FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns an electronic measuring, conditioning and regulating instrument.

The invention is applied in the field of production of electronic instruments suitable to be used as regulators and/or measurers in general, and in particular in the field of regulating and conditioning temperature, pressure and/or humidity.

Said instruments essentially comprise a front-piece, normally but not necessarily with a display unit and setting and command means, and a box-like container, with means to interface and connect to the outside, which houses within it at least part of the necessary components for the functioning of the instrument.

The invention offers an economical, rational and versatile solution to problems relating to the times and complexities of assembling instruments of this type on a panel of a regulating or conditioning unit on which said instrument is applied.

The invention also concerns the method for mounting said instrument on a panel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Instruments of the electronic type are known, used to measure and condition the parameters of a room, for example its temperature and humidity, or of a cooling unit, a heating plant or other.

Such instruments are normally applied as a panel, in a suitable hole or aperture, making the front-piece protrude in which the display unit and the command and setting members are made.

Inside the hole or aperture the box-like container is positioned, inside which at least part of the electronic components needed for the functioning of the instrument are positioned, for feeding it, for connecting it to the external members that it manages and commands, and for possible interface with data acquisition means and remote control.

Normally, but not necessarily, these electronic components are assembled on one or more printed circuits. Known instruments are normally different from each other based on the type of application and the performance they have to provide, inside a range that goes from the simplest instrument, which only performs minimum or basic functions, to the most evolved and complex instrument, suitable to perform a plurality of functions and services, and possibly suitable to interface with external data acquisition and remote control instruments.

One disadvantage of known instruments of this type are the difficulties normally found during the assembly on the panel of a cooling or conditioning unit to which the instrument is to be associated. Normally, the coupling provides to use threaded screws which screw partly onto the front-piece and partly onto the containing body, and allow to stably clamp the instrument to the panel. Using traditional attachment screws requires to make holes on the panel which makes the installation of the instrument complex and the esthetic appearance worse, possibly requiring elements to cover the screws.

Another known solution provides to use clips located at the rear. However, applying them entails the need to operate from the rear side of the panel. It is therefore necessary to remove the panel from the cooling unit to which it is associated, and then to re-assemble it when the instrument has been mounted on it, or it is necessary to provide apertures or windows to allow access from the rear side, with the panel of the cooling unit kept in its mounted position.

The normal procedures for mounting the instrument, operating mainly from the rear part of the panel also to attach the instrument, therefore entail operating difficulties and long times.

The purpose of the present invention is therefore to obtain an electronic instrument of the type mentioned above, where the times and costs of mounting on the panel the unit on which the instrument is applied are reduced, allowing a front assembly without requiring to completely dis-assemble the panel and/or its preliminary holing, using a simple, economical and standardizable solution.

The Applicant has devised and embodied the present invention to overcome these shortcomings and to obtain other advantages as shown hereafter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is set forth and characterized in the main claims, while the dependent claims describe variants to the main inventive idea. In accordance with the above purposes, an electronic measuring, conditioning and regulating instrument according to the present invention comprises, conventionally, a front-piece having at least a front mask equipped at the rear with lateral walls and a possible box-like containing body.

According to a characteristic aspect of the present invention, on the front mask there are at least two through holes for the insertion of respective attachment elements, each of said attachment elements comprising a screw element having a head and a shaft, a helical thread being made on the shaft that develops for not more than 180° on the circumference of the shaft.

In a preferential solution of the invention, an empty space is provided between the beginning of the thread and the internal face of the head, so as to be able to insert, during the insertion step of the instrument, the edge of the panel that defines the perimeter of the installation hole or window, and allow to assemble the instrument on panels of different thicknesses.

Using attachment means of this type, advantageously provided in at least two opposite points on the perimeter of the front-piece, allows to insert the whole instrument frontally in a hole or window of mating sizes provided on the panel of the cooling or conditioning unit to which the instrument has to be associated.

This insertion occurs in such a way that the peripheral edge of the panel that delimits the hole or window is inserted and positioned inside the space between the beginning of the thread and the internal face of the head; the helical thread, developing only over 180°, can be disposed all toward the inside of the hole or window on the panel, so as not to interfere with the frontal insertion of the instrument inside said hole or window.

Once the instrument has been positioned in the hole, a small rotation, for example 90°- 120°, of the attachment means is sufficient to take the helical thread to press the peripheral edge of the panel against the internal edge of the front- piece of the instrument, thus clamping the instrument in position on the panel.

In one form of embodiment of the invention, the helical thread has a progressive increase in thickness from its end facing toward the point of the shaft to its end facing toward the head. Thanks to this increase in thickness it is possible to make the rotation travel to be exerted to the attachment means extremely short, in order to press the edge of the panel which delimits the hole or window against the edge of the front-piece.

In another form of embodiment, the external face of the head of the attachment means has a notch that allows to use a screwing instrument.

