CN110828218A

CN110828218A - Keyboard device

Info

Publication number: CN110828218A
Application number: CN201810909253.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谢朝进; 张永生; 张益诚
Original assignee: Chicony Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Chicony Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-08-10
Filing date: 2018-08-10
Publication date: 2020-02-21
Anticipated expiration: 2038-08-10
Also published as: CN110828218B

Abstract

A keyboard device comprises a bottom plate, a plurality of keycaps, a circuit board, a plurality of reset pieces and a plurality of assembling structures. The bottom plate has an upper surface, and the upper surface is equipped with a plurality of equipment district. The plurality of keycaps are arranged above the bottom plate and respectively correspond to the plurality of assembly areas. The circuit board is arranged below the keycaps. A plurality of pieces that reset set up respectively between bottom plate and a plurality of key caps, and each key cap is supported by the elasticity top of each piece that resets. The plurality of assembling structures are respectively connected between the bottom plate and the plurality of keycaps, each assembling structure comprises an assembling piece and a long rod, the assembling piece is convexly arranged on the assembling area, and the long rod is arranged on the assembling piece in a way of being lifted relative to the bottom plate. Each key cap comprises a clamping part, the clamping part is sleeved on the long rod, and the key caps can be connected to the bottom plate in a swinging mode relative to the bottom plate by the clamping parts by taking the long rod as an axis.

Description

Keyboard device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a computer peripheral device, and more particularly, to a keyboard device.

Background

Generally, the key structure of the keyboard mainly includes a key cap, a scissors link (Scissor) and a bottom plate, and the scissors link is assembled on the bottom of the key cap and the bottom plate to achieve the function of supporting and guiding the key cap to move up and down.

However, the scissors-type connecting member occupies most of the space under the key cap, which affects the arrangement of other parts, besides the assembly process is complicated and difficult. In addition, for the light-emitting keyboard, the light generated by the backlight module must pass through the bottom plate and the scissors-type connecting member to reach the keycap, which causes the light energy loss and cannot be effectively utilized.

Disclosure of Invention

In one embodiment, a keyboard apparatus includes a base plate, a plurality of keycaps, a circuit board, a plurality of reset members, and a plurality of assembling structures. The bottom plate has an upper surface, and the upper surface is equipped with a plurality of equipment district. The plurality of keycaps are arranged above the bottom plate and respectively correspond to the plurality of assembly areas. The circuit board is arranged below the keycaps. A plurality of pieces that reset set up respectively between bottom plate and a plurality of key caps, and each key cap is supported by the elasticity top of each piece that resets. The plurality of assembling structures are respectively connected between the bottom plate and the plurality of keycaps, each assembling structure comprises an assembling piece and a long rod, the assembling piece is convexly arranged on the assembling area, and the long rod is arranged on the assembling piece in a way of being lifted relative to the bottom plate. Each key cap comprises a clamping part, the clamping part is sleeved on the long rod, and the key caps can be connected to the bottom plate in a swinging mode relative to the bottom plate by the clamping parts by taking the long rod as an axis.

In summary, the keyboard device of the embodiment of the invention is assembled and connected to the long rod of the assembling structure through the key cap, so that the cost of the keyboard and the assembling process can be reduced without arranging a scissor-type connecting piece, in addition, the usable space below the key cap can be increased, the arrangement of other parts is facilitated, or for a luminous keyboard, the light blocking can be reduced, and the luminous efficiency is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a keyboard device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of an embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a keyboard apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation diagram of the keyboard apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation diagram of a keyboard apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a partial sectional view of another embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a partial sectional view of a keyboard apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein the reference numerals are:

