Miscellaneous hardware (e.g. – bushing – carpet fastener – caster – Hinge – Including adjustment for changing relative orientation of...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-11
2002-04-02
Mah, Chuck Y. (Department: 2833)
Miscellaneous hardware (e.g., bushing, carpet fastener, caster,
Hinge
Including adjustment for changing relative orientation of...
C016S266000, C016S267000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06363576
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a joint device for coupling a cover with a scanner body and particularly to an improved joint device that has a pivot means to enable the cover to turn for open or close smoothly and that may be made with less material and cost.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scanner is a widely used computer peripheral device nowadays. With explosive growth of computer utilization and continuous drop of computer price, how to keep the cost and price of the scanner low while still maintain sufficient function and quality becomes a great challenge to scanner producers.
For low price scanners now available in the market, they usually have a joining device for coupling the cover of the scanner with the scanner body. One of the such joining devices is fixing one edge of the cover to one side of the body like a hinge. When in use, another edge of the cover that is free may be lifted to turn about the hinged edge for open or close the cover. While it may function well for one page or thin document, it is awkward for scanning a thick document such as a book. In such a situation, the cover will be inclined slantly and not fully cover the scanning surface. Scanning light cannot be distributed evenly, and outside light source may create further light distribution problem on the scanning surface and results in poor scanning quality.
In order to resolve the aforesaid problem, a number of solutions have been introduced in the market place. One of such examples is to divide the cover in two or more foldable and hinged sections. The cover may be flexibly lifted to a height desired to suit different document thickness. Such structure will increase cost. For low price scanner, the foldable sections generally are limited to two. Its functional improvement is also limited.
Another conventional example is shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
. The scanner body
1
has a plurality of pivot sockets
10
provided at a side wall
14
of the scanner. At the top surface of the body
1
, a transparent board
12
is provided for supporting scanning document. The cover
2
mainly includes a cover plate
22
and a plurality of pivot means
20
located thereunder engageable with the pivot sockets
10
. Each of the pivot means
20
has a pair of spaced legs
24
extended downward from the bottom of the cover plate
22
and joined by a foot
25
at the distal ends thereof. Below the foot
25
, there is a stopper
26
fixedly located thereunder. Each of the pivot sockets
10
includes a pair of spaced upper openings
110
at the top and a pair of spaced slots
116
formed thereunder for accommodating the legs
24
. In the pivot socket
10
, there is a gap
113
which enable the foot
25
to pass through. For assembly, the pivot means
20
is held at a selected angle to enable the foot
25
to pass through the gap
113
, then the cover
2
is turned to horizontal to lay upon the scanner body
1
.
The pivot socket
10
further has a stop tongue
112
and a stop foot
115
located respectively above and below the gap
113
for preventing the pivot means
20
from disengaging with the pivot socket
10
when the cover
2
is horizontally laid on the scanner body. Inside the pivot socket
10
, there is a through slot
114
formed in the inside wall of the socket
10
. When in use, the stopper
26
is inserted in the through slot
114
which serves as a guard to limit the stopper
26
tilting position so that the cover
2
may be lifted and tilted to an angle desired. As the pivot socket
10
has ample interior space to allow the foot
25
moving up or down, the cover
2
may be held horizontal over the transparent board
12
even for scanning a thick document.
However it creates new problems. The through slot
114
must be formed in the inside wall of the pivot socket
10
to accommodate the stopper
26
. It exposes scanner inside mechanism to ambient environment. The scanner mechanism may easily be contaminated by dusts and dirts seeping through the through slot
114
and results in downgrade of scanning quality or even scanner malfunction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a joint device that has an improved pivot means which is simply structured and may prevent scanner inside mechanism from contamination by external dusts and dirts.
The joint device according to this invention includes at least one pivot socket located at a top portion of a side wall of the scanner body. The pivot socket has a pivot shaft located in a trough formed in the side wall. The trough has closed inner walls without communicating with interior of the scanner body. The pivot shaft has substantially rectangular crosssection with round corners and being shaped with two parallel flat upper and lower surfaces bordered by two curved side surfaces. The pivot socket further has a stopping flange extending from the top wall of the scanner body and above the trough.
The scanner cover has at least one engaging member located below a side edge for pivotally engaging with the pivot shaft. The engaging member looks like a narrow section of a rectangular duct but with a curved lower portion and a side slot at a side wall for the pivot shaft to pass therethrough.
When in use, the pivot shaft is pivotally housed in the engaging member which may be moved up or down so that the cover may also be moved up or down according to thickness of the scanning document. The cover may be kept horizontal against the scanning board to obtain best possible scanning quality. The engaging member may be turned about the pivot shaft smoothly at a selected angle during scanning operation. As the pivot socket does not lead to inside of the scanner body, scanning mechanism won't be contaminated by outside dusts and dirts. Scanning quality may be maintained at high level even after long time of use.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4403856 (1983-09-01), Torto et al.
patent: 4598889 (1986-07-01), Remington
patent: 5231732 (1993-08-01), Knoop et al.
patent: 5265310 (1993-11-01), Ichinokawa
patent: 5441167 (1995-08-01), Shigeru
patent: 5544595 (1996-08-01), Stephenson, III et al.
patent: 5812285 (1998-09-01), Lin et al.
patent: 5979016 (1999-11-01), Fan
patent: 6-167838 (1994-06-01), None
Hsu Te-Jung
Lu Jih-Yung
Acer Peripherals Inc.
Mah Chuck Y.
Troxell Law Office PLLC
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