Flexible display apparatus and support assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12393231-B2
Application number	US-202118032210-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 26, 2021
Priority date	May 26, 2021
Publication date	Aug 19, 2025
Grant date	Aug 19, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed are a flexible display apparatus and a support assembly. The flexible display apparatus includes: a roller shaft; and a flexible module including a rolling and sliding region and a flat region. The rolling and sliding region moves around the roller shaft. The flexible module includes a flexible display screen and the support assembly. The support assembly is disposed on the side of the surface of the flexible display screen facing the roller shaft, and includes a first support member and a second support member. The second support member is disposed on the side of the first support member facing away from the flexible display screen, and includes a plurality of support bars. The plurality of support bars are arranged along the moving direction of the flexible module, and each support bar is consistent with the extending direction of the roller shaft and is fixed on the first support member.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flexible display apparatus, comprising:
a roller shaft; and
a flexible module comprising a rolling and sliding area and a plane area, wherein the rolling and sliding area is configured to move around the roller shaft to realize unfolding and folding of the flexible module; the flexible module comprises a flexible display screen and a support assembly; the support assembly is arranged on a surface of the flexible display screen facing the roller shaft, and comprises a first support member and a second support member; the first support member is a bendable plate-like structure, and the second support member is arranged on a side of the first support member away from the flexible display screen and comprises a plurality of support bars arranged in a moving direction of the flexible module, and each support bar has a same extending direction as the roller shaft and is fixed on the first support member;
wherein at least some of the plurality of support bars are provided with limiting parts, and positions between the at least some of the plurality of support bars and adjacent support bars thereof are limited relative to the limiting parts.

2. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a tension applying component;
wherein the support assembly comprises a first end and a second end oppositely arranged; the support assembly bypasses the roller shaft along a direction from the first end to the second end, and the first end is connected to the tension applying component.

3. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the tension applying component comprises a traction part, a steering shaft component and a fixing part;
the traction part comprises a third end and a fourth end, the third end is connected to the first support member, and the fourth end bypasses the steering shaft component and is connected to the fixing part; and
the roller shaft moves relative to the fixing part, to drive the flexible module to move and unfold around the roller shaft.

4. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the steering shaft component comprises a moving shaft and a fixed shaft; and the traction part bypasses the fixed shaft and the moving shaft so that an extending direction reversed twice; and
a position of a shaft center of the fixed shaft is fixed relative to the fixing part, and a position of a shaft center of the moving shaft is fixed relative to a shaft center of the roller shaft.

5. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising a first adhesive layer between the traction part and the first support member, wherein the traction part and the first support member are bonded by the first adhesive layer.

6. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein an edge of the first support member close to the first end exceeds an edge of the flexible display screen close to the first end, and the traction part is connected to a part of the first support member beyond the flexible display screen;
wherein the traction part is bonded to a surface of the first support member facing the flexible display screen;
wherein the traction part comprises a double-layer structure and the double-layer structure is respectively bonded to two surfaces of the first support member.

7. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein an edge of the first support member close to the first end is substantially aligned with an edge of the flexible display screen close to the first end, and the traction part is bonded to a surface of the first support member away from the flexible display screen.

8. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the first support member is provided with a first opening in a thickness direction of the first support member, the traction part is provided with a second opening, the first support member is connected to the traction part through connectors inserted into the first opening and the second opening, and the connectors are made of polymer material;
wherein the first opening is a half-through hole not penetrating the first support member or a through hole penetrating the first support member; and the second opening is a through hole penetrating the traction part.

9. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising a casing in which the roller shaft and the tension applying component are arranged;
wherein the first end of the support assembly is in the casing, and the second end of the support assembly bypasses the roller shaft and protrudes out of the casing.

10. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first support member is provided with a hollow opening in the rolling and sliding area; or
the first support member is provided with hollow openings in both the rolling and sliding area and the plane area.

11. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the hollow opening comprises at least two rows of through holes, each row of through holes is arranged in an extending direction of the roller shaft, the through holes in odd-numbered rows and the through holes in even-numbered rows are at least partly staggered; and the through holes are strip-shaped holes extending in the extending direction of the roller shaft.

12. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second support member is in the rolling and sliding area;
wherein the support assembly further comprises a reinforcement structure arranged on a side of the first support member away from the flexible display screen and arranged in the plane area.

13. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the reinforcement structure is made of a same material as the first support member or the second support member;
wherein a thickness of the reinforcement structure is substantially same as a thickness of the second support member in a direction perpendicular to the first support member.

14. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a second adhesive layer between the second support member and the first support member, wherein the second support member and the first support member are bonded through the second adhesive layer; and
the second adhesive layer comprises a base material layer and adhesive layers on both sides of the base material layer, and the base material layer is made of polymer material.

15. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first support member comprises metal or alloy material, and a thickness of the first support member is 0.02 mm-0.5 mm.

16. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second support member comprises metal, alloy or metal oxide material, a width of each of the support bars in the second support member is 0.1 mm-1 mm, and a thickness of each of the support bars in a direction perpendicular to the first support member is 0.1 mm-1 mm.

17. The flexible display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the limiting part comprises at least one of a protrusion structure and a groove structure; the protrusion structure comprises an arc protrusion, a square protrusion, a trapezoidal protrusion and a concave protrusion; and the groove structure comprises an arc groove, a square groove and a trapezoidal groove;
wherein the plurality of support bars comprise a first support bar located at one end; among the plurality of support bars, one sides of remaining support bars other than the first support bar facing the first support bar each are provided with the limiti

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd

Inventors

• Wang Haoran
• Liu Lu

Classifications

• G06F1/1618

  the display being foldable up to the back of the other housing with a single degree of freedom, e.g. by 360° rotation over the axis defined by the rear edge of the base enclosure · CPC title

• H04M1/0235

  Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts · CPC title

• G06F1/1624

  with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display · CPC title

• H04M1/0268

  including a flexible display panel · CPC title

• G09F9/301

  flexible foldable or roll-able electronic displays, e.g. thin LCD, OLED · CPC title