EP2798741A1

EP2798741A1 - A touch button, a circuit board and a household appliance

Info

Publication number: EP2798741A1
Application number: EP12795794.2A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Musa OZDEMIR; Ahmet Ihsan Yuce
Original assignee: Arcelik AS
Current assignee: Arcelik AS
Priority date: 2011-12-29
Filing date: 2012-11-30
Publication date: 2014-11-05
Also published as: WO2013098035A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch button (1) which is suitable to be mounted on a circuit board (3) that has at least one hole (2) and which has a spring (4) and a fixing element (6) located at the lower end of the spring (4); a circuit board (3) that is suitable for the touch button (1) to be mounted thereon and that has a hole (2) wherein the fixing element (6) is inserted and which has different width and length sizes; and a household appliance (9) comprising these two.

Description

A TOUCH BUTTON, A CIRCUIT BOARD AND A HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE

The present invention relates to a touch button, a circuit board and a household appliance comprising these two.
Nowadays, household appliances controlled by using touch buttons are preferred because of their ease of use and esthetic appearance. Various methods exist for the touch buttons to detect the contact of the user and detection by means of capacitive change is one of these methods. In touch buttons, detection of the touch movement by the circuit boards is realized by means of springs. Mounting of the spring to the circuit board consists of two steps. During production, the spring is first mounted to the circuit board and then enters the soldering process in order to be fixed onto the circuit board at the position it is mounted. The spring can lose its position on the circuit board until the soldering process or can be completely dislodged from the place it is mounted to. These errors cause problems such as precision change and detecting the wrong button for touch buttons, and also cause the circuit boards to be discarded as junk.
In the state of the art United States of America Patent No. US7579569, a capacitive touch-sensitive switch is described wherein the end section of the spring extends into the hole located on the circuit board in order to be soldered to the circuit board.
In the touch button described in the state of the art Chinese Patent Document No. CN201315575, the spring is fixed to the holes, located on the circuit board, by means of at least two pins.
The aim of the present invention is the realization of a touch button and a circuit board which are prevented from being damaged during assembly and thus provided to have longer lifespan, and of a household appliance comprising these two.
The touch button, the circuit board and the household appliance realized in order to attain the aim of the present invention, explicated in the first claim and the respective claims thereof, comprise at least one spring which transmits the capacitive difference occurred by the user touching the designated area, a plate which is situated between the control panel and the spring and mounted to the upper end of the spring, and a hole which is situated on the circuit board and through which the free end of the spring passes. The touch button of the present invention does not rotate inside the hole by means of the shape given to the fixing element.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch button comprises a fixing element which cannot be easily dislodged from the hole by bearing against the edges of the hole.
In an embodiment of the present invention, a plate is situated at the spring end that is not connected to the circuit board. Thus, it is prevented that the wrong touch button is activated among the touch buttons that are close to each other.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch button is soldered to the hole from a point on the fixing element. By the fixing element being soldered to the edge of the hole, the spring is prevented from being dislodged from the circuit board.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the fixing element is placed onto the hole by being compressed. Thus, the spring is prevented from being unintentionally dislodged from the circuit board by limiting the movement of the spring on the vertical plane.
In a derivative of this embodiment, the fixing element comprises an almost U-shaped extension that passes through the hole and a locking element that has a recess providing the fixing element to be seated in the hole in a durable manner Thus, the spring retains its position by resisting against the shocks the circuit board is subjected to.
On the circuit board of the present invention, there is a hole which is shaped so as to prevent the fixing element from rotating therein and moving in the horizontal plane. In different embodiments of the present invention, the hole is shaped as a triangle, ellipse or rectangle. By limiting the movement of the spring inside the hole, the plate is aligned with the designated area which provides the user to select the desired program parameters by touching, and thus no precision problem is encountered in the touch button.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the household appliance comprises a touch button and a circuit board.
The model embodiments relating to a touch button, a circuit board and a household appliance comprising these two, realized in order to attain the aim of the present invention are illustrated in the attached figures, where:
Figure 1 – is the perspective view of a household appliance.
Figure 2 – is the perspective view of the touch button in an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 – is the perspective view of the touch button and the circuit board in an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 4 – is the perspective view of the touch button in an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 5 – is the perspective view of the touch button and the circuit board in an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 6 – is the perspective view of the touch button in an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 7 – is the perspective view of the touch button and the circuit board in an embodiment of the present invention.
The elements illustrated in the figures are numbered as follows:

Touch button
Hole
Circuit board
Spring
Plate
Fixing element
Extension
Locking element
Household appliance

