Articulated keyboard support mechanisms are typically mounted on and associated with work surfaces and desktops to support a computer keyboard. Such mechanisms are additionally often provided with an associated support pad for a user's wrist or palm. These support pads are conventionally fixed height foam or gel pads that lie along the front edge of the keyboard support on the upper surface thereof. While keyboarding, a user may rest his wrists or palms on the support pad to improve ergonomics. Different users require different heights in order to adequately support their hands. Moreover, recent developments in ergonomics suggest that a user should occasionally alter the position of their hands in an effort to reduce repetitive stresses. A fixed height support pad does not provide the desirable height adjustment relative to the keyboard. Moreover, keyboards may have different heights. Thus, one height of a support adjacent one keyboard may be inadequate adjacent a different keyboard. In fact, it may be desirable to remove the support from the keyboard support mechanism.
Numerous keyboard support mechanisms have been developed for supporting a keyboard adjacent a worksurface. Some keyboard support mechanisms include a wrist or palm support fixed to the tray supporting the keyboard. In known arrangements, the height of the wrist support is adjustable to account for the differences in keyboard construction and users. For example, in some keyboard support mechanisms, the wrist support cooperates with two separate rotatable threaded members, which are rotatably secured to the keyboard support tray and individually manually rotated for adjusting the height of respective ends of the wrist support. Users of these types of mechanism experience difficulties in maintaining the support pad in a level orientation due to the difficulty in synchronizing movement of the two threaded members. Moreover, the threads typically require a plurality of time-consuming revolutions to adjust the height of the wrist support. In other more structurally complex mechanisms, the wrist support cooperates with a single lateral slide, which is slidably secured to the keyboard support tray and laterally slides to adjust the height of the wrist support. Examples of prior keyboard support mechanisms are found in: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,545,554; 5,219,136; 5,375,800; 5,421,543; 5,443,237; 5,507,458; and 5,836,560.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved keyboard support arrangement that accommodates both a keyboard support tray and a wrist/palm support pad while greatly improving upon both the structure and the convenience and flexibility of use in comparison to known structures.
More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a height adjustable wrist/palm support pad arrangement which is supported by a pair of rotatable camming hubs which are linked for synchronous rotational displacement and one of which has a manually-engagable actuator part to enable simple height adjustment by an operator.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a keyboard support arrangement which includes both a main keyboard support tray and a height adjustable wrist/palm support pad removably secured to the main keyboard support tray so as to provide increased convenience and flexibility of use with respect to the support pad. In the improved support pad arrangement, the support pad is easily selectively separable from or mountable on the keyboard support tray. A connecting assembly is provided on the pad for removably securing the support pad to the tray.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the keyboard support arrangement includes a keyboard support tray and a wrist/palm support pad adapted to support a user's wrist or palm thereon. A connecting and height adjusting structure detachably fixes the support pad on the tray upper surface and positions the support pad at one of a plurality of different heights. In one position of the connecting and height adjusting structure, the support pad is removable from the tray. In a second position, the support pad is secured to the tray at a first height. In a third position, the support pad is secured to the tray at a second height.
Further in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the connecting and height adjusting structure has two interconnected hubs each including radial flanges which are rotatably received in channels in the tray to rotatably fix the hubs to the tray. Once the support pad is attached to the tray, the connecting and height adjusting structure adjusts the height of the support pad relative to the tray by rotation of the hub causing opposed cam elements to react with and effect height adjustment of the support pad.
Another object of the invention is to provide a single actuator for both releasing the support pad from the keyboard support tray and adjusting the height of the support pad relative to the tray. More specifically, the rotatable hubs are linked together, and one of the hubs has a manually-engagable actuator part to effect synchronous rotation of the linked hubs to adjust the height of the support pad or release the support pad from the keyboard support tray.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.