Receptacles – Sectional – Electrical housing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-18
2003-03-25
Moy, Joseph (Department: 3728)
Receptacles
Sectional
Electrical housing
C220S375000, C220S754000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06536621
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a casing for housing small portable equipment such as portable terminal equipment, keyboards for cellular phones, cameras, remote controls, etc., and particularly to such casing adapted to have a strap attached thereto.
An example of the conventional small portable equipment casing of this type is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2548478 issued Oct. 30, 1996. The prior art casing will be briefly described with reference to
FIGS. 1-3
. The casing
10
, which is of generally rectangular and low-profile construction, has its entire peripheral side wall vertically divided into two so as to define an upper casing half
11
and a lower casing half
12
. The lower casing half
12
has protrusions
13
formed integrally with and extending from the bottom panel inboard at the four corners thereof while the upper casing half
11
are formed with protrusions
14
extending from the top panel inboard at the four corners thereof in opposing relation with the corresponding protrusions
13
, as will be appreciated from FIG.
2
and
FIG. 3
which is a cross-sectional view taken along the line
3
—
3
in
FIG. 1. A
rectangular printed circuit board
15
having an electronic circuit mounted thereon is sandwiched between the four protrusions
13
and the opposed four protrusions
14
. The printed circuit board
15
has small holes
16
formed therethrough at the four corners thereof. The protrusions
13
are each formed with through-bores
13
a
vertically aligned with and positioned below the corresponding small holes
16
. The protrusions
14
have threaded holes (not shown) vertically aligned with and positioned above the corresponding small holes
16
. Screws
17
are passed from outside of the bottom panel of the lower casing half
12
into and through the through-bores
13
a
and the small holes
16
and threaded into the threaded holes in the protrusions
14
to fasten the upper casing half
11
, the lower casing half
12
and the printed circuit board
15
together. Mounted on the printed circuit board
15
is a liquid crystal display
18
, the display window
19
for which is formed in the upper casing half
11
.
A portion of the side wall of the lower casing half
12
at one corner of the casing
10
toward the printed circuit board
15
is cut out to form an opening
21
. At the opening
21
the protrusion
13
has a reduced-diameter portion which is adapted to be fitted in and extend through a mating aperture
23
formed in one half section of a holder
22
. The other half section of the holder
22
projects outside of the casing
10
and has formed therethrough a strap aperture
24
. Further, the holder
22
has an integral complementary portion
25
in the middle thereof for closing the opening
21
. It should be noted that when the casing
10
is assembled, the mating aperture
23
of the holder
22
is fitted over the protrusion
13
prior to the assembly of the casing. A strap
26
is attached to the holder
22
by being passed through the strap aperture
24
.
It is to be appreciated that the construction of this conventional casing
10
requires no separate post dedicated for supporting the strap
26
, since the strap
26
is attached to the protrusion
13
adapted for use to assemble the casing
10
. However, there is a gap between the inner periphery of the through-bore
13
a
of the protrusion
13
and the outer periphery of the screw
17
, so that a slightly strong tension applied to the strap
26
would be likely to break the portion of the protrusion
13
which is inserted in the mating aperture
23
of the holder
22
.
The published microfilm of Japanese Utility Model Registration Application No. 57752/82 discloses another example of the conventional casing which is illustrated here in
FIGS. 4 and 5
. The casing comprises a rectangular box-like casing body
31
having an open end which is closed by a rear lid
32
. The side wall of the casing body
31
at one or more of the corners thereof is recessed in the shape of a quater arc of circle to define a guide wall portion
33
within which is located a band mounting post
34
formed integrally with and protruding from the front panel of the casing body
31
toward the rear lid
32
. A first shaft insertion bore
35
extends from the end face of the projecting end of the band mounting post
34
and through the post deep into the front panel of the casing body
31
for a distance longer than the length of the post
34
. A second shaft insertion bore
36
is formed in the rear lid
32
in axially aligned and opposing relation with the first shaft insertion bore
35
. A metal-made shaft
37
is inserted in the first and shaft insertion bores
35
,
36
so as to substantialy fill the bores. A band
38
is attached to the casing by being passed around the band mounting post through a band insertion slot
39
defined between the guide wall portion
33
and the post
34
.
In this example, the band mounting post
34
is reinforced by the shaft
37
so that there is little possibility of the band mounting post
34
being damaged under a relatively tight tension applied to the band
38
. However, this construction required screws
30
for fastening the casing body
31
and the rear lid
32
together, which correspondingly increased the number of parts required for the construction, disadvantageously resulting in an increase in the number of steps of the manufacturing process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to this invention, an upper casing half and a lower casing half are superposed one on another to define a casing. A reentrant cavity is formed in one side wall of the casing. A strap supporting post is formed generally in the center of the reentrant cavity integrally with either one of the upper casing half and the lower casing half so as to extend form the one of the casing halves toward the other. The strap supporting post has a central screw bore extending from the end face of the projecting end thereof and therethrough deep into the root of the post. The other of the upper casing half and the lower casing half has a through-bore formed therethrough in opposing aligned relation with the end face of the strap supporting post so that a screw may be passed through the through-bore and threaded into the screw bore for the approximately entire length of the strap supporting post to fasten the upper casing half and the lower casing half together.
REFERENCES:
patent: 0262104 (1998-09-01), None
patent: 0284352 (1999-10-01), None
patent: 148576 (2001-05-01), None
patent: WO0036890 (2000-06-01), None
Gallagher & Lathrop
Hosiden Corporation
Lathrop, Esq. David N.
Moy Joseph
LandOfFree
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