Photography – Camera detail – Body structure or housing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-12
2002-12-17
Gray, David M. (Department: 2851)
Photography
Camera detail
Body structure or housing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06496659
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera, and more particularly, to a camera whose outer covering partly comprises a metal cover.
2. Description of the Related Art
An outer covering of a camera is mainly made from plastic and metal. The plastic has features of easy reproducibility of a complex shape and a light weight but has a drawback of susceptibility to an impact or a flaw. On the other hand, the metal has a quality appearance and a feature of touch and texture specific to the metal but has a drawback in machinability.
For imparting a quality appearance to a camera, a metal outer covering is generally used, but there is a disadvantage of very high manufacturing cost if the whole outer covering is made from metal. U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,274 discloses an outer covering may be configured in such a manner that the whole outer covering is made from plastic and that a metal cover formed by machining a metal plate is mounted to part thereof.
In recent years, a variety of appearance designs of cameras has been increased, and there is also a design using a curved surface as well as a simple box shape.
However, when a curved surface portion of an outer covering is constituted by a metal cover, there is a disadvantage of difficulty in obtaining dimensional accuracy of the curved surface portion, which leads to difficulty in machining and molding. When forming the curved surface portion simply by curving a metal plate, there is also a disadvantage of a reduction in rigidity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of the above circumstances, and its object is to provide a camera which can be machined and molded with high dimensional accuracy and has high rigidity.
In order to attain the above object, the present invention is directed to a camera, comprising: an outer covering; and at least one metal cover which is mounted between top and bottom surfaces of the outer covering, wherein at least part of the metal cover is formed with a curved surface to constitute an appearance surface of the outer covering, wherein reinforcing portions are integrally formed by drawing at the top and bottom of the portion formed with the curved surface, the reinforcing portions being disposed inside the top and bottom surfaces when the metal cover is mounted between the top and bottom surfaces.
According to the present invention, integrally forming the reinforcing portions by drawing at the top and bottom of the curved surface formed on the metal cover allows the curved surface portion to be machined and molded with high dimensional accuracy. The machined metal cover can obtain high rigidity by the reinforcing portions. The reinforcing portions do not appear outwardly and thus do not detract from the appearance of the camera.
Preferably, at least one of the reinforcing portions has a positioning hole; and at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of the outer covering has a positioning pin which is fitted in the positioning hole formed in the reinforcing portion to position the metal cover.
According to the present invention, using the positioning hole formed on the reinforcing portion allows the metal cover to be easily mounted to a normal position when mounting the metal cover. The reinforcing portion does not appear outwardly and thus does not detract from the appearance of the camera.
Furthermore, the reinforcing portion can be fastened with a screw to at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of the outer covering to secure the metal cover.
According to the present invention, the reinforcing portion does not appear outwardly, and thus the metal cover can be mounted without detracting from the appearance of the camera.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5697005 (1997-12-01), Kikuchi
patent: 5708898 (1998-01-01), Manabe et al.
patent: 5974264 (1999-10-01), Manabe et al.
patent: 6058274 (2000-05-01), Omiya
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd.
Gray David M.
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