EP0343494A1 - Alarm device for a time piece - Google Patents

Abstract

The alarm device according to the invention is one of those in which a ringing is triggered by the coincidence of a first contact point linked to the time wheel of the timepiece with a second contact point linked to an index whose the position can be adjusted by a manual control member.In this device the second point of contact (68) is linked to a part (60) integral with a rotary shaft (58) on which the moving parts (76, 92) pivot. clockwork which carry the hands (82, 100) indicating the time.In a very simple case, the part integral with the rotating shaft is adjacent to the hour wheel (80) of the timepiece and the points of contact (68, 90) are carried by these two members, on their faces facing each other. On the other hand, the manual control member can advantageously be formed by the glass (16) of the part clockwork which is then linked to one of the ends of the rotary shaft and a rotating bezel (22) on which this mirror is attached.

Description

The present invention relates to alarm devices for timepieces.

More specifically, the subject of the invention is an alarm device which is intended more particularly for an electric clock-clock and which is one of those in which a buzzer is triggered by the coincidence of a first point of contact linked to a gear train timetable included in the timepiece with a second contact point linked to an index whose position can be adjusted by a manual control member.

In devices of this kind which currently exist the index generally consists of a needle which is carried by a barrel wheel engaged on the barrel of the hour wheel and which can be moved by turning a button.

Among these devices there are some where the two contact points are located on the opposite faces of the hour wheel and the wheel which carries the alarm hand, in other words of the alarm wheel, and where the latter meshes directly with a pinion mounted on the same rotary rod as the adjustment knob.

These devices are therefore very simple and very economical.

The object of the invention is to provide an alarm device which can be even more so.

This object is achieved thanks to the fact that in the alarm device according to the invention the second point of contact is linked to a part secured to a rotary shaft on which pivot the moving parts of the clockwork of the timepiece which carry hands indicating the time.

In fact, thanks to this arrangement, it is possible, in particular in the case of a clock, to adjust the position of the second contact point, which corresponds to the time at which the bell should sound, by acting directly on the shaft. rotary.

This action can be exerted for example by means of a button formed or fixed to one of the ends of this tree and located at the back of the clock as a button for setting the classic wake-up time or at the front of it as a button for setting the clock on the vehicle dashboard.

Having the button on the front of the clock rather than the back has an advantage. This is because it makes setting a wake-up time both easier and faster because there is no need to turn the clock or grope around to find the button. Unfortunately, this way of doing things is not very satisfactory, particularly from an aesthetic point of view.

The invention also aims to provide a solution to this problem.

This solution consists in making the rotary shaft of the alarm device integral with the crystal of the timepiece and in fixing this crystal on a rotating bezel in order to allow these two elements to be used as a manual control member.

In this case, any mark can be provided on the glass, for example a colored, glued or painted arrow, which serves as an index, which is generally easier and more economical than fixing a wake-up needle on the rotating shaft. .

Of course, it is also possible then that it is the telescope which carries the index and not the glass.

• - la figure 1 est une vue de face d'une pendulette-réveil munie d'un dispositif d'alarme conforme à l'invention, dont l'organe de commande manuelle est effectivement constitué par la glace de la pendulette et une lunette tournante sur laquelle cette glace est fixée;
• - la figure 2 est une vue en coupe axiale et partielle de la pendulette de la figure 1;
• - la figure 3 est une vue en coupe partielle, à plus grande échelle, selon la ligne III-III de la figure 2;
• - la figure 4 est une vue de dessus d'une pièce importante de la pendulette qui sert notamment à maintenir la glace et la lunette en place axialement et à guider ces éléments en rotation;
• - la figure 5 est une vue en coupe partielle, à plus grande échelle, de cette même pièce, selon la ligne V-V de la figure 4; et
• - la figure 6 est une vue de face d'une autre pièce de la pendulette qui montre comment les contacts du dispositif d'alarme sont réalisés.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear on reading the description which follows and which refers to the attached drawing in which:

• - Figure 1 is a front view of an alarm clock with an alarm device according to the invention, the manual control member of which is effectively constituted by the crystal of the clock and a rotating bezel on which this glass is attached;
• - Figure 2 is an axial and partial sectional view of the clock of Figure 1;
• - Figure 3 is a partial sectional view, on a larger scale, along the line III-III of Figure 2;
• - Figure 4 is a top view of an important part of the clock which is used in particular to hold the glass and the bezel in place axially and to guide these elements in rotation;
• - Figure 5 is a partial sectional view, on a larger scale, of this same part, along the line VV of Figure 4; and
• - Figure 6 is a front view of another part of the clock which shows how the contacts of the alarm device are made.

