HAVING THE SAME

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and benefits of Chinese Patent Application No. 201120472474.8, filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of P. R. C. on November 24, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment and a vehicle having the same.

BACKGROUND

At present, the vehicle is mounted with more and more vehicle-mounted equipments, and the conventional vehicle-mounted equipments are always fixed on the dashboard of the vehicle directly, for example, a night vision system is usually integrated into a DVD device or directly fixed in the dashboard of the vehicle. Therefore, the vehicle-mounted equipment is inflexible in mounting and can not really inosculated to the vehicle, thus reducing the humanization, intelligence and comfortability of the vehicle.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure seek to solve at least one of the problems existing in the prior art to at least some extent.

An object of embodiments of the present disclosure is to provide a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment, in which the flip device may cause the vehicle-mounted equipment to extend out of the dashboard and to flip and fold into the dashboard. Another object of embodiments of the present disclosure is to provide a vehicle having the above mentioned flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment.

Embodiments of a first broad aspect of the present disclosure provide a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment, comprising: a housing; a cover frame mounted onto a top of the housing; a mounting bracket for mounting the vehicle-mounted equipment thereon, the mounting bracket being pivotably mounted, at a portion adjacent to a first end thereof, onto the cover frame so that the mounting bracket is rotatable between an extended position in which the mounting bracket is extended out of the cover frame and a folded position in which the mounting bracket is received in the cover frame; a slide mechanism disposed within the housing, slidable in a longitudinal direction and connected to the mounting bracket so as to drive the mounting bracket to flip between the extended position and the folded position; and a power assembly mounted within the housing for driving the sliding mechanism to slide linearly in the housing.

The flip device according to embodiments of the present disclosure may mount a vehicle-mounted equipment in the dashboard of the vehicle and drive the vehicle-mounted equipment to flip. By driving the mounting bracket to flip to the extended position, the vehicle-mounted equipment may flip to the extended position along with the mounting bracket when it is needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment, and by driving the mounting bracket to flip to the folded position, the vehicle-mounted equipment may flip along with the mounting bracket to the folded position when it is not needed to use the mounting bracket. Therefore, the mounting flexibility of the vehicle-mounted equipment is improved.

Embodiments of a second broad aspect of the present disclosure provide a vehicle, comprising: the flip device according to the embodiments of the first broad aspect of the present disclosure, the housing of the flip device being mounted in a dashboard of the vehicle; and a vehicle-mounted equipment mounted on the mounting bracket of the flip device.

With the vehicle having the flip device according to the embodiments of the first broad aspect of the present disclosure, the vehicle-mounted equipment may flip along with the mounting bracket of the flip device so that the vehicle-mounted equipment may extended out of the dashboard when it is used and received in the dashboard when it is not used. Therefore, the mounting flexibility of the vehicle-mounted equipment is improved, and the humanization, intelligence and comfortability of the vehicle are increased.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. l is an exploded perspective view of a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig.2 is a schematic view of the flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the mounting bracket is in the extended position;

Fig.3 is a schematic view of the flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the mounting bracket is in the folded position;

Fig.4 is a schematic view of the slide mechanism of a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig.5 is a schematic view of the power assembly of a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure ; and

Fig.6 is a schematic view of the mounting bracket of a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will be made in detail to embodiments of the present disclosure, and the embodiments described herein are shown in drawings, in which the same or similar elements and the elements having same or similar functions are denoted by like reference numerals throughout the descriptions.

In the specification, it is to be understood that an orientation or position relations referred by relative terms such as " central" , "longitudinal" , " lateral " ,

" front" , "rear" , "right" , "left" , "inner" , "outer" , "lower" ,

"upper" , "horizontal " , "vertical" , "above" , "below" , "up " , "top " ,

" bottom " ," clockwise "and" counterclockwise " as well as derivative thereof should be construed to refer to the orientation or position relations as then described or as shown in the drawings under discussion. These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the present disclosure be constructed or operated in a particular orientation.

in addition, terms such as " first" and " second" are used herein for purposes of description and are not intended to indicate or imply relative importance or significance. Therefore, a feature defined with "first", "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the feature. In the specification, unless specified or limited otherwise, "plural" infers two or more.