1 keyboard device

10 base plate

11 upper surface of the container

12 assembly area

13 assembling structure

14 first vertical plate

141 first long groove

15 second vertical plate

151 second long groove

16 long rod

17 hook

171 hook part

18 lower surface

19 assembling and connecting piece

20 reset piece

30 key cap

301 skirt

302 trigger block

31 clamping part

32 stop

40 circuit board

41 light hole

42 circuit trigger part

43 hole breaking

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a keyboard device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of an embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a keyboard apparatus of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the keyboard apparatus 1 of the present embodiment includes a base plate 10, a plurality of reset members 20, a plurality of key caps 30, and a circuit board 40. The circuit board 40 is disposed on the base plate 10, the plurality of key caps 30 are disposed above the circuit board 40, and the plurality of restoring members 20 are disposed between the plurality of key caps 30 and the circuit board 40, respectively.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the base plate 10 may be a hard plate made of metal (e.g., aluminum, steel, alloy, etc.) or plastic material, and has a function of a supporting component. The base plate 10 includes an upper surface 11 and a lower surface 18 opposite to each other, the upper surface 11 is provided with a plurality of assembly areas 12, and the assembly areas 12 are areas (e.g., a plurality of dashed grid areas in fig. 1) on the base plate 10 for the corresponding assembly of the key caps 30. Each assembling region 12 of the base plate 10 is provided with an assembling structure 13 for correspondingly assembling a plurality of keycaps 30.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the assembling structure 13 of each assembling area 12 includes an assembling member 19 and a long rod 16, wherein the long rod 16 is mounted on the assembling member 19 in a manner of being lifted relative to the base plate 10. For example, in the present embodiment, the assembling member 19 includes a first vertical plate 14 and a second vertical plate 15 disposed at an interval, wherein the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 are protruded upward from the upper surface 11 of the bottom plate 10. In this embodiment, the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 are plates integrally bent and extended upward from the bottom plate 10 (for example, integrally formed by a bending and stamping process), and the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 are disposed in parallel, where the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 are disposed in parallel to the X axis and spaced apart from each other along the Y axis direction, and the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 are close to one side of the assembly area 12. In other embodiments, the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 can also be assembled (for example, by adhering, welding, or fastening) and fixed on the bottom plate 10, which is not limited in this embodiment.

As shown in fig. 2, the circuit board 40 may be formed with two holes 43 corresponding to the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15, and the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 protrude out of the surface of the circuit board 40 by penetrating the two holes 43. First vertical plate 14 is provided with first long groove 141, and second vertical plate 15 is provided with second long groove 151. In the present embodiment, first elongated slot 141 and second elongated slot 151 extend in the vertical direction (e.g., in the Z-axis direction in fig. 2) and are at the same height position with respect to each other. In some embodiments, first slot 141 and second slot 151 may be formed by, but are not limited to, punching.

As shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the long rod 16 of the assembling structure 13 in each assembling area 12 can be a circular long rod made of metal or plastic material, and the long rod 16 is inserted into the first long groove 141 of the first vertical plate 14 and the second long groove 151 of the second vertical plate 15. As shown in fig. 2, in the present embodiment, the long rod 16 passes through the first long slot 141 and the second long slot 151 along the Y-axis direction, and the long rod 16 can slide up and down along the first long slot 141 and the second long slot 151 to approach or depart from the base plate 10, for example, in the present figure, the long rod 16 can slide relative to the base plate 10 along the Z-axis direction and is limited by the first long slot 141 and the second long slot 151 to prevent easy detachment, and in addition, since both ends of the long rod 16 are not fixed, the long rod 16 can also rotate relative to the first long slot 141 and the second long slot 151.

As shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the assembling structure 13 further includes a hook 17, wherein the hook 17 is disposed between the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 and located at one side of the long rod 16, and a hook portion 171 is disposed at a top end of the hook 17. In the present embodiment, the hook 17 is a plate integrally bent and extended upward from the bottom plate 10 (for example, integrally formed by a bending and stamping process), the hook 171 is a folded plate bent from the top end of the hook 17 toward the long rod 16, and the hook 17, the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15 are close to the same side of the assembly area 12. In other embodiments, the hook 17 can also be assembled (for example, by adhesion, welding or fastening) and fixed on the base plate 10, which is not limited in this embodiment.

As shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, a plurality of restoring members 20 are respectively disposed in each assembling area 12 of the base plate 10, for example, the restoring members 20 can be adhesively fixed on the surface of the assembling area 12, and the restoring member 20 and the hook member 17 in each assembling area 12 are respectively located at two opposite sides of the long rod 16. In the present embodiment, the restoring member 20 in each assembling area 12 is disposed in the central region of the assembling area 12, and the long rod 16 and the hook 17 are both located on the same side of the restoring member 20. In some embodiments, each of the restoring members 20 may be a rubber body (rubber body), a mechanical switch, or a spring (e.g., metal spring), but is not limited thereto.

As shown in fig. 1 to 3, a plurality of key caps 30 are disposed above the base plate 10 and the circuit board 40 and respectively correspond to the plurality of assembly regions 12, each key cap 30 is provided with a clamping portion 31 and a stop member 32, the clamping portion 31 is located at the bottom of the key cap 30, the stop member 32 is located at one side of the key cap 30, wherein the clamping portion 31 is sleeved on the long rod 16, the stop member 32 is clamped on the hook portion 171 of the hook member 17, the reset member 20 elastically abuts against the bottom of the key cap 30, in the present embodiment, the reset member 20 elastically abuts against the center of the bottom of the key cap 30, so that the key cap 30 can be maintained at a predetermined height, but not limited thereto, the reset member 20 elastically abuts against other portions of the bottom of the key cap 30.

