Holder for a portable telephone

Phone storage rack

The invention relates to a telephone storage holder which is provided to lock the telephone in place in the holder.

In the present invention, a telephone means in particular a handset or a control device for a car telephone or the like, the so-called handsets. These may be equipped with a stand on which the telephone 10 can be locked so that it cannot fall unintentionally. Until now, such storage racks have been complex in structure and consist of a large number of parts, which has made it laborious and time-consuming to assemble. The stands have also been awkward15 to use and have caused the phone to be scratched.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an even simpler telephone storage rack in which the disadvantages of the previous racks are avoided. The invention is characterized in that the cradle consists of at least two rotatably articulated parts, one of which serves as a telephone base and the other a fixed part of the cradle, and that the cradle is provided with locking catches engaging the telephone and counter-pressing surfaces in said cradle parts, that the pressing surfaces wedge during the rotation of the parts of the stand to lock the locking members against the telephone and lock it in place.

In the storage according to the invention, the telephone is placed in a part of the stand acting as a base, after which the locking takes place by rotating the parts of the stand relative to each other. Thus, the phone does not move relative to its base during locking and is not subject to abrasion, which could cause scratches. Using the stand is simple, 35 as the phone is attached to and detached from the stand in one go.

The storage rack according to the invention preferably consists of two substantially nested parts, the inner part of which acts as a base for the telephone. The parts of such a stand can be articulated from their lower parts to each other, and the articulation pin between the parts 5 can further be arranged to act as a holder for the lower end of the telephone placed in the stand.

The storage rack according to the invention can advantageously be formed as a cup with a bottom and three side walls, from the fourth, open side of which the telephone can be easily placed in the rack and pushed with its bases into a position where the telephone locks into the rack. When placing the phone in the stand does not require a long sliding movement, the installation space required by the stand is also even smaller.

The locking latches required for the invention are preferably projections on the inner surface of the front part of the stand, which can be pressed into the recesses provided in the sides of the telephone. The solution can be implemented, for example, by arranging flexible, strip-like parts on the sides of the front of the stand, which are attached to the base of the stand, the tips of which are formed as protrusions projecting into the recesses in the telephone. The strip-like parts are located against the pressing surfaces belonging to the rear part of the stand so that during the mutual movement of the front and rear parts of the stand 25 they wedge towards the phone in the stand and lock the phone into the stand from their protruding tips.

The stand according to the invention may comprise a spring-loaded latch 30, which is arranged to lock the parts of the stand together after they have been twisted into a mutual locking position, where due to the rotational movement the telephone has also become locked in place. The relative movement of the rack parts can then be controlled by arranging the telephone 35 placed in the rack to press the latch so that the latch first releases the rack parts to rotate relative to each other and then locks the parts in place when they reach their mutual locking position. The latch may be formed, for example, by a rod-like slide which is connected to the inner part of the holder acting as a base for the telephone and the tip of which is arranged to lock into the recess provided in the outer part of the holder.

The invention will now be described in more detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a telephone and a telephone storage rack according to the invention, Figure 2 shows a cross-section of the rack of Figure 1 in which the telephone is placed, Figure 3 shows a cross-section of the rack of Figure 1 Fig. 4 shows a horizontal section of the stand according to Fig. 1 with the telephone placed therein before rotating the stand parts 15 to the locking position, and Fig. 5 shows a horizontal section of the stand according to Fig. 1 with the telephone in the locking position (section VV from Fig. 3).

Figure 1 shows a telephone 1, such as, for example, a handset or a car telephone drive, and a storage rack 2 according to the invention, in which the telephone can be placed and locked so that it cannot be accidentally dropped. The storage rack 2 consists of two mainly nested parts 3, 4, of which the inner front part 3 acts as a base on which the telephone 1 can be placed. The parts 3, 4 of the stand are connected to each other by a pivot pin 5 belonging to the front part 3, which enables the parts to rotate relative to each other.

-30 The storage rack 2 shown has three side walls

6-8 and a forward opening cup comprising a base 9, into which the telephone 1 can be placed from its open side according to FIG. In the embodiment shown, a notch 11 is formed in the lower end 10 of the telephone, which receives the articulation pin 5 between the parts 3, 4 of the te35 so that the articulation pin acts as a holder for the lower end 10 of the telephone placed in the holder (cf. Fig. 3).

On the opposite sides 6, 8 of the front part 3 of the stand, flexible strips 12 are formed, which act as locking members for locking the phone 1 to the stand. Each strip 12 is provided by forming a narrow, U-shaped slot 13 on the side 6, 8 of the front part 3 of the stand, which surrounds the strip on three sides, leaving it at its base 14 attached to the stand. The tip of each strip 12 is formed as an inwardly directed protrusion 16 from the inner surface 15 of the rack. Correspondingly, recesses 17 are formed in the sides of the telephone 1, into which the projections 16 protrude when the telephone is locked in the holder.

The relative movement of the articulated parts 3, 4 of the storage rack 2 is regulated by a latch-like rod-like slider 18 connected to the outer surface of the rack front side 3 and provided with a spring 19. For the tip 20 of the rack 18 pulled to lock. The end of the slider 18 opposite said tip 20 is bent into a forward tongue 22 which the lower end 10 of the telephone can be pressed when the telephone is placed in the holder.

Figures 4 and 5 show oblique pressing surfaces 23 formed on the outer sides of the strips 12 in the front part 3 of the rack and opposite the inner sides of the rear part 4 of the rack. 16 protrude into the recesses 17 on the sides of the telephone as shown in FIG.

The telephone storage holder 2 according to the drawings operates in such a way that when the telephone 1 is placed, e.g. on the base formed by the front part 3 according to Fig. 2, in the position shown in Fig. 4, the telephone presses the tongue 18 against the force of the spring 19 so that the slide tip 20 is released. 4 behind the shoulder 24. By pushing further from the telephone 1, the front part 3 of the stand can then rotate relative to the rear part 4, until in the locking position according to Figs. 3 and 5 the tip 20 lu5 of the slider engages in the recess in the back of the stand.

21. At the same time, the pressing surfaces 23 have forced the tips 16 of the strips 12 to protrude into the recesses 17 in the telephone so that the telephone is locked in the holder. Detachment of the telephone 1 from the holder 2 takes place by a slight jerk, which releases the slide tip 20 from the recess 21 and the parts of the holder return to the position according to Figure 4, where the telephone can be freely lifted out of the holder.

The parts of the storage rack according to the invention can be made of plastic by injection molding. Alternatively, the back of the rack and the slide can be made of metal by casting. If the front of the stand is made of a softer plastic than normal construction plastics, it may be possible to wedge the phone into the stand on the basis of friction alone, so that the projections at the tips of the strips pressed against the phone can be omitted unnecessarily. The locking members then consist of inner surfaces of the strips which are pressed against the telephone or of the inner surfaces of the entire front part of the stand, which can be pressed against the telephone. In general, however, the projections provide a more secure locking.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various embodiments of the invention may, within the scope of the claims, differ from those exemplified in the drawings in other ways.