JP2001036258A - Housing case - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continuously molding a body and a window portion as an integral part by forming a synthetic resin layer, while drawing a continuous film so as to fit the configuration of the cavity of an injection mold, curing the synthetic resin layer, and thereafter separating a hard coated layer, a printed layer, an adhesive layer, and the synthetic resin layer from a base film and a separation layer. SOLUTION: Various printing patterns are forwarded intermittently and consecutively, so as to always have them match with a cavity 10a of a cavity- side molding plate 10. Next, a transparent synthetic resin is charged from an injection nozzle 12 via inlet passages 8a and 9a of a fixed-side and core-side molding plates 8 and 9, respectively. Then, using the transparent synthetic resin, a continuous base film is pressed onto the cavity 10a of the molding plate 10, and at the same time, is worked deep-drawn by the heat and pressure of the transparent synthetic resin. Further more, the transparent synthetic resin is cooled and cured, after which a hard coated layer, a printed layer, an adhesive layer and a synthetic resin layer are separated from the continuous base film and a separation, layer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a housing case for a communication device or an electric device having a display window, and more particularly, to a single processing of a hard coat layer for protecting the surface of the housing case and improving scratch resistance. The present invention relates to a housing case that can be formed in a process and can be formed continuously.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A portable telephone held and carried in a small electric device or communication device, for example, clothes or a bag, is different from a stationary telephone and is accidentally dropped or dropped in a bag. Hitting other things,
The surface is often impacted.

[0003] For this reason, a housing case 51 such as a portable telephone as shown in FIG. 7 is composed of a main body 52 and a separate window member.
The window member 53 is required to have a hard coat layer having a high hardness on the surface of the window member 53 in order to particularly enhance the scratch resistance.

[0004] For the lamination of the hard coat layer, after forming the housing case 51, it is applied by a spray method to form a hard coat film, or by injecting a synthetic resin into the hard coated film to perform printing and printing. There is a method by in-mold molding for transferring a coat layer to the surface of a synthetic resin.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional housing case 51, after forming the main body 52 and the window member 53 of the housing case 51, it is necessary to perform the application operation of the hard coat layer in an independent step. In addition, after the application of the hard coat, it is necessary to dry the hard coat.

On the other hand, a so-called in-mold printing method for continuously producing a decorated molded product by printing on a continuous film and successively passing the printed product through an injection mold has been conventionally performed. Application to lamination of a coat layer is also conceivable.

However, since the main body 52 of the housing case 51 and the window member 53 are separately formed and assembled as described above, it is still difficult to manufacture the hard coat layer by simply forming the hard coat layer by the in-mold printing method. Cannot be simplified. In addition, a hard coat having a hardness capable of squeezing a continuous film into a three-dimensional shape is not sufficient as a display portion requiring high hardness.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a housing case that can form a main body and a window unit integrally and continuously, can be easily processed into a three-dimensional shape, and can give a sufficient hardness to a display unit. With the goal.

[0009]

The housing case according to the present invention is formed by sequentially laminating a release layer, a hard coat layer, a print layer, and an adhesive layer on a base film, and the hard coat layer is formed on a corner of the housing case. The part to be a part is low hardness, a hard coat is laminated so that the part to be the front part of the housing case is high hardness, and a continuous film provided with a plurality of print patterns having a non-print part on the print layer, Passed continuously through the injection mold, within the injection mold,
By injecting a transparent synthetic resin into the adhesive layer side of the continuous film, a synthetic resin layer is formed while squeezing the continuous film into the cavity shape of the injection mold, and after hardening the synthetic resin layer, a hard coat layer is formed. The above problem is solved by removing the printing layer, the adhesive layer and the synthetic resin layer from the base film and the release layer.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of a housing case according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a housing case according to the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the housing case, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a continuous film.

As shown in FIG. 1, a housing case 1 according to the present embodiment is an exterior of a cellular phone or the like, and has a display window 2.
And a button hole 3. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the housing case 1 has a structure in which a hard coat layer H (high hardness, low hardness), a printing layer 4a, an adhesive layer 4b, and a transparent synthetic resin layer 4c are sequentially stacked from the surface. Have.