As shown in fig. 3, in the present embodiment, the clamping portion 31 of the key cap 30 is a fastener to be correspondingly sleeved outside the long rod 16, so that when the key cap 30 swings relative to the base plate 10, the key cap 30 can rotate relative to the long rod 16 or the key cap 30 can synchronously drive the long rod 16 to rotate in the first long groove 141 and the second long groove 151. The stop member 32 is a plate integrally extending to one side of the key cap 30, and the stop member 32 is located below the hook portion 171 of the hook 17, and the reset member 20 elastically abuts against the key cap 30 upwards, so that the stop member 32 can abut against the hook portion 171 to achieve the effect of blocking and limiting. The operation of the keyboard device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, in the present embodiment, a trigger block 302 protrudes downward from one side of each key cap 30, the key cap 30 has a side edge 301 away from the hook 17, and the trigger block 302 integrally protrudes downward from the side edge 301, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the trigger block 302 may also protrude downward from other sides of the key cap 30. The circuit board 40 may have a plurality of circuit triggering portions 42, for example, conductive traces (not shown) may be disposed on the circuit board 40, each circuit triggering portion 42 is an electrical contact connected to the conductive trace, and each circuit triggering portion 42 of the circuit board 40 corresponds to the triggering block 302 of each keycap 30. When a user presses the center of the key cap 30 downwards, the key cap 30 presses the restoring member 20 downwards to compress and accumulate an elastic force, and drives the long rod 16 to slide downwards along the first long groove 141 and the second long groove 151, so that the key cap 30 can descend averagely (as shown in fig. 4) and the triggering block 302 can correspondingly abut against the circuit triggering portion 42 to trigger the conductive circuit of the circuit board 40 to generate a corresponding signal. When the user releases the key cap 30, the reset element 20 pushes the key cap 30 to move upward, and the key cap 30 can drive the long rod 16 to slide upward along the first long groove 141 and the second long groove 151, and the trigger block 302 can be separated from the circuit trigger portion 42, and in addition, when the stop element 32 of the key cap 30 pushes the hook portion 171 of the hook element 17 and the long rod 16 pushes upward to the first vertical plate 14 and the second vertical plate 15, the key cap 30 can be limited at a predetermined height to prevent the disengagement.

In some embodiments, the Circuit Board 40 may be any type of Circuit Board, such as a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), a Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB), or a Rigid-Flex Circuit Board (rig-Flex PCB), but is not limited thereto.

Referring to fig. 3 and 5, when the user presses down one side of the key cap 30 (as shown in fig. 5, the side of the key cap 30 away from the hook 17 and provided with the trigger block 302), the key cap 30 swings around the long rod 16 (clockwise swing in fig. 5), so that the pressed side of the key cap 30 approaches the circuit board 40, and the trigger block 302 correspondingly abuts against the circuit trigger portion 42 of the circuit board 40, so as to trigger the conductive trace of the circuit board 40 to generate a corresponding signal. The key cap 30 also presses the reset element 20 downward to compress and accumulate the elastic force, and the key cap 30 continuously presses the hook portion 171 of the hook 17 upward elastically against the stopper 32 on the pressed side to achieve the stopper limit function. When the user releases the key cap 30, the reset element 20 pushes the key cap 30 to move upward, and the key cap 30 swings around the long rod 16 as an axis to reset (as shown in fig. 3), so that the trigger block 302 is separated from the circuit trigger portion 42 of the circuit board 40. In addition, the hook 17 is a plate bent and extended integrally from the base plate 10, so that when the hook 171 of the hook 17 is pushed upward by the stopper 32, it can generate a downward pushing elastic force to help the keycap 30 to reset.

In summary, the key cap 30 of the keyboard apparatus 1 of the embodiment of the present invention is connected to the base plate 10 by the long rod 16 assembled to the assembling structure 13. Compared with the conventional keyboard, the keyboard can reduce the cost and assembly process of the keyboard without a Scissor type connector (Scissor). In addition, the available space below the keycap 30 can be increased, and the arrangement of other parts is facilitated. For the light-emitting keyboard, the blocking of light can be further reduced to improve the light-emitting efficiency, for example, as shown in fig. 2, the circuit board 40 can be provided with a plurality of light-transmitting holes 41, and since the keyboard apparatus 1 of the embodiment of the present invention does not need to be provided with scissors-type connectors, when the light is transmitted upwards through the light-transmitting holes 41, the light quantity of the transmitted keycap 30 can be increased without being blocked by the components.

