EP1418603B1 - Switching device - Google Patents

Switching device Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1418603B1
EP1418603B1 EP20030025671 EP03025671A EP1418603B1 EP 1418603 B1 EP1418603 B1 EP 1418603B1 EP 20030025671 EP20030025671 EP 20030025671 EP 03025671 A EP03025671 A EP 03025671A EP 1418603 B1 EP1418603 B1 EP 1418603B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
front panel
driving lever
key
switching device
circuit substrate
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP20030025671
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP1418603A1 (en
Inventor
Toshiaki c/o Alps Electric Co. Ltd. Amano
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Alps Alpine Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Alps Electric Co Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Alps Electric Co Ltd filed Critical Alps Electric Co Ltd
Publication of EP1418603A1 publication Critical patent/EP1418603A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1418603B1 publication Critical patent/EP1418603B1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H21/00—Switches operated by an operating part in the form of a pivotable member acted upon directly by a solid body, e.g. by a hand
    • H01H21/02—Details
    • H01H21/18—Movable parts; Contacts mounted thereon
    • H01H21/22—Operating parts, e.g. handle
    • H01H21/24—Operating parts, e.g. handle biased to return to normal position upon removal of operating force
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H21/00—Switches operated by an operating part in the form of a pivotable member acted upon directly by a solid body, e.g. by a hand
    • H01H21/02—Details
    • H01H21/18—Movable parts; Contacts mounted thereon
    • H01H21/36—Driving mechanisms
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H2221/00—Actuators
    • H01H2221/008—Actuators other then push button
    • H01H2221/016—Lever; Rocker
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H2237/00—Mechanism between key and laykey
    • H01H2237/002—Bell crank

