Amusement devices: toys – Figure toy or accessory therefor – Having mechanism or manipulatable means to move figure or...
Reexamination Certificate
2003-05-16
2004-06-08
Ackun, Jr., Jacob K. (Department: 3712)
Amusement devices: toys
Figure toy or accessory therefor
Having mechanism or manipulatable means to move figure or...
C446S457000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06746302
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a windup spring drive unit for manually winding up a spring. More particularly, the present invention relates to a windup spring drive unit suitable for being mounted in a toy such as a car or a doll.
BACKGROUND ART
A conventional windup spring drive until
101
having a spring as a power source includes, e.g., a spring
102
which is a power source, a windup shaft
103
to wind up the spring
102
, an acceleration gear train
105
which transmits rotations of the windup shaft
103
to an output shaft
104
, a constant speed mechanism
106
which makes rotations of the output shaft
104
constant, and a casing
107
which accommodates these members therein, as shown in FIG.
5
. In the spring drive until
101
, the spring
102
is manually wound by pinching and turning a knob (not shown) provided to the windup shaft
103
. further, by letting go of the pinched knob and releasing the windup shaft
103
, the stored power of the spring
102
is transmitted to the acceleration gear train
105
and causes the output shaft
104
to rotate. Furthermore, the acceleration gear train
105
is also interlinked with the constant speed mechanism
106
and maintains constant-speed rotations of the output shaft
104
.
Here, the windup shaft
103
and the output shaft
104
are arranged in parallel with each other and provided so as to transmit rotations through the acceleration gear train
105
consisting of only spur gears. Therefore, the casing
107
is formed into a flat rectangular shape which is thin in the axial direction of both the windup shaft
103
and the output shaft
104
.
When this spring drive unit
101
is included and used in a toy such as an animal type toy or a character doll which involves movements, e.g., a walking doll
108
as shown in
FIG. 6
, the output shaft
104
is arranged in the right-and-left direction because of the relationship with right and left hands
112
or legs (not shown) of the walking doll
108
to be driven. Moreover, when this spring drive unit
101
is included in, e.g., a car toy
109
such as shown in
FIG. 7
, the output shaft
104
is arranged in the right-and-left direction (parallel to a floor) because of the relationship with tires
110
as targets to be driven.
In the above-described conventional windup spring drive unit
101
, however, the windup shaft
103
and the output shaft
104
are parallel to each other, and all the components, i.e., the gears and the spring are arranged in parallel with the both shafts
103
and
104
. Therefore, the gear unit takes up less space in the axial direction of the both shafts
103
and
104
and much space in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction (height direction of the gear unit). For example, when the drive unit is included in the walking doll
108
, it is set in the height direction of the gear unit on the front and back sides, and hence the doll has a stockily-built figure/shape that the front and back sides of the doll are expanded. In addition, when the drive unit is included in a car toy
109
, it is set with the height direction of the casing
107
being determined as a vehicle height direction, which increases the vehicle height as a whole. Thus, in case of the walking doll
108
, its shape must be deformed so as to be thicker in the front-and-back direction than an actual human. Additionally, in case of the car toy
109
, its shape must be deformed so as to increase the vehicle height as compared with an actual automobile, and the toy must be designed far from the shape of an actual automobile, which restricts a degree of freedom in design.
Further, since the windup shaft
103
is parallel with the output shaft
104
, the windup knob
111
and arms of the doll
112
are positioned close to each other when the drive unit is incorporated in the walking doll
108
or the like. This complicates the winding operation of the spring
102
, and causing the knob to largely protrude generates a problem of the unnecessary bulkiness. Furthermore, there also occurs a problem that existence of the knob protruding to the side of the doll restricts the movement or the set positions of the arms. Therefore, when the drive unit is mounted in the car toy
109
, since the knob
111
protrudes to the side of the car body, a sufficient space to pinch and wind the knob cannot be obtained between the knob and a traveling surface such as a floor, and hence the operation to wind the spring
102
while pressing the tires
110
against the floor or rails is difficult. Thus, the knob
111
must be rotated while lifting the car toy
109
and holding the tires
110
so as not to run idle, which makes the winding operation of the spring difficult. In particular, in case of the car toy which runs on the rails, although it is desired to enable winding of the spring with the car toy
109
set on the rails, the operability of the knob
11
in that state is so poor that improvement on this problem demanded.
Moreover, since the windup knob
111
must protrude in the vicinity of the arm
112
of the doll or to the side of the car body in the vicinity of the traveling surface for the car toy, the design in toys may be considerably restricted in some cases, which complicates the design.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a windup spring drive unit which can improve the operability of winding when incorporated in an apparatus such as a toy and increase a degree of freedom in design of toys.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
To achieve this aim, according to the present invention defined in the claims, there is provided a windup spring drive until comprising: a spring which is a power source; a windup shaft which manually winds up the spring; an output shaft; and a gear train which transmits the power of the spring to the output shaft, these members being accommodated in a casing, wherein a crown gear provided in such a manner that its center of rotational axis is parallel with the windup shaft is included in a gear train so that the output shaft and the windup shaft are arranged to be orthogonal to each other, and the windup shaft is caused to pierce in a thin direction of the casing.
Therefore, since the output shaft and the windup shaft are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other, the windup shaft/knob can be set on a surface different from a surface from which the output shaft protrudes when the spring drive unit is mounted in an apparatus such as a toy. Accordingly, the interference between the windup knob and the output shaft can be avoided, and the operability when winding the spring can be improved. Also, a degree of freedom in the movement or the set positions of members driven by the output shaft can be increased, the restriction in design of the prior art can be reduced, and the new design or movement can be given to toys.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4455783 (1984-06-01), Nagano
patent: 5103936 (1992-04-01), Morikawa
patent: 5628668 (1997-05-01), Takemae
Ackun Jr. Jacob K.
Notaro $ Michalos PC
Seikoken Kabushiki Kaisha
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