Operation panel reversing mechanism for on-vehicle sound equipment
AssigneeKabushiki Kaishi Kenwood
InventorsManabu Takagi, Takashi Nakamura, Masayoshi Aoki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An operation panel turnabout mechanism for vehicle mount audio equipment is provided which is simple and allows an operation panel to be prevented from being stolen without removing it. A panel supporting member 6 which rotatably supports an operation panel 1 is provided to freely project from a housing and urged in the direction of projection using elasticity of a spring 14. The operation panel 1 is manually made to face backward with the panel supporting member 6 projected from the housing, and the panel supporting member 6 is moved back against elasticity of the spring 14 to allow the operation panel 1 to be installed on the front surface of the housing when the operation panel 1 faces backward.
Claims7
A panel operation mechanism comprising:
- a support member, one end of which is mounted to a housing on a first rotation axis;
- a spring for biasing said support member about said first rotation axis in a first rotation direction;
- a panel mounted to the other end of said support member on a second rotation axis;
- a guide of engagement mechanism between said housing and said panel, for guiding said panel to be parallel to a panel mounting face of said housing when said support member is positioned parallel to the panel mounting face of said housing;
- and
- a lock member for locking said support member against the bias force by said spring,
- wherein, when the lock member is released, in mechanical association with a first support member rotating operation where said support member rotates about the first rotation axis in the first rotation direction by the bias force of said spring to be positioned perpendicular to the panel mounting face of said housing, said guide conducts a first operation to guide a first movement of said panel to rotate about the second rotation axis in a second rotation direction reverse to the first rotation direction so that the panel is positioned perpendicular to the panel mounting face of said housing,
- wherein in mechanical association with a first panel rotating operation where said panel is further rotated in the second rotation direction by a force exerted when said panel is positioned perpendicular to the panel mounting face of said housing, said guide conducts a second operation to guide a second movement of said panel to be positioned parallel to the panel mounting face of said housing in a turnabout state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.