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a switching device according to the preamble of claim 1.
  • a switching device of this type is known from US-A-4,803,316.
  • Various operation keys and a display unit are arranged on a front panel (control panel) of an on-vehicle electric appliance such as a car air conditioner and a car audio.
  • These operation keys serve to actuate switching elements such as push switches provided at a rear face of the front panel, and, as shown in Fig. 7, conventional switching device has a structure wherein an operation key 1 having its upper end pivoted is pressed from the front so that a switching element 3 is press-driven via a driving rod 2 (see JP-A-2001-14978 (Fig. 2), for example).
  • an axis 1a is provided at the upper end of the operation key 1. Since the axis 1a is pivoted on a holding plate 4a of a supporting case 4, the operation key 1 is supported by the supporting case 4 in such a fashion that it rotates within the range of predetermined angles using the axis 1a as a rotation axis.
  • the front panel 5 has an opening 5a for placing therein the operation key 1, and the operation key 1 moves backward (toward right side in the drawing) in the opening 5a when an operating force indicated by an arrow F is applied to the operation key 1 by pressing.
  • a circuit substrate 6 is provided upright at a region on a rear face of the front panel 4, and a push type switching element 3 is mounted on the circuit substrate 6.
  • the driving rod 2 is provided between a bottom end of the operation key 1 and the switching element 3, and the driving rod 2 moves toward the circuit substrate 6 when the operation key 1 is pressed.
  • the present invention has been accomplished in view of the- facts of the conventional technology, and an object thereof is to provide a switching device with good operability, which eliminates the need for securing a large opening for an operation key in the front panel.
  • a switching device comprises the features of claim 1
  • the switching element is press-driven by way of the driving lever as the operation key projected frontward from the front panel being pressed downward, thereby enabling to operate the operation key facing upward with the ease of operating a keyboard as well as to eliminate the need for providing the front panel with a large opening for the operation key.
  • the switching device by adapting an angle formed by a first straight line connecting a point of action of an operation force to the operation member to a center of rotation of the operation member and a second straight line connecting a point of action of an operation force to the switching element to the center of rotation to be increased at the time of operation, it is possible to dispose the operation key at a bottom end of a front face of the front panel at the same time with disposing the switching element at an arbitrary height of a rear face of the front panel; thereby eliminating the risk that the operation key will deteriorate a design and operability of the front panel and making it easier to dispose at a desired position the circuit substrate on which the switching element and the like are mounted.
  • the switching element when the switching element is mounted on the circuit substrate which is held upright, it is possible to have other electric components which are mounted together with the switching element on an identical plane, such as a light source, faced to the front panel. Further, in this case, by setting a spacing between the driving lever and the circuit substrate to a value smaller than a radius of a rotation axis of the driving lever, even if the rotation axis tends to be disconnected from a bearing due to an excessive operation force or shock, it is possible to avoid the disconnection owing to the circuit substrate which controls positioning of the driving lever having the bearing. Therefore, improvements in assembly and a reduction in number of components are easily achieved since it is possible to attain sufficient assembly strength even by employing the simple attachment structure of snap-fitting the driving lever to the supporting member.
  • the opening required on the front panel for the operation member can be significantly small since it is possible to connect the operation key to the key holder from the front and the rear of the front panel.
  • a switching unit 10 shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is a part of an on-vehicle electric appliance and constituted essentially of a front panel 11, a plurality of switching devices 12 including a supporting case 13, a circuit substrate 14 on which a rubber sheet 22 is mounted, a connector 15, and a cover 16.
  • each of the switching devices 12 has an operation member 19 constituted of an operation key 17 and a key holder lever 18 coupled to the operation key 17, a driving lever 20 rotationally driven by the key holder lever 18, a pair of push type switching elements 21 press-driven by the driving lever 20, and the supporting case 13 rotatably supporting the key holder lever 18 and the driving lever 20, and the supporting case 13 is shared among the plurality of switching devices 12.
  • the switching element 21 is a known one which has a movable contact portion 22b provided inside a click rubber 22a having the shape of a dome and projecting from the rubber sheet 22 and a fixed contact portion 14a provided on the circuit substrate 14, wherein the movable contact portion 22b and the fixed contact portion 14a face to each other as being connectable/disconnectable and the movable contact portion 22b is brought to contact with the fixed contact portion 14a when the click rubber 22a is pressed for a predetermined stroke to be buckled.
  • the front panel 11 is provided with a plurality of openings 11a in each of which a connecting shaft 17a of each of the operation keys 17 is placed and a plurality of display units 11b illuminated by light from a light emitting diode 23 mounted on the circuit substrate 14.
  • a stiffening rib 11c is projected from the rear face of the front panel 11 as shown in Figs. 5 and.6.
  • the front panel 11 is attached to a front end of the supporting case 13.
  • the operation key 17 is disposed at a front face of the front panel 11 with its pressed surface 17b being faced upward and is pressed downward.
  • the connecting shaft 17a of the operation key 17 penetrates through the opening 11a of the front panel 11 to be press-fitted into a fitting hole 18a of the key holder lever 18.
  • the connecting shaft 17a press-fitted into the fitting hole 18a is fixed to the key holder lever 18 with a fixing screw 24.
  • a mounting plate 18b is projected from each side of the key holder lever 18, and a hole 18c for inserting thereinto a boss 13b of the holding plate 13a projected from a front portion of the supporting case 13 is formed on each of the mounting plates 18b. Since the holding plate 13a has a flexibility in a direction of plate thickness, it is possible to achieve a state wherein the key holder lever 18 is rotatably supported by the supporting case 13 by thrusting the key holder lever 18 between a pair of the holding plates 13a facing to each other, whereby snapping the bosses 13b serving as rotation axes into the holes 18c at the time of assembly.
  • the front panel 11 is attached to the supporting case 13 after thus snap-fitting the key holder lever 18 to the front portion of the supporting case 13, so that the stiffening rib 11c is disposed at a position controlling the flexibility of the holding plate 13a.
  • a pair of engagement faces 18d on which projection pieces 20a of the driving lever 20 are mounted is provided respectively on shoulders of the key holder lever 18 sandwiching the fitting hole 18a.
  • the hole 20b Formed on each side of the driving lever 20 is the hole 20b into which the boss 13c projected from a rear portion of the supporting case 13 is inserted and a bearing 20c engaging with about a half of a periphery of the boss 13c as being adjacent to the hole 20b. It is possible to achieve a state wherein the driving lever 20 is engaged with the key holder lever 18 at the same time with being rotatably supported by the supporting case 13, by snapping the bosses 13c of the supporting case 13 into the holes 20b whereby mounting the projection pieces 20a on the engagement faces 18d of the key holder lever 18.