In the specification, unless specified or limited otherwise, the terms

"mounted, " "connected, " "joined, " and "fixed, " and variations thereof are used broadly, for example, it may encompass both fixed connections and detachably connections, both mechanical connections and electrical connections, both direct mountings and indirect mountings through intermediate media, and may encompass the internal connectivity of two elements. For the person with ordinary skill in the art, the specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention may be understood according to the specific circumstances.

A flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As show in Fig. l to Fig.3, a flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may have a housing 16, a cover frame 7, a mounting bracket 6, a slide mechanism and a power assembly 2.

The housing 16 defines a receiving chamber therein and the top surface of the housing 16 is open. The housing 16 is adapted to be mounted in a dashboard of a vehicle. The cover frame 7 is fixed on the top of the housing 16 and defines a receiving hole 8 for receiving the mounting bracket 6.

The mounting bracket 6 is used for mounting the vehicle-mounted equipment (not shown) thereon. For example, the vehicle-mounted equipment may be a screen of a vehicle-mounted night vision system, a display of a vehicle, or a vehicle-mounted TV.

A portion adjacent to a first end (the lower end in Fig.2) of the mounting bracket 6 is pivotably mounted onto the cover frame 7, and the mounting bracket 6 is rotatable between an extended position (the position as shown in Fig.2) in which the mounting bracket 6 is extended out of the receiving hole 8 of the cover frame 7 and a folded position (the position as shown in Fig.3) in which the mounting bracket 6 is received in the receiving hole 8 of cover frame 7.

In a particular embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig.2 and Fig.6, pin holes 701 are formed in first and second longitudinal inner sides of the cover frame 7 respectively, and pins 10 are disposed at first and second longitudinal outer sides of the mounting bracket 6 and pivotably fitted in the pin holes 701, respectively.

The slide mechanism 12 is disposed within the housing 16, slidable in a longitudinal direction A and connected to the mounting bracket 6 so as to drive the mounting bracket 6 to flip between the extended position and the folded position. The power assembly 2 is mounted within the housing 16 for driving the sliding mechanism 12 to slide linearly in the housing 16.

More specifically, the slide mechanism 12 is connected with the power assembly 2, so that the power provided by the power assembly 2 is transferred to the slide mechanism 12, thus driving the sliding mechanism 12 to slide linearly in the housing 16. The sliding of mechanism 12 drives the mounting bracket 6 to flip between the extended position and the folded position by linear sliding thereof in the housing 16.

Therefore, when it is needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment, as shown in Fig.2, the power assembly 2 drives the mounting bracket 6 with the vehicle-mounted equipment thereon to extend to the extended position via the sliding mechanism 12. When it is not needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment, as shown in Fig.3, the power assembly 2 drives the mounting bracket 6 to fold to the folded position via sliding mechanism 12. Therefore, the mounting flexibility of the vehicle-mounted equipment is improved.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig. l to Fig.6, the power assembly 2 comprises a power unit 18 and a deceleration mechanism 20. For example, the power unit 18 may be an electric motor.

The power unit 18 is fixed at a bottom of the receiving chamber of the housing 16. The deceleration mechanism 20 is fixed at the bottom of the receiving chamber of the housing 16 and has an input end connected to an output end of the power unit 18 and an output end connected to the slide mechanism 12.