The hard coat layer H is composed of two layers of high hardness and low hardness. First, a low hardness low hardness hard code layer H1 covers the entire surface of the housing case. Then, the difference between the hardness and the softness of the hard coat layer H depending on the location is assigned by overlapping the high hardness hard coat layer H2 with the higher hardness on the display window and the low hardness hard code layer H1 around the display window.

The hard coat layer is composed of two low hardness hard coats H instead of the high hardness hard coat layer H2.
No. 3 may be used, that is, in this case, the hardness can be easily adjusted only by changing the lamination location and the number of laminations of the same type of hard coat.

A non-printed portion 5b on which no printing is performed is formed on a part of the printed layer 4a, and a transparent synthetic resin layer 4c is seen from the non-printed portion 5b to the back surface, so that the transparent display window 2 is formed. Is formed.

The housing case 1 is integrated with another back case (not shown), and holds a board on which a communication electric element, a memory, and a push button to be inserted into the button hole 3 are disposed. Thereby, a mobile phone is configured.

Next, a method of manufacturing the housing case 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. In this manufacturing method, a decorated continuous film 5 is prepared, and the continuous film 5 is provided.
Are successively sent to the mold M to form the transparent synthetic resin layer 4 c on the continuous film 5.

The structure of the continuous film 5 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a plan view of the continuous film, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the continuous film. As shown in FIG. 4, the continuous film 5 is a strip-shaped transparent sheet on which a plurality of independent print patterns 5a are formed at predetermined intervals.

Each of the printing patterns 5a is formed by the printing layer 4 described above.
a (see FIG. 2), a hard coat layer H is formed so as to cover the print layer 4a. In the future, of the hard coat layer H, the low-hardness hard coat layer H1 covers the entire print pattern 5a, and the high-hardness hard coat layer H2 covers only the central portion, which is the front surface of the housing case 1.

This is because high scratch resistance is given to the front portion where printing is concentrated and the front portion is easily damaged during use. The continuous film 5 is deep-drawn into a three-dimensional shape in an in-mold printing process to be described later. At this time, the high-hardness hard coat layer H2 is formed only on the front portion, and the corner portion is formed when narrowing. The high hardness hard coat layer H2 does not overlap with the portion. Therefore, molding defects such as cracks in the hard coat layer H do not occur at such corners.

A non-print portion 5b which will be a part of the display window 2 in the future is formed in a predetermined portion of each print pattern 5a.
It remains in a transparent state.

The sectional structure of the continuous film 5 will be described with reference to FIG. The continuous film 5 is heat-welded from one side to a transparent base film 6, formed of a synthetic resin material such as PET, a release layer 7, a hard coat layer H, a printed layer 4a on which characters and partial patterns are printed, and heat. An adhesive layer 4b is laminated.

The in-mold print molding step using the continuous film 5 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
As shown in (a), in the in-mold print molding process, the fixed-side template 8, the core-side template 9, the cavity-side template
An injection mold M composed of 10 is used. A feed roll 11a is attached to one end of the cavity side template 10, and a take-up roll 11b is attached to the other end, and the feed roll 11a and the take-up roll 11b form a take-up device 11. .

The continuous film 5 is wound and held on a delivery roll 11a, and its leading end is passed through the injection mold M, that is, between the cavity-side mold plate 10 and the core-side mold plate 9, to be wound up. The preparation is completed by being wound around the roll 11b.

First, the winding device 11 is operated to intermittently feed the continuous film 5. This intermittent feeding operation is performed such that each of the printing patterns 5a described above always coincides with the cavities 10a of the cavity side template 10 sequentially.

Next, as shown in FIG.
9 and 10 are superimposed, and the fixed side template 8 from the injection nozzle 12
A transparent synthetic resin is injected through the introduction paths 8a and 9a of the core side template 9. At this time, the continuous film 5 is pressed against the cavity 10a of the cavity-side mold plate 10 by the injected transparent synthetic resin, and is simultaneously deep drawn by the heat and pressure of the transparent synthetic resin. When the injected transparent synthetic resin cools and hardens, a transparent synthetic resin layer 4c is formed,
The transparent synthetic resin layer 4c is integrated with the adhesive layer 4b on the back surface of the continuous film 5 to form the housing case 1.

It is necessary to form the above-mentioned button hole 3 in the housing case 1. Such a hole can be formed by providing a protrusion corresponding to the button hole on the core-side template 9 and performing a molding such as removing the button.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 6C, the fixed mold plate 8, the core mold plate 9, and the cavity mold plate 10 are separated again, and the sprue 13 is removed from the introduction passages 8a, 9a. Then, the housing case 1 is taken out of the cavity 10a of the cavity side mold plate 10.

