CN214954732U

CN214954732U - Toggle button

Info

Publication number: CN214954732U
Application number: CN202121761586.5U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张素华; 胡方悦
Original assignee: Kongsberg Automotive Wuxi Ltd
Current assignee: Kongsberg Automotive Wuxi Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-30
Filing date: 2021-07-30
Publication date: 2021-11-30
Anticipated expiration: 2031-07-30

Abstract

A dial knob (100), wherein the dial knob (100) comprises: a dial knob housing (110), the dial knob housing (110) being injection molded, the dial knob housing (110) defining a first surface (111) and a second surface (112) opposite the first surface (111), the dial knob (100) further comprising: a dial inner core (120), the dial inner core (120) defining an outer surface (121), wherein the second surface (112) of the dial outer housing (110) comprises a closed portion, the closed portion being over-molded on the outer surface (121) of the dial inner core (120). According to the utility model discloses a dial the button and both satisfied the requirement of injection molding surface quality and be convenient for provide intact chromium plating surface again.

Description

Toggle button

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a mechanical design and manufacturing field. Specifically, the utility model relates to a design and the manufacturing field of selector. More specifically, the present invention relates to a dial knob for a dial knob type shifter.

Background

Toggle shifters are well known in the art.

Generally, a knob type shifter includes a knob to be manipulated by a user, such as a driver. The dial is rotatable about a dial axis from a neutral position to one or more shift positions and back from the one or more shift positions to the neutral position.

In order to reduce the weight of the dial knob, the dial knob body in the prior art is generally formed by an injection molded thin shell member. Thus, the outwardly facing and generally contoured surface of the shell member constitutes a surface for viewing and manipulation by a user. The surface is also typically chrome plated for aesthetic and durability purposes, and thus may also be referred to as a chrome plated surface.

Most of the chrome-plated surface of the dial knob body is directly protruded or recessed from the thin shell member, and in this case, the portion of the dial knob body can be integrally formed by a conventional injection molding process.

For certain shapes of dial, it is also a requirement in the design that at least one portion of the chrome-plated surface of the dial, particularly the portion occupying a volume of space (e.g., a column), be coupled to the dial body by a support such as a fork, spaced a distance from the other portion of the dial body.

In this case, if the normal injection molding process is still used, it is difficult to form the at least one part (e.g., the cylindrical part) as a hollow body from a thin shell part, but a solid injection molded body is directly obtained.

This is often undesirable for the following reasons:

on one hand, the solid injection molding body has large diameter and uneven cooling, is easy to generate surface defects such as reduction printing, foaming and the like, and is difficult to meet the appearance requirement of the shifting knob of the gear shifter; and is

On the other hand, such solid injection-molded bodies consume a large amount of injection-molding material, resulting in a high manufacturing cost of the toggle button.

Therefore, in order to avoid the above technical problems, it is generally considered in the prior art that these parts of the chrome-plated surface are separately manufactured by fitting and the parts are assembled by means of engagement or the like to obtain a final toggle product.

However, even with this solution, there are a number of problems, as follows:

on the one hand, due to hardening by chrome-plating of the surface, the parts are difficult to elastically deform during assembly, thereby causing inconvenience in assembly; and is

On the other hand, the chrome-plated surface is also easily damaged by rubbing during assembly.

In summary, the prior art products have difficulty in meeting the requirements of various dial button designs and performances.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

Based on the above-mentioned technical problem in the button manufacturing of dialling that exists among the prior art, the utility model aims to provide a dial button for selector, this kind of dial button both satisfies the requirement of injection molding surface quality and is convenient for provide intact chromium plating surface again.

To this end, the utility model provides a shifting knob for a gear shifter, wherein,

the dial knob includes:

a toggle housing, wherein:

the toggle shell is formed by injection molding;

the toggle housing defines a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface,

the toggle button further comprises:

dial the button inner core, wherein:

the toggle inner core defines an outer surface,

according to the concept of the present invention, the toggle button further has the following technical features:

the second surface of the toggle housing includes a closed portion;

the closing portion is over-molded on the outer surface of the toggle inner core.

By encapsulating the closed portion on the outer surface of the dial button inner core, the entire dial button outer shell is allowed to be formed in a thin shell form in a scene where an injection molding process is adopted, thereby facilitating the guarantee of the surface quality of the dial button outer shell.

According to another preferred aspect of a preferred embodiment of the toggle button of the present invention, the toggle button further has the following features:

the inner core of the toggle button can be columnar.