The alarm clock which is shown in Figures 1 and 2 comprises a plastic part 2 which forms both a foot 4, a cylindrical housing 6, with an edge 8 and a bottom 10, which is carried by the foot 4 , a plate 12 disposed inside the housing 6, perpendicular to its axis and a wall 14 for supporting this plate.

This clock also includes a round glass of transparent plastic material 16, the internal face of which has an annular projection 18 in the middle and the edge of which is fixed, for example by gluing or ultrasonic welding, to a bezel 22 also made of plastic, the outside diameter is substantially equal to or slightly greater than that of the housing.

As shown in Figure 3, the annular projection 18 has inside two edges 20 parallel to the axis of the glass and diametrically opposed, the usefulness of which will appear later.

As for the bezel 22, it can be seen from Figure 2 that it has a cylindrical inner wall 24 with at its base an annular lip 26 directed inward.

As shown, the outline of its profile is roughly in a quarter of a circle, but it could also have another shape.

What is important is that the whole, that is to say the glass and the bezel, is mounted at the front of the case 6 so as to be able to rotate around its axis, while remaining in contact with its edge 8. We will see below how this assembly is carried out.

That said, part 2 also forms a number of uprights which start from the plate 12 and from the bottom 10 and at the ends of which is fixed a disc also made of plastic 28, which is centered on the axis of the housing 6 and parallel to the plate 12 and whose diameter is equal to that of the internal cylindrical wall 24 of the bezel 22.

Figure 2 shows only one of these amounts designated by the reference 30. Like the others, it has at its top a tenon 32 which passes through a hole 34 of the disc and whose end has been flattened to form a head 36 and to take the edge of the hole 34 between this head and the bearing which is at the limit between the tenon 32 and the rest of the upright . This could be done for example by melting the end of the post by means of ultrasound so as not only to produce the head 36 but also to weld it to the disc.

Furthermore, it will be noted that the hole 34 is located at the bottom of a small bowl 38 so that the head 36 does not exceed the front face of the disc and that this face can directly carry a dial 40 fixed on it for example by gluing and same diameter as the disc.

It will also be noted that this disc has at its periphery and at the rear an annular notch 42 which has the same width as the lip 26 of the telescope and in which the latter is engaged.

Referring now to Figure 4 we see that the disc 28 has at its periphery a number of regularly spaced notches 44, for example six, and as many radial tabs 46 which start from the bottom of these notches to go almost to the edge of the disc.

As shown in Figure 5 these tabs 46 are thinner than the disc in order to be able to have a certain elasticity in the direction perpendicular thereto.

In addition, each of them has at its end and on the side of the rear face of the disc a stud or a small shoe 48, the end of which is at a level between the planes in which the rear faces of the disc are located. and its thinned peripheral part 50.

When the clock is mounted, the bezel 22 is taken axially between the edge 8 of the housing and the pads 48 which press on the lip 26 and it can rotate in both directions, with the glass and around its axis, being guided by the range of the disc which is at the limit between its rear face and that of its thinned part.

The presence of the tongues 46 and of the pads 48 makes it possible both to avoid axial play of the telescope and to be able to have certain tolerances for the manufacture of this telescope, of the disc 28 and uprights 30 at the end of which it is fixed. On the other hand, if these tongues and these pads did not exist and if the entire thinned part 50 of the disc was in contact with the lip 26 of the telescope, the friction forces between these two elements would be much greater. It would therefore be more difficult to rotate the telescope and it could then get stuck.

This role of the disc 28 which consists in collaborating with the edge of the case to maintain the lens and the bezel in an axial position and to guide the latter in rotation is in fact the second that is reported, the first being that of supporting the dial. This disc also plays a third: it serves as a stage for the movement of the clock. This is the reason why we can see in FIG. 4, in addition to a central hole 52 and notches 44, tabs 46 and holes 34 which have already been mentioned, a certain number of round holes for mounting. parts of the movement and a larger rectangular hole for the coil of a stepper motor which is normally attached to the back of the disc.

If we now look again at FIG. 2 we can see that the plate 12 has two hollow cylindrical protuberances 54 and 56 on the bottom side of the housing.