More specifically, a worm 19 is mounted at the output end 19 of the power unit 18. A first gear 1 engaged with the worm 19 and a third gear 21 coaxial with the first gear 1 are mounted at the input end of the deceleration mechanism 20, and a second gear 22 engaged with the third gear 21 and a fourth gear 15 coaxial with the second gear 22 are mounted at the output end of the deceleration mechanism 20 respectively. The slide mechanism 12 has a gear rack 9 engaged with the fourth gear 15. Therefore, the power unit 18 may drive the slide mechanism 12 to linearly slide via the worm 19, the first gear 1 , the second gear 22, the third gear 21 , the fourth gear 15 and gear rack 9.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig. l to Fig.3, grooves 17 are formed in inner sides of the first and second longitudinal sidewalls of the housing 16 respectively, and two longitudinal edges of the slide mechanism 12 are slidably fitted within the grooves 17 respectively so that the grooves 17 guide the slide mechanism 12 to slide within the receiving chamber of the housing 16.

As shown in Fig. l to Fig.4, the slide mechanism 12 comprises a sliding plate 121 having first and second sidewalls, in which the first and second sidewalls are parallel to each other in the transverse direction B and spaced apart from each other. The first and second longitudinal edges of the sliding plate 121 are slidably fitted within the grooves 17 respectively. The gear rack 9 extending along the longitudinal direction A is disposed on the bottom surface of the sliding plate 121.

The slide mechanism 12 also has a guiding and position-limiting structure 3, and a guiding column structure 601 is disposed on the first end of the mounting bracket 6 and slidably fitted within the guiding and position-limiting structure 3, so that the mounting bracket 6 is guided to flip between the extended position and the folded position. Therefore, the vehicle-mounted equipment mounted on the mounting bracket 6 may flip between the extended position and the folded position.

As shown in Fig.4, the sliding plate 121 comprises a substantially inverted U-shaped plate, first and second horizontal plates, and first and second vertical side plates.

The gear rack 9 is mounted on the substantially inverted U-shaped plate. A first longitudinal edge of the first horizontal plate is connected to a bottom edge of a first longitudinal sidewall of the substantially inverted U-shaped plate, and a second longitudinal edge of the first horizontal plate is slidably fitted within the groove 17 formed in the first longitudinal sidewall of the housing. A first longitudinal edge of the second horizontal plate is connected to a bottom edge of a second longitudinal sidewall of the substantially inverted U-shaped plate, and a second longitudinal edge of the second horizontal plate is slidably fitted within the groove 17 formed in the second longitudinal sidewall of the housing 16.

A bottom edge of the first vertical side plate is connected to the first horizontal plate, the first vertical side plate is configured as the first sidewall of the sliding plate and spaced apart from the first longitudinal sidewall of the substantially inverted U-shaped plates in the transverse direction B. As shown in Fig. 4, the second longitudinal edge of the first horizontal plate is extended transversely beyond the first vertical side plate in the transverse direction B so as to be fitted in groove 17.

A bottom edge of the second vertical side plate is connected to the second horizontal plate, the second vertical side plate is configured as the second sidewall of the sliding plate and spaced apart from the second longitudinal sidewall of the substantially inverted U-shaped plates in a transverse direction. As shown in Fig. 4, the second longitudinal edge of the second horizontal plate is extended transversely beyond the first vertical side plate in the transverse direction so as to be fitted in the groove 17.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the guiding and position-limiting structure 3 comprises a first substantially inverted L-shaped hole 4 formed in the first sidewall (the first vertical side plate) of the sliding plate 121 and a second substantially inverted L-shaped hole 14 formed in the second sidewall (the second vertical side plate)of the sliding plate 121.

More specifically, the first substantially inverted L-shaped hole 4 comprises a first vertical portion 402 and a first horizontal portion 401 connected to the upper end of the first vertical portion 402 and parallel to the length direction (the longitudinal direction A) of grooves 17, and the second inverted substantially L-shaped hole 14 comprises a second vertical portion 1402 and a second horizontal portion 1401 connected to the upper end of the second vertical portion 1402 and parallel to the length direction of grooves 17.