The columnar toggle inner core can provide better rigidity and strength, and the hand feeling is better when the toggle is operated.

the outer contour of the cross section of the toggle inner core is in an axisymmetric hexagon.

The hexagonal toggle inner core has an aesthetic appearance and facilitates a user to manipulate the toggle well by pushing the toggle housing outside the toggle inner core when the toggle is rotated to different rotational angles about its rotational axis.

the portions of the first surface of the toggle housing may be integrally connected and may be chrome plated.

The chrome plating on the integrated toggle shell avoids the damage to the plating layer in the assembling process of the assembling product in the prior art, and avoids the elastic deformation possibly introduced by assembling modes such as clamping and the like.

the second surface of the toggle housing may further include an open portion separated from the closed portion.

The arrangement of the open part enables the dial knob body to present richer appearance shapes and is favorable for saving materials of the corresponding part.

the toggle shell and the toggle inner core can be made of different materials.

The different materials of the dial shell and the dial core allow better adaptation to the need for cost control of manufacturing of dial cores that consume large amounts of material.

the toggle shell may be constructed of engineering plastic.

The dial housing made of engineering plastic has a high surface quality and superior durability, and the thin housing member requires a small amount of material without placing an excessive burden on the overall manufacturing cost of the dial.

the toggle housing may include:

an arched base that is arched in a first direction from the second surface toward the first surface;

two fork parts protruding from the arched base in the first direction so that the toggle inner core is disposed between the two fork parts.

The two prongs allow a better hold of the toggle shell part outside the toggle inner core.

the toggle housing may further include:

a rib portion protruding from the arched base in the first direction and located between the two fork portions, wherein the toggle inner core and the rib portion may further be spaced apart in the first direction by a distance.

The rib portion is arranged to be beneficial to enhancing the stability of the tail end of the fork portion.

the thickness of the toggle shell can be 1.5 to 2 centimeters.

A thinner dial housing allows for a savings in the amount of relatively costly dial housing material.

To sum up, the utility model discloses a dial button for dialling button formula selector has realized the requirement to injection molding surface quality through the great button inner core of dialling of gluing the cross section in dialling the button shell that is thin shell spare to allow the button shell integrated into one piece of dialling of each part and help providing intact and harmless bad chromium plating surface.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description illustrate various embodiments and are intended to provide an overview or framework for understanding the nature and character of the claimed subject matter.

Drawings

This document includes the accompanying drawings to provide a further understanding of various embodiments. The accompanying drawings are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification.

The drawings illustrate various embodiments described herein, and together with the description serve to explain the principles and operations of the claimed subject matter.

With reference to the above purposes, the technical features of the invention are hereinafter clearly described, and the advantages thereof are apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, a preferred embodiment of the invention, without limiting its scope.

In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a toggle button according to the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic front view of the preferred embodiment of the dial knob according to the present invention shown in fig. 1;

fig. 3 is a sectional view of the preferred embodiment of the dial knob according to the present invention shown in fig. 2, taken along the line III-III of fig. 2.

List of reference numerals

100 dial button

110 toggle shell

111 first surface

112 second surface

120 inner core of toggle button

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below.

While the present invention will be described in conjunction with the exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that this description is not intended to limit the invention to those embodiments illustrated.

On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover not only these exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention.

For convenience in explanation and accurate definition of the technical solutions of the present invention, the terms "upper", "lower", "inner" and "outer" are used to describe features of the exemplary embodiments with reference to the positions of these features as shown in the figures.

Referring to fig. 1-3, a toggle 100 for a shifter in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown.

The dial knob 100 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes: a toggle housing 110 and a toggle inner core 120, as shown in fig. 3.

In the present invention, the button casing 110 is injection molded. As also shown in fig. 3, the dial knob housing 110 defines a first surface 111 and a second surface 112 opposite the first surface 111. From the perspective of an observer or user, the first surface 111 faces outward and can be considered as an outer surface of the dial shell 110, and the second surface 112 faces inward and can be considered as an inner surface of the dial shell 110.

In the preferred embodiment, portions of the first surface 111 of the knob housing 110 are integrally connected and chrome plated. The integral connection referred to herein may be obtained by integral injection molding, or may be integrated by welding, fusion welding, or the like after being manufactured separately. However, whatever the manner of integration, the chrome plating is only carried out on the first surface 111 that remains after the integration.

According to a preferred embodiment, the toggle housing 110 can be constructed of an engineering plastic. In addition, the selection range of the toggle button housing 110 of the present invention is not limited thereto. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the toggle housing 110 can be constructed of various other plastic materials suitable for injection molding.