The first, 54, of these protuberances constitutes a bearing in which is engaged one of the ends of a plastic shaft 58 which passes through the disc 28 and the dial 40 in their center and which extends to the projection annular 18 of the glass into which it penetrates and to which it has been fixed by simply being forcefully inserted therein. At this time the two internal edges 20 of the projection have themselves hollowed out corresponding grooves in the end of the shaft, which means that the ice does not run the risk of turning without carrying the latter with it.

This shaft 58 which obviously constitutes the rotary shaft of which we have spoken is formed here in one piece with a disc 60 whose rear face is very close to or in contact with the plate 12 and whose front face has a cylindrical boss of low height 62 in the middle as well as several smaller bosses 64 and even less high near its periphery.

These bosses 64, which can be for example three in number, serve as feet for a circular plate of material conductor, more precisely a metal plate 66 which has been fixed on them using for example the ultrasonic welding technique and which has a diameter slightly greater than that of the disc 60.

This metal plate 66 has on the side opposite the disc a small rounded boss 68 which constitutes the second point of contact of the alarm device of the clock.

As can be seen in FIG. 6, this boss 68 is located at the end of a tongue 70 which has been formed in the plate 66 by cutting out an opening 72 and which has in its central part a round hole 74 through which the central boss 62 of the disc passes.

Thus, when pressure is exerted on the boss 68 of the plate, the tongue 70, which has a certain elasticity, can fold down in the space which separates the plate from the front face of the disc and return to its normal position when the pressure on the boss stops.

On the part of the shaft 58 located between the disc 60 and the projection 18 of the glass is engaged an hour-barrel wheel 76, also made of plastic, which comprises on the one hand a tube 78 at the end of which is fixed a hour hand 82 and, on the other hand, an hour wheel proper 80.

This hour wheel 80 has on its rear face a central flange 84 whose outside diameter is equal to the diameter of the boss 62 of the disc 60, with which it is in contact, and bosses 86 which, like the bosses 64 of the disc, constitute feet on which a circular metal plate 88 is fixed.

Like the plate 66 which is slightly smaller than it, this plate 88 has a small rounded boss 90 situated at the end of an elastic tongue formed in the same way as the tongue 70 (see FIG. 5).

This boss 90, which constitutes the first point of contact of the alarm device of the clock, and the boss 68 of the plate 66 are obviously substantially the same distance from the axis of the shaft 58 in order to be able to meet and pass one over the other by forcing the tabs that carry them to slightly deform when the hour wheel turns relative to the disc 60 or vice versa.

Generally, in a mechanical or electromechanical timepiece, the hour barrel wheel is carried by a carriageway on which is fixed a minute hand and this minute hand is located in front of the hour hand.

In the clock according to the invention, which we are describing, it is exactly the opposite. A pavement 92 is mounted around the barrel 78 of the hour barrel wheel 76 and the minute hand 100 which is carried by this pavement is closer to the dial than the hour hand 82.

On the other hand, the roadway 92, which may for example be metallic, comprises as usual a tube 94 at the end of which the needle 100 is fixed, a minute pinion 96 and a minute wheel 98 which are obviously all integral. The minute wheel 98 is coupled by means of several intermediate mobiles to the rotor of the motor of which we have spoken, which is fixed to the rear of the disc 28 and which is conventionally controlled by an electronic circuit which comprises a quartz oscillator, a frequency divider and a pulse forming circuit for generating and applying driving pulses to the motor coil in response to the pulses supplied by the divider.

Like the engine, this control circuit has not been shown in FIG. 2.

This figure in fact only shows part of the last intermediate mobile 102 which is mounted at the rear of the disc 28 and whose pinion meshes with the minute wheel 98.

The minute pinion 96 is coupled to the hour wheel 80 by means of a timer mobile 104.

This timer mobile 104, which can be made for example of plastic, comprises a hollow central tube 106, a timer wheel 108 which meshes with the minute pinion 96 and a timer pinion 110 which is engaged with the wheel of the 80 hours.

On the other hand, the shaft 106 can pivot at one of its ends around a pivot 112 located at the end of an upright 114 and provided at the rear of the disc 28 and at its other end inside a protrusion 116 in the form of a hollow cylinder portion and a hole 118 in the plate 12 which communicates the interior of this protuberance 116 with that of the protuberance 56 provided on the other side.

In order to be able to set the time, the clock also includes a button 120 which is located at the rear of its case.

This adjustment button 120 forms a single piece of plastic material with a time-setting rod 122 which passes inside the protuberance 56 and which ends in a tip 124 of smaller diameter which is engaged. inside the tube 106 of the timer mobile 104.