It comes within the scope of the present invention that the front-piece has 3 or more through holes for the insertion of as many attachment means.

It also comes within the scope of the present invention that the thread has a cylindrical development or even non-cylindrical, conical for example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from reading the preferential form of embodiment of the invention, taken with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

- fig. 1 shows schematically and by way of example a cooling unit on which an electronic measuring, conditioning and regulating instrument according to the present invention is applied;

- fig. 2 shows an enlargement of an assembly step of the instrument according to the present invention onto a panel of the unit in fig. 1 ;

- fig. 3 shows a section of an instrument according to the invention mounted on a corresponding panel;

- fig. 4 shows an enlarged detail of fig. 3;

- fig. 5 shows a lateral view of the front-piece of the instrument according to the invention;

- fig. 6 shows a rear view in section made in correspondence to the contact surface between the mask of the front-piece and panel.

To facilitate comprehension, the same reference numbers have been used, where possible, to identify identical common elements in the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME FORMS OF EMBODIMENT

We shall now refer in detail to some forms of embodiment of the invention, of which some examples are shown in the attached drawings. Each example is supplied by way of illustration of the invention and shall not be understood as a limitation thereof. For example, the characteristics shown or described insomuch as they are part of one form of embodiment can be adopted on, or in association with, other forms of embodiment to produce another form of embodiment. It is understood that the present invention shall include all such modifications and variants.

Fig. 1 is used to describe a possible application, in this case to a cooling unit generically indicated by 100, of an electronic measuring, conditioning and regulating instrument according to the present invention, indicated in its entirety by the reference number 10.

The electronic instrument 10 is provided in this case with a front-piece 1 1 that includes a front mask 12, which defines a viewer 13 of the display unit, and keys 14.

The keys 14 can also be made directly on the front mask 12.

It comes within the scope of the invention that the electronic instrument 10 does not comprise display elements, and/or does not comprise command or setting keys.

Moreover, the front-piece 1 1 provides, on its rear part, a containing wall 15 which can have a variable length or depth depending on the use of the electronic instrument 10.

As can be seen in detail in fig. 2, the front-piece 1 1 has two through holes 16 in the front mask 12, which allow the through insertion of respective attachment screws 17.

Each of the attachment screws 17 has a head 18, on the external face 1 18b of which there is a notch 19 for a screwing tool (not shown), and a shaft 20 on which a helical thread 21 is made that develops, in this case, for 180° around the shaft 20.

Even if in this solution a notch 19 of the flat type is shown, it comes within the scope of the invention to use cross-type notches 19 of the hexagonal type, or any other type suitable in the field of the present invention.

There is a free space 23 between the beginning 121a of the helical thread 21 and the internal face 1 18a of the head 18.

The containing wall 15 of the front-piece 1 1 has a window 22 of a size mating with the maximum transverse size of the helical thread 21.

When the instrument 10 has to be assembled on a panel 101 of the cooling unit 100, it is sufficient to prepare a hole 102 on it of a sufficient size to allow the insertion through it of the lateral walls 15 of the front-piece 1 1, keeping the front mask 12 protruding from the panel 101, with the possible viewer 13, keys 14 etc. if included.

During the insertion step of the front-piece 1 1, the screw 17 is kept with the thread 21 in an internal position with respect to the lateral walls 15 (fig. 2), so that the thread 21 does not interfere with the lateral edge that defines the hole 102 and allows the free movement of the instrument 10 to take the front mask 12 into abutment against the panel 101.

Once this position is reached, the screw 17 is rotated, for example using a tool that acts on the notch 19, making the thread 21 exit from the window 22 and taking it to thrust against the edge of the panel 101 outside the hole 102 against the internal face of the front mask 12, in this way clamping the whole instrument 10 onto the panel 101 (fig. 6).

With this solution, as we have seen, the attachment of the instrument 10 to the panel 101 occurs extremely quickly and easily, from in front of the panel 101, without requiring pre-holing of the panel and without requiring additional covering elements for esthetic reasons.

In the solution shown, in particular as seen in figs. 3, 4 and 5, the thread 21 has a width which increases starting from the end 121b facing toward the point of the shaft 20 to its end 121a facing toward the head 17. This means that a short rotation travel of the screw 17, which must in any case be less than 180°, allows to safely and stably attach the whole instrument 10 against the panel 101 of the cooling unit 100, substantially irrespective of the thickness of the panel.

It is clear that modifications and/ or additions of parts may be made to the electronic measuring, conditioning and regulating instrument as described heretofore, without departing from the field and scope of the present invention.

It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to some specific examples, a person of skill in the art shall certainly be able to achieve many other equivalent forms of electronic measuring, conditioning and regulating instrument, having the characteristics as set forth in the claims and hence all coming within the field of protection defined thereby.