The first horizontal portion 401 of the first substantially inverted L-shaped hole 4 and the second horizontal portion 1401 of the second substantially inverted L-shaped hole 14 are used for limiting the position of the mounting bracket 6 when the mounting bracket 6 is in the folded position, and the first vertical portion 402 of the first substantially inverted L-shaped hole 4 and the second vertical portion 1402 of the second substantially inverted L-shaped hole 14 are used for guiding the mounting bracket 6 to flip.

a first circular arc transition is adopted between the first horizontal portion 401 of the first inverted L-shaped hole 4 and the first vertical portion 402 of the first inverted L-shaped hole 4, and a second circular arc transition is adopted between the second horizontal portion 1401 of the second inverted L-shaped hole 14 and the second vertical portion 1402 of the second inverted L-shaped hole 14. In other words, the connection portion between the first horizontal portion 401 and the first vertical portion 402 of the first inverted L-shaped hole 4 is arc-shaped, and the connection portion between the second horizontal portion 1401 and the second vertical portion 1402 of the first inverted L-shaped hole 4 is also arc-shaped, thus facilitating the position-limiting and guiding for the mounting bracket 6 .

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the guide column structure 601 comprises a first guide column 5 and a second guide column 13. The first guide column 5 has a first end connected to the first end of the mounting bracket 6 via a first connecting rod 51 , and a second end extending transversely beyond the first longitudinal side surface of the mounting bracket 6 and slidably fitted in the first substantially inverted L-shaped hole 4.

The second guide column 13 has a first end connected to the first end of the mounting bracket via a second connecting rod, and a second end extending transversely beyond the second longitudinal side surface of the mounting bracket 6 and slidably fitted in the second substantially inverted L-shaped hole 14.

The operation of the flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure will be briefly described below.

The power is provided by initiating the power assembly 2 mounted at the bottom in the receiving chamber of the housing 16, and the rotation of the power assembly 2 is converted into the linear sliding of the slide mechanism via the worm 19 meshed with the deceleration mechanism 20 and the deceleration mechanism 20 meshed with gear rack 9. Furthermore, the flipping of the mounting bracket 6 and the guiding for the mounting bracket 6 to flip is realized via the cooperation between the guiding and position-limiting structure 3 of the slide mechanism 12 and the guiding column structure 601 of the mounting bracket 6. Therefore, the mounting bracket 6 may flip between the extended position and the folded position, and thereby the flipping of the vehicle-mounted equipment is realized. Due to this, the vehicle-mounted equipment may be extended out of the dashboard of the vehicle when it is needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment, and the vehicle-mounted equipment may be received in the receiving hole 8 of the cover frame 7 when it is not needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment, thus the space of the interior of the vehicle occupied by the vehicle-mounted equipment is effectively reduced because the vehicle-mounted equipment is not necessary to be in the extended position at all time, and the mounting flexibility of the vehicle-mounted equipment is increased.

The vehicle according to embodiments of the present disclosure will be briefly described below, in which the vehicle according to embodiments of the present disclosure comprise the above mentioned flip device for vehicle-mounted equipment and a vehicle-mounted equipment. The housing 16 of the flip device is mounted in a dashboard of the vehicle. The vehicle-mounted equipment is mounted on the mounting bracket 6 of the flip device. The power is provided by controlling the power assembly 2 of the flip device, and the sliding mechanism 12 is driven to slide linearly in the housing, thereby the flipping and the guiding and position-limiting of the mounting bracket 6 is realized via the cooperation between the guiding and position-limiting structure 3 of the slide mechanism 12 and the guiding column structure 601, and then the flipping of the vehicle-mounted equipment is realized.

Due to this, the vehicle-mounted equipment may be extended out of the dashboard of the vehicle when it is needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment, and the vehicle-mounted equipment may be folded and received in the receiving hole 8 of the cover frame 7 when it is not needed to use the vehicle-mounted equipment. Therefore, the mounting flexibility of the vehicle-mounted equipment is effectively improved, and the humanization, intelligence and the comfortability of the vehicle are increased.

Although explanatory embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodiments can not be construed to limit the present disclosure, and changes, alternatives, and modifications can be made in the embodiments without departing from spirit, principles and scope of the present disclosure.