In a further preferred embodiment, the thickness of the toggle housing 110 can be 1.5 to 2 centimeters. Of course, the thickness of the button housing 110 can be varied by one skilled in the art according to the actual requirement, such as less than 1.5 cm or more than 2 cm.

In addition, although the thickness of each part of the dial knob housing 110 shown in fig. 3 is substantially constant, those skilled in the art can select and injection mold the dial knob housing 110 with different thickness of each part according to actual requirements, as long as the thickness variation of the housing at each position meets the cooling requirement of injection molding without adversely affecting the surface quality.

According to a more preferred embodiment, the dial outer shell 110 and the dial inner core 120 may be constructed of different materials.

More specifically, since the amount of material used for the inner knob core 120 is greater than the amount of material used for the outer knob housing 110 and the inner knob core 120 is completely covered by the outer knob housing 110 without being exposed, the material requirement for the inner knob core 120 is much lower than the material requirement for the outer knob housing 110, thus generally allowing the material of the inner knob core 120 to be selected at a much lower cost than the material of the outer knob housing 110. Those skilled in the art can select suitable materials to form the toggle inner core 120 according to the characteristics of density, strength, etc.

Referring now to fig. 1 and 2, a specific form of a dial knob 100 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be explained. As shown in fig. 1, the knob housing 110 may include an arched base, two prongs, and a beam portion that wraps outside the knob core 120.

The arched base may be arched, for example, in a first direction (upward in the figure) from the second surface 112 toward the first surface 111. The arched base can, for example, be a partial circumferential section of a cylinder centered on the axis of rotation of the dial knob. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, both ends of the arched base in the direction of the rotation axis may also be provided with truncated cones that taper toward both ends, respectively. The end of each truncated cone, i.e. the end of the arched base, may also be provided with an end surface perpendicular to said axis of rotation, to provide a better appearance. The bottom of the end surface may be substantially flush with the bottom of the cylindrical portion of the arcuate base.

The two fork portions may protrude from the arched base in the above-described first direction so that the dial inner core 120, i.e., the beam portion of the dial outer shell 110, is disposed between the two fork portions. The two prongs may preferably project in the first direction from the two ends of the arcuate base respectively.

With continued reference to fig. 1 and 2, the toggle housing 110 can also preferably include a rib that projects in the first direction from the arcuate base and is located between the two prongs. The knob core 120 is spaced apart from the rib in the first direction by a distance. The distance preferably may be such that the closest distance between the two is about 3 to 4 centimeters. The upper surface of the rib may be substantially planar or slightly curved and may transition from the upper surface of the rib to the arcuate base by a ramp.

In addition, one or more connectors may be provided in the dial housing 110 that protrude downward from the second surface 112 of the dial housing 110 for attaching the dial 100 to other components of the dial shifter. Some or all of these connectors may even extend downwardly beyond the bottom of the arched base. However, since these connectors protrude downward from the second surface 112 of the dial housing 110, they are not considered herein as part of the dial housing 110, nor do their respective surfaces belong to either the first surface 111 or the second surface 112 of the dial housing 110, nor do they affect the thickness of the dial housing 110 at the location of the connectors.

With continued reference to fig. 3, the toggle inner core 120 defines an outer surface 121. The outer surface 121 is only the outer surface of the button inner core 120, and as can be clearly seen in fig. 3, the outer surface 121 is completely covered by the button outer shell 110 without being exposed.

In the preferred embodiment shown, for example, in fig. 3, the toggle inner core 120 may be cylindrical and have a cross-sectional shape perpendicular to the length direction that is constant. It is noted that although the button inner core 120 shown in fig. 3 is a solid cylinder, the button inner core 120 itself may be designed to be hollow according to actual needs by those skilled in the art.

However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the cross-sectional shape of the toggle inner core 120 may also vary with the position along the length direction according to actual requirements. For example, the diameter of the envelope profile at both ends of the dial inner core 120 may be set to be different from the diameter of the envelope profile at the center of the dial inner core 120, such as large at both ends and small in the middle, or large at both ends and middle, etc. The change of the above-mentioned size of the toggle inner core 120 may be continuously gradual or may be abrupt.