In addition, in order to be able both to rotate with the mobile 104 and to be removable, this rod 122 has two diametrically opposite dishes below the end piece 124 which engage in two corresponding axial notches of the tube 106.

This is not visible in Figure 2.

On the other hand, this same figure shows very schematically how the electrical alarm circuit is made up of which the metal plates 66 and 88 form with their contacts 68 and 90.

This circuit comprises two brushes, for example two metal blades 126 and 128 which are each in contact with the rear face of one of the plates 66 and 88 and which rub on these plates when they rotate.

One, 126, of these brushes is connected directly to the negative pole of the supply voltage source 130 of the clock. The other brush 128 is connected to the positive terminal of this same source by means of a switch 132, the opening and closing of which can be controlled by means of a button 138 which is placed at the top of the clock and that can be seen in FIG. 1, and a circuit 134 for controlling a buzzer 136.

Finally, as also shown in FIG. 1, the crystal 16 of the clock carries on its periphery an index, more precisely a black or colored arrow 140 which is glued or painted on its internal face and which is wholly or mainly at- above an area of the dial 40 which surrounds its graduations, so as not to mask some of these.

From what was said at the beginning, it is clear that this arrow on the glass can be replaced by a small part suitably fixed to the internal wall 24 of the telescope.

In one case as in the other, when we turn the telescope and the glass to bring the index to the position where it indicates the alarm time that we have chosen we move the disc 60 at the same time and the contact 68 of the metal plate 66 to a position which corresponds to that of the index.

Then as soon as the contact 90 of the plate 88 comes to touch the contact 68, at the time indicated by the index, the circuit 134 controls the buzzer 136 and the latter then emits an audible signal, this of course provided that the button 138 is for example raised and the switch 132 closed. Otherwise, nothing happens.

When the buzzer 136 actually emits a signal, it is possible to interrupt it by pressing the button 138 and thus opening the switch 132 or waiting for the circuit 134 to end it itself after a determined time. .

Claims (12)

1. Alarm device for a timepiece, in which a buzzer is triggered by the coincidence of a first contact point (90) linked to a time train that the timepiece comprises with a second contact point (68) linked to an index (140) whose position can be adjusted by a manual control member (16, 22), characterized in that the second contact point (68) is linked to a part (60) integral with a rotary shaft (58) on which pivot the moving parts (76, 92) of the clockwork which carry hands (82, 100) indicating the time. 2. Alarm device according to claim 1, characterized in that the part (60) integral with the rotary shaft (58) is adjacent to an hour wheel (80) that includes the train of the timepiece and that said contact points (68, 90) are carried by these two members, on their faces opposite one another. 3. Alarm device according to claim 2, for a timepiece whose hour wheel (80) is made of insulating material, characterized in that the piece (60) integral with the rotary shaft (58) is also in insulating material, by the fact that it comprises two conductive plates (88, 66) which are fixed on the opposite faces of said hour wheel and of said piece and by the fact that said contact points are constituted by bosses (90, 68) of these plates. 4. Alarm device according to claim 3, characterized in that said bosses (90, 68) are formed on elastic tongues (70) produced by cutting openings (72) in said plates (88, 66). 5. Alarm device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the said manual control member comprises a crystal (16) with which the timepiece is provided and to which one of the ends of the said is linked rotary shaft (58) and a rotating bezel (22) on which said glass is fixed. 6. Alarm device according to claim 5, characterized in that said end of the rotary shaft (58) is engaged and retained in an annular projection (18) formed on the reverse of said glass (16). 7. Alarm device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that said index is a mark (140) carried by said glass. 8. Alarm device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that said index is carried by said telescope (22). 9. Alarm device according to any one of claims 5 to 8, characterized in that said bezel (22) is rotatably mounted around a disc (28) which carries the dial (40) of said piece of timepiece and which is integral with a housing (6) provided at the rear thereof. 10. Alarm device according to claim 9, characterized in that said window (22) has an internal lip (26) and is held in place axially by the disc (28) which presses on this lip and a front edge ( 8) that has said housing (6) and against which it rests in turn. 11. Alarm device according to claim 10, characterized in that said internal lip (26) is engaged in a notch (42) formed at the periphery of the disc (28) and on the side opposite to said dial (40) so to also be guided in rotation by this disc. 12. Alarm device according to claim 10, characterized in that the disc (28) presses on said internal lip (26) by means of several pads (48) which penetrate into said notch (42), and which are located at ends of elastic tabs (46) housed in notches (44) of the disc and regularly distributed around the periphery thereof.

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