The touch button (1) is suitable to be mounted on a circuit board (3) having at least one hole (2). The touch button (1) comprises a spring (4) and a fixing element (6) located at the lower end of the spring (4).
The touch button (1) of the present invention comprises the fixing element (6) which is shaped so as to prevent the touch button (1) from rotating inside the hole (2) (Figure 2, Figure 4, Figure 6).
During the mounting of the touch button (1) to the circuit board (3), first the fixing element (6) is passed through the hole (2). By means of the flexible structure of the spring (4) and the shape given to the fixing element (6), the fixing element (6) is deformed while passing through the hole (2) and returns to its initial state after being seated into the hole (2). Thus, the spring (4) keeps its position until arriving to the soldering process which is the next part of the production phase (Figure 3, Figure 5).
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch button (1) comprises the fixing element (6) which is shaped so as to prevent the touch button (1) from dislodging from the hole (2). Thus, the spring (4) stands firmly on the circuit board (3).
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch button (1) comprises the spring (4) that has a plate (5) placed thereon. Thus, when the user moves his/her finger near the touch button (1), this situation can be detected precisely.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch button (1) comprises the fixing element (6) which is soldered to the hole (2) from at least one point. Thus, the spring (4) is fixed onto the circuit board (3) (Figure 3, Figure 5, Figure 7).
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch button (1) comprises the fixing element (6) which has a flexible structure so as to be passed through the hole (2) in one direction and which is seated into the hole (2) by being pressed. The fixing element (6) has a structure narrowing from top to bottom in the vertical plane. The width of the fixing element (6) at its maximum is greater than the width of the hole (2) at its maximum. Therefore, the shape of the fixing element (6) changes while the fixing element (6) passes through the hole (2) and returns to its initial state after being seated into the hole (2).
In a derivative of this embodiment, the fixing element (6) comprises a U-shaped extension (7) which extends to the other side of the circuit board (3) by passing through the hole (2) and a recess-shaped locking element (8) which is connected to the free end of the extension (7) and bears against the edge of the hole (2). Thus, the fixing element (6) is easily passed through the hole (2) and by the recess being seated onto the edge of the hole (2), the spring (4) is prevented from being unintentionally dislodged from the circuit board (3) and/or changing position on the circuit board (3) (Figure 2, Figure 4).
The circuit board (3) of the present invention has a structure suitable for a touch button (1) to be mounted thereon and comprises a hole (2) wherein the fixing element (6) is inserted and which has different width and length sizes. Thus, the movement of the fixing element (6) in the horizontal plane inside the hole (2) is limited.
In different embodiments of the present invention, the hole (2) is shaped as a triangle, ellipse or rectangle.
The household appliance (9) of the present invention comprises a touch button (1) and a circuit board (3).
In different derivatives of this embodiment, the household appliance (9) is a laundry dryer, a cooking device, a washing machine, a dishwasher or a cooling device (Figure 1).
By shaping the fixing element (6) so as to prevent it from being dislodged from the hole (2) and by the electronic card (3) comprising a hole (2) which has different width and length sizes and which provides the fixing element (6) to remain in the position it is brought to, the mounting of the spring (4) to the circuit board (3) is facilitated.
It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed above and a person skilled in the art can easily introduce different embodiments. These should be considered within the scope of the protection postulated by the claims of the present invention.

Claims

A touch button (1) suitable to be mounted on a circuit board (3) that has at least one hole (2), comprising a spring (4) and a fixing element (6) located at the lower end of the spring (4), characterized by the fixing element (6) which is shaped so as to prevent the touch button (1) from rotating inside the hole (2).
A touch button (1) as in Claim 1, characterized by the fixing element (6) which is shaped so as to prevent the touch button (1) from dislodging from the hole (2).
A touch button (1) as in any one of the above claims, characterized by the spring (4) which comprises a plate (5) placed thereon.
A touch button (1) as in any one of the above claims, characterized by the fixing element (6) which is soldered to the hole (2) from at least one point.
A touch button (1) as in any one of the above claims, characterized by the fixing element (6) which has a flexible structure so as to be passed through the hole (2) in one direction and which is seated into the hole (2) by being pressed.
A touch button (1) as in Claim 5, characterized by the fixing element (6) that comprises a U-shaped extension (7) which extends to the other side of the circuit board (3) by passing through the hole (2) and a recess-shaped locking element (8) which is connected to the free end of the extension (7) and bears against the edge of the hole (2).
A circuit board (3) that is suitable for a touch button (1) as in any one of the above claims to be mounted thereon and that is characterized by a hole (2) wherein the fixing element (6) is inserted and which has different width and length sizes.
A circuit board (3) as in Claim 7, characterized by the rectangular hole (2).
A circuit board (3) as in Claim 7, characterized by the elliptical hole (2).
A circuit board (3) as in Claim 7, characterized by the triangular hole (2).
A household appliance (9) comprising the touch button (1) and the circuit board (3) as in any one of the above claims.
A household appliance (9) as in Claim 11, which is a laundry washer and/or dryer.
A household appliance (9) as in Claim 11, which is a cooking device.
A household appliance (9) as in Claim 11, which is a dishwasher.
A household appliance (9) as in Claim 11, which is a cooling device.