmission section SU60. A gear motor 50 constituting the drive section SU50 is connected to the hinge unit U1 by a bracket 52. A driving member 60 constituting a transmission unit SU60 is coupled to an output shaft 50c of the gear motor 50, and a driving shaft 61 (connecting member) provided at the tip of the driving member 60 is connected to the tip of the support member 40.

[0017] FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the hinge unit U1 and the electric unit U2, and the configuration of the hinge unit U1 will be described first.

[0018] [Configuration of Hinge Unit U1] The mounting base 20 is a folded member of a metal plate, such as SUS, made by pressing, and is composed of a base upper plate 20a, base side plates 20b, and base back plate 20d that contain the slide case 21, as well as a base flange 20c that is fixed to the device main body A1. The mounting base 20 is positioned on the device main body A1 by main body positioning holes 20j provided in the base flange 20c, and is screwed together by main body coupling holes 20i.

[0019] The slider case 21 is a folded member made of a metal plate, such as stainless steel, produced by pressing. The slider 30 is held slidably in the direction of arrow 30d by case top plate 21a, case side plates 21b, case back plate 21c, and case holding plate 21d, and a spring 31 sandwiched between spring receiving portion 30b on the back surface of the slider 30 and case back plate 21c is charged. Therefore, the slider 30 is biased in the direction of arrow 31a. The slider 30 and spring 31 constitute a biasing unit SU30, which is an elastic means. A guide portion 21k provided on case top plate 21a faces guide groove 30c of slider 30, and provides a sliding guide between the slider 30 and slider case 21.

[0020] 4(a) to 4(d) are diagrams illustrating the details of the slider case 21, and FIG. 4(a) is a perspective view of the slider case 21 as viewed from the bottom. In FIG. 4(a), the slider case 21 is formed by bending the case top plate 21a to form the case side plate 21b, and the case side plate 21b is further bent to form the case holding plate 21d. As described above, the slider 30 is enclosed within the case top plate 21a, case side plate 21b, and case holding plate 21d.

[0021] The rear end of case top plate 21a is bent to form case back plate 21c, which is then bent again to form case back plate rib 21e (Fig. 4(d)). Because the charging force of spring 31 is constantly applied to case back plate 21c, providing case back plate rib 21e prevents case back plate 21c from bending. Furthermore, case back plate ears 21g (Fig. 4(c)) provided on case back plate 21c fit into case back plate locking holes 21n provided in case side plates 21b (Fig. 4(a)), preventing spring 31 from changing the angle between case back plate 21c and case top plate 21a.

[0022] Case connecting plate 21f, which is bent from case back plate 21c, is in face-to-face contact with case side plate 21b, and side plate case connecting hole 21i of case side plate 21b is aligned with back plate case connecting hole 21p of case connecting plate 21f, and they are joined by pop rivets 26. This prevents the angle between case top plate 21a and case side plate 21b from changing.

[0023] 3, the mounting base 20 and the slider case 21 are joined by matching the case joining hole 20f and the base joining hole 21h with a pop rivet 25. The pop rivet relief hole 20g provided in the base side plate 20b is provided to prevent interference with the pop rivet 26 provided in the slider case 21.

[0024] The support member 40 is made of a pressed, bent metal plate, such as stainless steel, to maintain its strength. It is composed of a bottom frame plate 40a, side frame plates 40b, a back frame plate 40c, and a front frame plate 40d. Back frame lugs 40i on the back frame plate 40c fit into back frame locking holes 40j on the side frame plates 40b, preventing the angle between the back frame plate 40c and the bottom frame plate 40a from changing. The bottom frame plate 40a is also provided with an opening / closing body mounting hole 40e for connecting to the opening / closing body A2.

[0025] A pressure-receiving pin 41 passes through the pressure-receiving pin hole 40f of the frame side plate 40b, and a rotating roller 42 is provided on the outer periphery of the pressure-receiving pin portion 41a. The outer periphery of the pressure-receiving pin bearing portion 41b is fitted into the inner periphery of the pressure-receiving pin bearing member 43. The inner diameter 42a of the rotating roller 42 is fitted into the bearing outer diameter portion 43a of the pressure-receiving pin bearing member 43. The rotating roller 42 abuts against the cam portion 30a of the slider 30.

[0026] The hinge shaft 22 is inserted through the base hinge shaft hole 20e of the base side plate 20b and the case side plate A hinge shaft shaft 22c passes through one side of a case hinge shaft hole 21m in the slider case 21b, and the other side is fitted with the shaft end 22d. A hinge shaft bearing member 23 is provided on the outer periphery of the hinge shaft 22, and the hinge shaft bearing member 23 is fitted with a frame hinge shaft hole 40h in the frame side plate 40b. A hinge shaft collar 24 is provided to maintain a constant distance in the thrust direction between the slider case 21 and the support member 40. This allows the support member 40 to be rotatable about the first rotation axis 22a relative to the mounting base 20.

