Cover opening/closing device
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsHiroshi Nakamori, Kazunori Kono
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cover opening/closing device prevents backlash when the cover is closed, by engaging the cover with a lock cam and urging the lock cam to be rotated into positions by a toggle spring. For this object, this device comprises a lock cam which is rotated about a rotational shaft provided in a main body, an operation lever which rotates the lock cam to open the cover, and a toggle spring which is designed to maintain the lock cam in urged states at the respective cover-opened and cover-closed positions. The lock cam can be kept urged in the cover-closed state.
Claims12
A cover opening/closing device for opening/closing a cover which is rotatably attached by a first rotational shaft to a main body and which has an engaging piece on an open end side, said cover opening/closing device comprising:
- a lock cam adapted to be rotatably supported on the main body by a second rotational shaft, said lock cam including (i) an engaging claw for engaging with said engaging piece and (ii) a spring-force application portion;
- an operation lever for rotating said lock cam;
- and
- a toggle spring connected to said spring-force application portion and supplying an urging force to said lock cam in one of first and second directions in accordance with a position of said spring-force application portion with respect to an axis of said second rotational shaft;
- wherein, when said cover is closed, said engaging claw is in an engaged condition in which said engaging claw is engaged with said engaging piece to hold said cover closed, and said toggle spring supplies said urging force in said first direction to urge said engaging claw into said engaged condition;
- wherein, when said operation lever is actuated to open said cover, said operation lever rotates said lock cam from the engaged condition at least to a non-engagement condition in which the engaging claw is not engaged with the engaging piece of the cover;
- and
- wherein, when said lock cam is in said non-enagagement condition, said toggle spring supplies said urging force in said second direction to urge said lock cam into said non-engagement condition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.