In addition to the above advantages, in the embodiment of the invention, through the structural design that the long rod 16 is inserted into the first long groove 141 of the first vertical plate 14 and the second long groove 151 of the second vertical plate 15, and can rotate or lift relative to the first long groove 141 and the second long groove 151, the key cap 30 can provide two different pressing operation modes, for example, the vertical lifting pressing mode of fig. 4 or the piano pressing mode of fig. 5, so as to generate different pressing handfeel.

In another embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, each circuit triggering portion 42 of the circuit board 40 may also correspond to the bottom of each resetting member 20, and when the key cap 30 is pressed down, the resetting member 20 may be compressed and pressed down against the circuit triggering portion 42 to trigger the conductive circuit of the circuit board 40 to generate a corresponding signal. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the circuit board 40 may also have two circuit triggering portions 42 in each assembly area 12, wherein one circuit triggering portion 42 corresponds to the bottom of the reset element 20, and the other circuit triggering portion 42 corresponds to the triggering block 302 on the side edge 301 of the key cap 30, so that the key cap 30 can ensure that at least one circuit triggering portion 42 of the circuit board 40 is triggered to generate a corresponding signal no matter in a vertically lifting pressing manner (as shown in fig. 4) or a piano pressing manner (as shown in fig. 5), which is omitted from the illustration of this embodiment.

As shown in fig. 7, in an embodiment, the position where the reset member 20 elastically abuts against the key cap 30 may be adjacent to the trigger block 302, in this example, the side edge 301 is located on a side of the key cap 30 away from the hook 17 and is provided with the trigger block 302, and the reset member 20 abuts against a partial area of the bottom of the key cap 30 close to the trigger block 302, so that when the key cap 30 is laterally pressed (as shown in fig. 5), the generation of idle stroke can be further reduced.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it should be understood that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A keyboard apparatus, comprising:

a bottom plate having an upper surface with a plurality of assembly areas;

a plurality of keycaps arranged above the bottom plate and respectively corresponding to the assembly areas;

the circuit board is arranged below the keycaps;

the plurality of resetting pieces are respectively arranged between the bottom plate and the keycaps, and the keycaps are propped against by the elasticity of the resetting pieces; and

a plurality of assembling structures respectively connected between the bottom plate and the keycaps, wherein each assembling structure comprises an assembling piece and a long rod, the assembling piece is convexly arranged on the assembling area, and the long rod is arranged on the assembling piece in a way of being capable of lifting relative to the bottom plate;

each key cap comprises a clamping part, the clamping part is sleeved on the long rod, and the key cap is connected to the bottom plate in a swinging mode relative to the bottom plate by the clamping part with the long rod as an axis.

2. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein the rod is rotatably attached to the assembly member.

3. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein the holding portion of each keycap is rotatably disposed on the rod.

4. The keyboard apparatus of claim 2, wherein the assembly member further comprises a first vertical plate and a second vertical plate protruding from the assembly region, the first vertical plate and the second vertical plate are spaced apart from each other, and the rod is vertically movably mounted on the first vertical plate and the second vertical plate relative to the base plate.

5. The keyboard apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first vertical plate has a first elongated slot, the second vertical plate has a second elongated slot, and the rod is disposed through the first elongated slot and the second elongated slot.

6. The keyboard apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first vertical plate and the second vertical plate are integrally bent and extended upward from the bottom plate.

7. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of assembling structures further comprises a hook, and a stopper is disposed on one side of each of the plurality of keycaps and engaged with the hook.

8. The keyboard apparatus of claim 7, wherein the hook is integrally bent and extended upward from the base plate.

9. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the reset members elastically abuts against a center of each of the key caps.

10. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein the circuit board has a plurality of circuit triggering portions corresponding to bottoms of the reset members, respectively.

11. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein the circuit board has a plurality of circuit triggering portions, and each of the key caps further has a triggering block protruding downward from one side thereof, the triggering blocks of the key caps respectively corresponding to the circuit triggering portions.

12. The keyboard apparatus of claim 11, wherein each of the reset members is adjacent to the trigger block of each of the keycaps.

13. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the reset members is a rubber body, a mechanical switch or a spring.