In addition, in a more preferred embodiment, the outer profile of the cross section of the toggle inner core 120 is in the shape of an axisymmetric hexagon.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 3, the hexagon is not a regular hexagon, but is wider at the upper portion and narrower at the bottom portion. However, those skilled in the art can select non-axisymmetrical hexagonal shapes, other polygonal shapes, circular shapes, etc. as the cross-sectional outer contour shape of the toggle inner core 120 according to actual needs. It is understood that the cross-sectional shape of the toggle inner core 120 at different sections may also be different according to different design requirements. At this point, the cross-sectional shape at the different sections may transition abruptly or gradually. It should also be noted that, when the outer contour of the cross section is polygonal, corresponding chamfering or rounding can be performed at each edge to meet the requirements of appearance and touch. Various details of the toggle inner core 120 can be selected by those skilled in the art according to actual requirements, and are not described herein.

It is noted here that although in general the shape of the inner toggle button core 120 corresponds directly to the shape of the outer toggle button shell 110 over-molded on its outer surface 121, a person skilled in the art may also arrange for the thickness of the shell to be slightly different at different locations according to actual requirements, as long as the variation of the thickness of the shell at each location complies with the cooling requirements of the injection molding without adversely affecting the surface quality.

It is further noted that although the preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in the drawings only includes one inner toggle button 120, one skilled in the art can arrange one or more inner toggle button 120 as needed to obtain the desired design shape of the toggle button 100.

The second surface 112 of the toggle housing 110 includes an enclosed portion. The closed portion is to be understood as being completely enclosed inside the first surface 111 and not visible from the outside.

In the preferred embodiment shown in the figures in particular, only the connecting cross-piece at the top of the toggle 100 has this closed portion, the remaining second surface 112 being visible from below the toggle 100, i.e. it is open and not closed. The second surface 111 of the toggle housing 110 also includes an open portion that is separate from the closed portion.

Generally, the number of the above-mentioned closing portions corresponds to the number of the toggle inner cores 120. Therefore, although only one closing portion is shown in the drawings, one skilled in the art can reasonably arrange one or more closing portions separated from each other according to actual needs to obtain the desired design shape of the toggle button 100.

According to the concept of the present invention, the closed portion is over-molded on the outer surface 121 of the toggle inner core 120. By such a molding method, the toggle shell 110 corresponding to the closed portion and the toggle shells 110 corresponding to the other non-closed portions can be manufactured by injection molding.

It is noted here that the over-molding on the outer surface 121 as referred to herein does not require the closed portion of the second surface 112 to cover the entire portion of the outer surface 121 of the dial inner 120, but rather only to be able to securely fix the dial inner 120 therein.

Furthermore, the outer surface 121 of the inner knob core 120 does not need to be completely covered, as in the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings, on the one hand, nor necessarily completely covered by the second surface 112 of the knob housing 110, on the other hand, but may also be partially covered by one or more surfaces of the knob 100 that are provided in other structures of the knob housing 110 thereof.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, it should be understood that aspects of the embodiments can be modified, if necessary, to employ aspects, features and concepts of the various patents, applications and publications to provide yet further embodiments.

These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above detailed description. In general, in the claims, the terms used should not be construed to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Claims

1. A toggle button (100) in which,

the dial knob (100) includes:

a dial knob housing (110), the dial knob housing (110) being injection molded, the dial knob housing (110) defining a first surface (111) and a second surface (112) opposite the first surface (111),

it is characterized in that the preparation method is characterized in that,

the dial knob (100) further comprises:

a toggle inner core (120), the toggle inner core (120) defining an outer surface (121),

wherein the second surface (112) of the toggle housing (110) comprises a closed portion that is overmolded onto the outer surface (121) of the toggle inner core (120).

2. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

the toggle inner core (120) is columnar.

3. The toggle button (100) of claim 2,

the outer profile of the cross section of the toggle inner core (120) is in an axisymmetric hexagon shape.

4. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

all parts of the first surface (111) of the toggle shell (110) are connected into a whole and are processed by chrome plating.

5. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

the second surface (112) of the toggle housing (110) further includes an open portion that is separate from the closed portion.

6. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

the toggle shell (110) and the toggle inner core (120) are made of different materials.

7. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

the toggle shell (110) is made of engineering plastics.

8. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

the dial button housing (110) includes:

an arched base arched in a first direction from the second surface (112) towards the first surface (111);

two prongs projecting in said first direction from said arched base such that said toggle inner core (120) is arranged between said two prongs.

9. The toggle button (100) of claim 8,

the toggle housing (110) further comprises:

a rib protruding from the arched base in the first direction and located between the two prongs, wherein the toggle inner core (120) is spaced apart from the rib by a distance in the first direction.

10. The toggle button (100) of claim 1,

the thickness of the toggle shell (110) is 1.5-2 cm.