Liquid crystal cells – elements and systems – Particular structure – Holder – support – frame – or housing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-30
2001-07-03
Dudek, James A. (Department: 2871)
Liquid crystal cells, elements and systems
Particular structure
Holder, support, frame, or housing
C249S119000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256078
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stowing apparatus of a picture monitor for transportation such as an airplane, a train and a sightseeing bus.
2. Related Art
In a passenger airplane of a airplane, picture monitors (hereinafter referred to “monitors”)for explaining passengers about security apparatuses and displaying programmed movies are provided. And, passenger cars and sightseeing buses for party tourists are happened to be provided with similar monitors.
As these monitors, conventionally projectors or CRTs (cathode-ray tube, so called a TV tube) are often employed, but recently liquid crystal panels, which have been increased in definition, have been noticed. In case a liquid crystal panel is used as a monitor, since the size thereof is limited, every group of several passengers is adapted to watch one monitor, further, since the screen of the monitor is small, the monitor is mounted on the ceiling located above the passenger seat. In this case, since the ceiling of the passenger cabin is low, the monitor is adapted to be stowed in a shroud when getting on and off or at the time of emergency to prevent the monitor from being projected to the passenger.
What is requested for this kind of monitor in particular for airplane, when the cabin will lose electric power, the monitor is automatically stowed and is desirably avoided to collide with passengers. Regarding this point, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires to insure the passengers safety and for monitors to retract totally when electric power to the cabin turned off. It is because, since the monitors protrude downward from the ceiling, the head of the passenger is apt to hit them to cause the passenger to injure himself or damages the monitor.
And, since the appliances in such a passenger cabin will receive vibrations, shocks or acceleration from all directions due to the posture of the airplane or the air stream situation or when taking off, flying and landing, it is a matter of course to clear the safety standard provided by the FAA and on the other hand it is necessary to satisfy the functions to be requested even in the above provided conditions, for instance, in a normal vibration or shock during flight, it is desirable that the monitors in operation do not rotate toward stowing position and stop displaying. Therefore, when the electric power to the monitors is lost, it is necessary to stow the monitors automatically and in addition, desirably, the monitors have better to be stowed when any power more than predetermined value is added.
As a prior art in this field, there is what is disclosed in the Japanese patent laid-open No. Hei 5-97098. In this invention, the following technique is disclosed, that is, when keeping a monitor in operation position (display position), an electric brake is used, and when the passenger cabin loses electric power or the head of a passenger hits the monitor, the monitor will be stowed automatically. And in this invention, when rotating a monitor from the stowing position to the display position and from the display position to the stowing position, the driving power is obtained from an electric motor and the power holding the monitor in the display position is obtained from an electric brake.
In what is disclosed in the above laid-open publication, when the electric power in the passenger cabin is turned off and the monitor is hit with the head of any passenger, the restoring power of sliding clutches and coil spring makes the monitor turned to the stowing position. Therefore, the coil spring functions as a back up (auxiliary) mechanism to the electric motor. And, in this invention, when the monitors are turned from the display position to the stowing position due to the restoring power of the stored energy of the coil spring, the electric motor and the gears connected to the motor are made use of an inertia limiting device for reducing the turning speed of the monitors.
In order to watch the screen of a monitor by any passenger at a seat below the monitor mounted on the ceiling of a passenger airplane, the screen is necessary to face to the passenger. However, in the invention disclosed in the above publication, since a rotation angle of the monitor becomes less than 90° due to its structure, there is a high possibility that the surface of the monitor (front surface of a liquid crystal panel) has to face downward when stowing to cause it to be stained or damaged. On the other hand, when carrying out a maintenance thereof, the monitor is drawn out manually from the stowing position and kept in the displaying position, and the maintenance work is carried out. However, there is a problem in which, the maintenance work in the un-powered state of the monitor has to be carried out so as to keep the monitor not to retract into the stowing position, therefore the maintenance work has not been easy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in the light of the above problem and is to provide a stowing apparatus of the monitors for transportation, in which, at the time of maintenance work, it is easily carried out to hold the monitor with ease while keeping the monitors in the drawn out position.
In the present invention, in order to solve the above problems, according to a first aspect thereof, a stowing apparatus for a picture monitor for transportation comprises a frame engaging with a plate fixed on the ceiling of a transportation, a liquid crystal panel one end of which is mounted thereon by pivoting in such a manner, at a first position the surface of the liquid crystal faces to the ceiling and at a second position, the surface of the liquid crystal makes an open angle of 90 degrees or more to the first position by turning the liquid crystal panel at pivoting point, a driving mechanism which drives the liquid crystal panel to the first and second positions, a connecting mechanism interposed between the output portion of the driving mechanism and the liquid crystal panel, a shock detecting mechanism, which is provided on a part of the connecting mechanism, for detecting a shock given to the liquid crystal panel, a control circuit for operating the driving mechanism when the shock detecting mechanism detects some shock to stow the liquid crystal panel in the first position, a locking mechanism for locking the liquid crystal panel in the first position and a releasing mechanism for releasing the said locking due to the locking mechanism.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the said driving mechanism which displaces the liquid crystal panel between the first and second position is formed with a motor with speed reduction mechanism and a spring stored with a restoring force by being wound by the motor, wherein, when displacing the liquid crystal panel from the first position to the second position, the motor is in operation and when displacing the liquid crystal panel from the second position to the first position, the restoring force of the spring functions.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the said shock detecting mechanism provided on one portion of said connecting mechanism comprises two plates, one portion of which is pivoted with each other, a balance spring mounted between the two plates and an angle detecting sensor which is disposed nearby the two plates in order to detect a relative angle of the said two plates.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the said locking mechanism uses a negative operation type, which is operative in non-current state, of electromagnetic brake as a lock mechanism to keep the liquid crystal panel in the first position.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, an operation which causes the liquid crystal panel to be restored from the second position to the first position by detecting the shock in the said shock detecting mechanism is to be repeated by the predetermined times and when exceeding the times, such operation
Dudek James A.
Minebea Co. Ltd.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
LandOfFree
Stowing apparatus of picture monitor for transportation does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Stowing apparatus of picture monitor for transportation, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Stowing apparatus of picture monitor for transportation will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2501633