At this time, by taking out the housing case 1 from the cavity 10a, in the continuous film 5, the hard coat layer H and the print layer 4 are separated from the release layer 7 as a boundary.
a, the adhesive layer 4b is separated from the base film 6 as a part of the housing case 1 together with the transparent synthetic resin layer 4c.
The remaining base film 6 and release layer 7 are wound up on the take-up roll 11b and collected.

As described above, the printing pattern 5a of the continuous film is sequentially sent out, and the above-described in-mold print forming process is repeated.

As described above, according to the housing case 1 of the present embodiment, the non-printed portion 5 of the printing layer 4a of the continuous film is formed.
b and the transparent synthetic resin layer 4c, the display window 2 having the hard coat layer H formed on the surface can be formed integrally with the main body of the housing case 1, and the display window 2 and the main body are separated from each other. In comparison, higher production efficiency can be expected.

In this embodiment, a low-hardness hard coat layer H1 is formed at a corner of the housing case 1.
Since the high hardness hard coat layer H2 is formed on the front portion of the housing case 1 with the hardness of the hard coat layer H being varied, the continuous film 5 is formed at the corners even when the continuous film 5 is narrowed down to three-dimensional formation. The housing case 1 is free from defects and has sufficient hardness at the front.

In each of the above embodiments, a housing case for a cellular phone has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and an electronic device having a display window, such as a TV, may be used. Of course, it can be used for housing cases of various devices such as a commander and a pager terminal.

[0033]

As described above, according to the housing case of the present invention, the release layer,
By using a continuous film formed by sequentially laminating a hard coat layer, a print layer, and an adhesive layer, the housing case can be continuously formed, and high production efficiency can be achieved.

Further, the display window having the hard coat layer formed on the surface thereof can be formed integrally with the main body of the housing case by the non-printed portion of the printing layer of the continuous film and the transparent synthetic resin layer. Can be further improved in production efficiency as compared with the conventional product that separates

Further, since the hardness of the hard coat layer is made different depending on the part of the housing case, no defective formation occurs in three-dimensional molding, and at the same time, sufficient hardness of the hard coat is obtained in the front part, especially in the display part. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a housing case according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a housing case.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a housing case.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a continuous film.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a continuous film.

FIG. 6 is an in-mold print molding process chart.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional housing case.

[Explanation of symbols]

 H ... Hard coat layer H1 ... Low hardness hard coat layer H2 ... High hardness hard coat layer H3 ... Low hardness hard coat M ... Injection mold 1 ... Housing case 2 ... Display window 3 ... Button hole 4a ... Print layer 4b ... Adhesive layer 4c: transparent synthetic resin layer 5: continuous film 5a: printed pattern 5b: non-printed part 6: base film 7: release layer 8: fixed side template 8a: introduction path 9: core side template 9a: introduction path 9b: convex Part 10: cavity side template 10a: cavity 11: winding device 11a: delivery roll 11b: winding roll 12: injection nozzle 13: sprue

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Tatsuo Ishikawa 5-29-10 Tachibana, Sumida-ku, Tokyo Inside Yoshida Kogyo Co., Ltd. (72) Ichiro Onizawa 5-29-10 Tachibana, Sumida-ku, Tokyo Yoshida F term (reference) in Kogyo Co., Ltd. 4E360 AB04 AB05 AB42 BA02 BA15 EE04 FA02 GA12 GA36 GB26 GC08 5K023 AA07 BB04 BB26 LL06 QQ05 RR01 RR06

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein a release layer, a hard coat layer, a print layer, and an adhesive layer are sequentially laminated on a base film. A hard coat is laminated so that a part to be a front part has high hardness, and a continuous film provided with a plurality of print patterns having a non-printed part on the print layer is continuously passed through an injection mold. In the injection mold,
By injecting a transparent synthetic resin into the adhesive layer side of the continuous film, a synthetic resin layer is formed while squeezing the continuous film into the cavity shape of the injection mold, and after hardening the synthetic resin layer, a hard coat layer is formed. A housing case in which a printing layer, an adhesive layer, and a synthetic resin layer are removed from a base film and a release layer.