[0027] Here, we will explain how to assemble the support member 40 into the mounting base 20. As mentioned above, the slider 30 is biased in the direction of arrow 31a, and in this state, the support member 40 cannot be assembled into the slider case 21. Therefore, the slider 30 is pushed to the position shown in FIG. 5(c), and a rod (not shown) is inserted into the assembly holes 20h and 21j provided in the base side plate 20b and the case side plate 21b. As a result, the slider 30 is held down by the rod and cannot protrude to the left of the page in FIG. 5(c). In this state, the hinge shaft 22 is passed through the support member 40, and then the rod is removed from the assembly holes 20h and 21j. By following these steps, the support member 40 can be safely and reliably connected to the mounting base 20.

[0028] [Configuration of electric unit U2] The gear motor 50 is made up of a motor section 50a having a motor rotation shaft 50e that is aligned with the longitudinal direction of the hinge unit U1, and a gear section 50b that converts the direction of the motor rotation shaft 50e to a direction that is aligned with the first rotation shaft 22a. The gear motor 50 and bracket 52 are joined by passing an output shaft 50c through an output shaft hole 52a provided in a motor mounting plate 52e, and by threading a motor mounting screw 54 into a gear motor mounting hole 52b. A drive shaft hole 60b of the drive member 60 is fitted onto the output shaft 50c, and a key 50d provided on the output shaft 50c is fitted into a key groove 60c of the drive shaft hole 60b to restrict rotation. A set collar 51 is connected to the tip of the output shaft 50c with a set screw 51a, thereby reducing backlash in the thrust direction of the drive member 60 relative to the motor output shaft 50c.

[0029] An attachment portion 61b of a drive shaft 61 is connected with an attachment screw 62 to an action shaft hole 60d provided at the tip of an arm piece 60a of the drive member 60. A drive shaft axis 61a of the drive shaft 61 passes through a drive shaft hole 40g of the support member 40, and the bearing portion 61a is inserted into and fixed in the drive shaft hole 40g.

[0030] The joint plate 52f, which is the bent plate portion of the bracket 52, is provided with a base connecting hole 52c and a base positioning hole 52d, which are positioned on the target body together with the through hole 53a of the spacer 53 and the body connecting hole 20i and body positioning hole 20j of the base flange 20c, and are fastened together with the unit connecting screw 63 shown in Figure 7.

[0031] [Adjusting the opening and closing force using the hinge unit U1] Next, adjustment of the opening / closing operation force by the hinge unit U1 will be described with reference to Fig. 5. Fig. 5(a) is a plan view of the hinge unit U1 and the electric unit U2, and Figs. 5(b), (c), and (d) show AA cross-sectional views of the hinge unit U1. Figure 5(b) shows the closed state in which the angle between the support member 40 and the mounting base 20 is 0 degrees, and the slider 30 is urged in the direction of arrow 31a by the charging force of the spring 31. Therefore, the rotary roller 42 and the slider 30 are urged in the direction of arrow 31a by the cam portion 30a, and the support member 40 is urged to rotate in the direction of arrow 22b. Similarly, in the intermediate state (angle of 30 degrees) and the open state (angle of 60 degrees) shown in Figures 5(c) and 5(d), the support member 40 is urged to rotate in the direction of arrow 22b. Therefore, when no external force is applied to the support member 40, the hinge unit U1 is in the form shown in Figure 5(d).

[0032] FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view of the hinge unit U1 connected to the main body A1 and the opening / closing body A2 of the multifunction peripheral A in the open state shown in FIG. 5(d). As described above, the support member 40 is urged to rotate in the direction of arrow 22b. At this time, torque T1 is applied to the opening / closing body A2 in the closing direction due to its own weight. The charging force of the spring 31 and the inclination of the cam portion 30a of the slider 30 are adjusted so that torque T2, the rotational urging force in the direction of arrow 22b, is approximately equal to torque T1. Therefore, in the state shown in FIG. 6, the opening / closing body A2 remains stationary and does not move in the closing direction. At the intermediate angle shown in FIG. 5(c), the closing torque of the opening / closing body A2 resulting from that angle differs from the torque T1. However, the rotational urging force in the direction of arrow 22b is also adjusted by the charging force of the spring 31 and the inclination of the cam portion 30a of the slider 30 at that angle. In this way, the opening / closing body A2 remains stationary regardless of the angle between the opening / closing body A2 and the main body A1.

[0033] [Advantages of combining the electric unit U2 with the hinge unit U1] As explained using FIG. 6, torque T1 of the opening / closing body A2 due to its own weight is cancelled out by torque T2 of the hinge unit U1. Therefore, the electric unit U2 can open and close the opening / closing body A2 with little force. This means that the gear motor 50 constituting the electric unit U2 can be made smaller, and the electric hinge device B can be made more compact. However, as explained in the prior art, when the hinge shaft 22 is rotated directly, it becomes necessary to make the gear larger due to the allowable torque of the gear that transmits the driving force. Therefore, in the present invention, rather than rotating the hinge shaft 22 directly, the tip of the driving member 60 and the tip of the support member 40 are connected to apply the driving force. (The driving shaft 61 is arranged on the side different from the end having the second rotation axis 60e, which is the rotation axis of the driving member 60.)

