Electricity: conductors and insulators – Boxes and housings
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-16
2002-05-28
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Boxes and housings
C174S066000, C455S090300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06395980
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery case loaded on electronic equipment, and particularly to a structure for holding batteries reliably as simplifying a case cover attaching system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a personal handy phone system and a mobile-operated radio apparatus and the like, a battery case containing a plurality of dry batteries or charge batteries is loaded as a power source.
In a desk calculator, a battery case itself is incorporated into a housing of the apparatus as one body beforehand and the cover is detached to load the batteries. However, in this kind of apparatus, unlike the desk calculator, there is used a cartridge-typed battery case, which is composed of a case main body for containing and holding batteries and a case cover, and the case cover is designed to be attached/detached to/from a basic housing side of the equipment.
For example, FIG.
5
(A) is an external perspective view of a personal handy phone system, and FIG.
5
(B) is a structural view of the main parts. In this case, a print circuit board (PCB)
5
lb with an electronic part
51
a
is fixed to a basic housing
50
, and a battery case
53
, which contains six dry batteries
52
, is structured to be detachable/attachable from/to a back face of the basic housing
50
.
Regarding the attaching method, there is adopted a method in which a stopping portion
54
, which is formed to be protruded on an end face of the battery case
53
, is inserted into a concave portion
55
, which is formed on a contact face with the end face at the side of the basic housing
50
, so as to press the battery case
53
to the basic housing
50
, so that a lower side is stopped by an elastic supporting mechanism
56
.
The battery case
53
is composed of a case main body
57
, which contains six dry batteries
52
arranged in parallel, and a case cover
58
. The case main body
57
has a depth larger than an outer diameter of each dry battery
52
, and a groove for guiding both end sides of the case cover
58
. The case cover
58
is inserted into the guide groove and slid in a state that the dry batteries are loaded, whereby covering the containing portion of dry batteries
52
.
Regarding the method of attaching the case cover, similar to the method of attaching the battery case
53
to the basic housing
50
, there is a method in which one end is used as a stopping mechanism and the other end is used as an elastic supporting mechanism.
Additionally, if the depth of the case main body
57
is larger than the outer diameter of dry battery
52
, there occurs difficulty in taking out the batteries
52
from the case in some instances. For this reason, there is provided such a contrivance in which a belt-like cloth is put down in the arranging direction along the lower side of batteries
52
and one end of the belt-like cloth is pulled, whereby taking out all batteries from the case.
It is needless to say that the role of the case cover
58
is to prevent the batteries
52
of the case main body
57
from being detached from the mounted state because of vibration and impact acting on the equipment. Particularly, since the personal handy phone system and the like are frequently subjected to vibration and impact, the role that the case cover
58
of the battery case
53
should play is important.
By the way, though this is demanded to the electronic equipment on the whole, in the personal handy phone system and the mobile-operated radio apparatus wherein the battery case is mounted and used as a power source, the volume of the battery case, which occupies in the housing, is large. For this reason, it is strongly desired that the battery case be miniaturized and thinned.
Regarding this point, in the battery case
53
shown in
FIG. 5
, since the case cover
58
is inserted into the guide groove formed on the side of the case main body
57
, the thickness of battery case
53
is increased because of the structure of the guide portion.
Also, as mentioned above, since the depth of the case main body
57
is larger than the outer diameter of each dry battery
52
, various kinds of contrivances must be provided at the time of taking out the dry batteries
52
.
Moreover, the battery case
53
is manufactured by resin mold working. However, the mold becomes complicated because of the provision of guide portion, resulting in an increase in manufacturing cost for this reason.
In addition, these problems apply to the case of using the method in which one end of the case cover is latched and the other end is stopped by the elastic supporting mechanism.
In view of the aforementioned points, the present invention pays attention to the point in which the outer cylinder of dry batteries or charge batteries are made of steel, and an object of the present invention is to provide a battery case, which can prevent batteries from being detached from a case main body easily even if vibration and impact act on equipment, whereby solving the above-mentioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates a battery case, which is mounted on electronic equipment in a state that a plurality of batteries are contained, wherein the battery case comprises a case main body and a case cover, a depth of a battery containing portion of the case main body is structured such that a side face of each battery is protruded outwardly than an end face of a frame portion in a state that the batteries are contained, the case cover is formed of plate material covering the side face of each of the respective contained batteries, and plate-like magnets are adhered onto faces opposite to the respective batteries.
According to the present invention, the case cover is attached to not the case main body but the side face of each of the batteries by the absorbing force of the plate-like magnets.
Therefore, the case cover exerts the function of sharing the holding force of individual batteries in the case main body mutually, and prevents the batteries from being detached from the case main body easily even if vibration and impact act.
Then, since it is unnecessary to provide the attaching mechanism of the case cover to the case main body, a reduction in the thickness of the battery case can be implemented.
Moreover, the side portion of each battery is protruded outwardly than the end face of the frame portion. For this reason, in order to take out the batteries, the fingertips may be put on the end face of each dry battery to pull out each battery, thereby eliminating the need for providing special measures and the mechanism.
In addition, the outer portions of areas, which are opposite to the respective batteries, may be bent to the case main body side, and this makes it easy to perform the attachment of thecase cover and to prevent the shift, and this provides an excellent case cover in the design.
Moreover, the case cover is formed as a corrugated plate corresponding to the protruded side face of each battery, and the soft plate-like magnets are adhered along the corrugated face. This structure brings about merits in which the absorbing force to each battery of the case cover is increased so that the holding function can be strengthen and thinner plate-like magnets can be adopted.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5001772 (1991-03-01), Holcomb et al.
patent: 5600223 (1997-02-01), Shirai
patent: 5607791 (1997-03-01), Garcia et al.
patent: 5926545 (1999-07-01), Wu
patent: 5935729 (1999-08-01), Mareno et al.
patent: 5955700 (1999-09-01), Slipy et al.
patent: 6120932 (2000-09-01), Slipy et al.
Estrada Angel R.
Fulwider Patton Lee & Utecht LLP
Reichard Dean A.
Vertex Standard Co. Ltd.
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