  • the circuit substrate 14 on which the rubber sheet 22 is mounted is disposed at a position facing to a rear face of the driving lever 20 after thus snap-fitting the driving lever 20 to the rear portion of the supporting case 13, and a spacing d between the driving lever 20 and the circuit substrate 14 is so set as to be smaller than a radius r of the boss 13c serving as the rotation axis of the driving lever 20 as shown in Fig. 3.
  • a spacing d between the driving lever 20 and the circuit substrate 14 is so set as to be smaller than a radius r of the boss 13c serving as the rotation axis of the driving lever 20 as shown in Fig. 3.
  • the upper end of the driving lever 20 serves as a presser 20d which is normally in contact with the top of the click rubber 22a.
  • the rear face of the circuit substrate 14 is supported by the cover 16, and the cover 16 is attached to the supporting case 13 as a back cover.
  • the click rubber 22a of the rubber sheet 22 mounted on the circuit substrate 14 is incorporated in the presser 20d of the driving lever 20 with a pretension.
  • the connector 15 is connected to the circuit substrate 14, and a cable 25 led from the connector 15 is extended outward from a rear face of the cover 16.
  • the connecting shaft 17a of the operation key 17 inserted into the opening 11a of the front panel 11 is pressed into the fitting hole 18a of the key holder lever 18, and then the fixing screw 24 is clamped to form the operation member 19 into an integrated body.
  • the boss 13b serving as the rotation axis is snapped into the hole 18c to rotatably attach the operation member 19 to the front portion of the supporting case 13.
  • the front panel 11 is attached to the front end of the supporting case 13.
  • the boss 13c serving as rotation axis is snapped into the hole 20b to rotatably mount the driving lever 20 on the rear portion of the supporting case 13 as well as to mount the projection piece 20a of the driving lever 20 on the engagement face 18d of the key holder lever 18.
  • the connector 15 is connected to the circuit substrate 14 on which the rubber sheet 22 is mounted so that the circuit substrate 14 is provided upright at the rear face of the driving lever 20, and then the cover 16 supporting the circuit substrate 14 and the connector 15 from their rear faces is attached to the supporting case 13 as the back cover, whereby finishing the assembly.
  • the operation member 19 maintains the posture indicated by a solid line in Fig. 1 and the operation key 17 is positioned at the uppermost point within rotation range, since the projection piece 20a of the driving lever 20 presses the engagement face 18d of the key holder lever 18 downward owing to the pretension of the click rubber 22a.
  • an angle a formed by a first straight line L1 connecting a point of action of the operation force to the operation member 19 to a center of rotation P of the operation member 19 and a second straight line L2 connecting a point of action of the operation force to the switching element 21 to the center of rotation P is increased at the time of operation as shown in Fig. 3.
  • the angle a is reduced at the time of operation.
  • the switching device 12 of this embodiment has a structure wherein the pressed surface 17b of the operation key 17 moves away from the switching element 21 at the time of operation.
  • the shape of the click rubber 22a which has been buckled returns to the original dome shape, so that the movable contact portion 22b moves away from the fixed contact portion 14a to return the switching element 21 to the OFF state and that the projection piece 20a of the driving lever 20 is pressed back by the click rubber to press down the engagement face 18d of the key holder lever 18, thereby rotating the operation member 19 in the reverse direction to be returned automatically to the original non-operation position.
  • the operation key 17 projected from the front face of the front panel 11 is pressed downward to press-drive the switching element 21 by way of the driving lever 20, it is possible to operate the operation key 17 facing upward with the easiness of operating a keyboard. Further, since it is possible to maintain the size of the opening 11a for the operation member 19 required for the front panel 11 to be as small as to allow the elevation of the connecting shaft 17a, the front panel 11 affords a space to be easily adopted to multifunctionalization of an electric appliance, making it easy to achieve downsizing of the front panel 11 itself.
  • the switching device 12 since the switching device 12 has a structure wherein the pressed surface 17b of the operation key 17 moves away from the switching element 21 at the time of operation, it is possible to dispose the switching element 21 at an arbitrary height of the circuit substrate 14 provided upright behind the front panel 11 with the operation key 17 being disposed at the bottom end of the front face of the front panel 11. Therefore, the operation key 17 will not damage the design of the front panel 11, and it is possible to mount other electric components such as the light emitting diode 23 which is preferred to be disposed opposite to the front panel 11 at desired positions of the circuit substrate 14.
  • the spacing d between the driving lever 20 and the circuit substrate 14 is set to a value smaller than the radius r of the boss 13c which is the rotation axis of the driving lever 20 in this embodiment, even if the boss 13c tends to be disconnected from the bearing 20c due to an excessive operation force or shock, it is possible to avoid the disconnection owing to the circuit substrate 14 which controls positioning of the driving lever 20 having the bearing 20c. Therefore, advantages in improving the assembly and reducing the number of components are derived since it is possible to achieve sufficient assembly strength at the same time with employing the simple attachment structure of snap-fitting the driving lever 20 to the rear portion of the supporting case 13.
  • the bosses 13b and 13c of the supporting case 13 are separately inserted into the hole 18c of the operation member 19 and the hole 20b of the driving lever 20 to serve as rotation axes in this embodiment, it is possible to provide the operation member 19 and the driving lever 20 with the rotation axes and to provide the supporting case 13 with the bearings.
  • the switching device 12 in which two switching elements 21 are simultaneously actuated by one operation key 17 is described by way of example, it is possible to make correspondence between one operation key 17 and one or three or more switching elements 21; the structure of the switching element may be selected as required.
  • the operation key projected from the front face of the front panel is pressed downward to rotate the driving lever which press-drive the switching element by way of the driving lever in the switching device, it is possible to operate the operation key facing upward with the easiness of operating a keyboard. Further, there is no need for providing the front panel with a large opening for the operation key, and therefore the front panel 11 affords a space to be easily adopted to multifunctionalization of an electric appliance, making it easy to achieve downsizing of the front panel 11 itself.
  • the spacing d between the driving lever and the circuit substrate is set to a value smaller than the radius r of the rotation axis of the driving lever, it is possible to avoid the rotation axis from being disconnected from the bearing even when the rotation axis tends to be disconnected from the bearing due to an excessive operation force or shock since positioning of the driving lever having the bearing or the rotation axis is controlled by the circuit substrate. Therefore, advantages in improving the assembly and reducing the number of components are readily derived since it is possible to achieve sufficient assembly strength even when the simple attachment structure of snap-fitting the driving lever to the supporting case is employed.