[0034] [Installing the electric unit U2 to the hinge unit U1] The following describes phase adjustment when connecting the electric unit U2 to the hinge unit U1. As described above, when connecting the support member 40 to the mounting base 20, a rod (not shown) is inserted through the assembly holes 20h and 21j to prevent the biasing force of the slider 30 from being transmitted to the support member 40. In this state, the joint plate 52f of the electric unit U2 is placed on the base flange 20c of the hinge unit U1, and then fastened to the device main body A1 with unit connecting screws through the base connecting hole 52c, through-hole 53a, and main body connecting hole 20i. At this time, the movement of the slider 30 is restricted, allowing the support member 40 to rotate freely. This allows for easy phase adjustment between the drive shaft hole 40g and the drive shaft 61.

[0035] [Regarding the misalignment of the hinge unit U1 and the electric unit U2] 8(a), (b), and (c) are three-view diagrams of the hinge unit U1 coupled to the electric unit U2, and show that the first rotation shaft 22a of the hinge unit U1, which is the first rotation shaft, and the second rotation shaft 60e of the electric unit U2, which is the second rotation shaft, are coaxial. The drive member 60 rotates around the first rotation shaft 22a (coaxial with the second rotation shaft 60e), and the drive shaft 61 provided at the tip opens and closes the support member 40. If the first rotating shaft 22a and the second rotating shaft 60e are misaligned, the drive transmission efficiency will decrease. However, in the present invention, the drive member 60 is made of an elastic metal body, and the distance between the second rotating shaft 60e and the drive shaft 61 is long, so the drive member 60 elastically absorbs the misalignment and prevents a decrease in drive transmission efficiency.

[0036] [Layout of electric unit U2 relative to hinge unit U1] In FIG. 8, the motor rotation shaft 50e of the motor section 50a is aligned with the longitudinal direction of the mounting base 20. Therefore, the motor section 50a has approximately the same shape as the projected area of ​​the mounting base 20 in the direction of the first rotation shaft 22a. Furthermore, the gear section 50b changes the direction of the motor rotation shaft 50e by 90 degrees to align it with the first rotation shaft 22a, and the drive member 60 extends in approximately the same shape in the extension direction of the support member 40, with the drive shaft 61 at its tip connected to the support member 40. Therefore, the drive member 60 has approximately the same shape as the projected area of ​​the support member 40 in the direction of the first rotation shaft 22a. In this way, the electric unit U2 has approximately the same shape as the projected area of ​​the hinge unit U1 in the direction of the first rotation shaft 22a, which prevents the electric hinge device B from becoming larger when the electric unit U2 is added.

[0037] [Examples of use in machine tools, etc.] 9 shows an example in which the electric hinge device according to the present invention is used in a machine tool. As shown in the drawing, electric hinge devices B, B are attached to the top of a main body C1 of a machine tool C, and are used to enable a cover C2 attached thereto to be opened and closed in the vertical direction. [Industrial Applicability]

[0038] The present invention is configured as described above, and therefore can realize a compact electric hinge device and office equipment or the like that uses this electric hinge device. [Explanation of symbols]

[0039] A Multifunction device B. Electric hinge device B´ Hinge device C Machine tool U1 Hinge unit U2 Electric unit SU20 mounting part SU30 biasing part (elastic means) SU40 opening and closing section SU50 drive unit SU60 Transmission Unit 20 Mounting base (mounting component) 21 Slider Case 22 Hinge shaft 22a First rotation axis 30 sliders 31 Spring 40 Support member (opening / closing member) 41 Pressure receiving pin 50 gear motor 50e Motor shaft 52 Bracket 60 Driving member 60e Second rotation axis 61 Drive shaft (connecting member)

Claims

1. An electric hinge device that connects an opening / closing body to a main body of an apparatus such as an office machine so as to be able to open and close, It is composed of a hinge unit and an electric unit that drives the hinge unit, The hinge unit is composed of at least an attachment member attached to the main body of the office equipment or the like, a support member rotatably attached to the attachment member via a hinge shaft and attached to the opening / closing body, and elastic means for biasing the support member to rotate in the opening direction of the opening / closing body, an electric hinge device, characterized in that the electric unit is composed of a drive motor attached adjacent to the mounting member on the device main body side, and a drive force transmission means that transmits the drive force of the drive motor to the support member, and the drive force transmission means is composed of a connecting member having one end side fixedly attached to the rotating shaft of the drive motor and the other end side connected to the free end side of the support member.

2. 2. The electric hinge device according to claim 1, wherein the connecting member is formed by stacking a plurality of connecting plates.

3. 2. The electric hinge device according to claim 1, wherein the connecting member has one end rotatably attached to a drive shaft attached to a free end of the support member.

4. 4. The electric hinge device according to claim 3, wherein the drive shaft is fixedly attached to the support member, and the connecting member is rotatably connected to the drive shaft.

5. 4. The power hinge device according to claim 3, wherein the drive shaft is rotatably attached to the support member, and the connecting member is fixedly attached to the drive hinge shaft.

6. An office machine or the like, characterized in that the electric hinge device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is used.

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