Landscapes

  • Rotary Switch, Piano Key Switch, And Lever Switch (AREA)
  • Push-Button Switches (AREA)
EP20030025671 2002-11-11 2003-11-10 Switching device Expired - Lifetime EP1418603B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP2002327212A JP4050131B2 (ja) 2002-11-11 2002-11-11 スイッチ装置
JP2002327212 2002-11-11

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1418603A1 EP1418603A1 (en) 2004-05-12
EP1418603B1 true EP1418603B1 (en) 2006-03-29

Family

ID=32105527

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP20030025671 Expired - Lifetime EP1418603B1 (en) 2002-11-11 2003-11-10 Switching device

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP1418603B1 (ja)
JP (1) JP4050131B2 (ja)
DE (1) DE60304271T2 (ja)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN107946117B (zh) * 2017-12-22 2020-09-29 歌尔科技有限公司 电子按键保护装置及具有该装置的电子产品

Family Cites Families (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE1070722B (ja) * 1954-07-02
GB828875A (en) * 1957-09-30 1960-02-24 Allied Control Co Electric toggle switch construction
EP0224006B1 (en) * 1985-10-16 1990-04-04 Fujitsu Limited Pushbutton switches using dome springs

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP1418603A1 (en) 2004-05-12
JP4050131B2 (ja) 2008-02-20
DE60304271T2 (de) 2006-08-31
DE60304271D1 (de) 2006-05-18
JP2004164928A (ja) 2004-06-10

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