JP2003004869A - Sheathing component for watch and portable watch having the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sheathing component for a watch for enhancing high- grade feeling by producing a weightiness by raising its specific gravity without impairing easiness of molding a plastic, and to provide a portable watch having the same. SOLUTION: A case 2 as the sheathing component for the watch has a first sheath 2A made of an ABS resin, and a second sheath 2B made of a metal having a high specific gravity or a plastic having a high specific gravity. The specific gravity of the case 2 is set to 2.7 to 8.4 by setting a volumetric ratio of the first sheath 2A to the second sheath 2B or regulating the specific gravity of the second sheath 2B, and can be set to substantially the same as the specific gravity of the metal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an exterior part for a timepiece and a portable timepiece equipped with the same, and more particularly to an AB
The present invention relates to a product having a weight feeling equivalent to that of a metal product while using an S resin.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an exterior part for a timepiece such as a case, a bezel, a back cover and the like has been formed by using an ABS resin which is inexpensive, easy to mold and can be plated. Generally, it is recognized that mobile watches made of metal are more luxurious than those made of plastic, so plastic exterior parts are used to make the appearance closer to that of a metal mobile watch. Plating on the
The appearance quality was improved.

[0003]

As in the prior art described above, the exterior parts of a timepiece made of plastic can be made to have a metal appearance by plating, but the specific gravity of plastic is 1 Because it is before and after,
It will be light and lightweight. Therefore, it was immediately understood that a plastic exterior part was used when it was worn on the arm, and the sense of quality was impaired.

Further, in the case of a timepiece exterior part made of plastic, it is difficult to partially plate it, and uniform plating has been performed on the entire surface thereof. Therefore, it was not possible to increase design variations.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an exterior component for a timepiece, which enhances a specific gravity and gives a sense of weight, without impairing the easiness of molding with plastic, and a high-grade exterior component. It is intended to provide a mobile watch equipped with.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a timepiece exterior component comprising a first exterior portion made of ABS resin and a high specific gravity material having a higher specific gravity than the ABS resin. 2 exterior parts, and the combined specific gravity of the first exterior part and the second exterior part is 2.7 to 8.4. The high specific gravity material in the timepiece exterior component is made of metal, as claimed in claim 2. The high specific gravity material in the timepiece exterior component is made of high specific gravity plastic as described in claim 3.

Further, as described in claim 4, the second exterior portion of the exterior component for a timepiece is covered with the first exterior portion and disposed inside thereof. Further, as described in claim 5, a part of the second exterior part of the exterior part for a timepiece is covered with the first exterior part.

The first exterior part of the exterior part for a timepiece is plated as described in claim 6.

On the other hand, the present invention also relates to a portable timepiece, which, as shown in claim 7, comprises the timepiece exterior component according to any one of claims 1 to 6 described above. Has become.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The exterior component for a timepiece of the present invention is AB
It has a first exterior part made of S resin and a second exterior part made of a high specific gravity material having a higher specific gravity than ABS resin. Then, in the present invention, by combining such a first exterior part and a second exterior part having a high specific gravity, the specific gravity of the entire timepiece exterior part is increased and set to the same specific gravity as the metal exterior part. There is. Generally, the metals and their specific gravities used for exterior parts for watches are aluminum (specific gravity 2.7), zinc (specific gravity 7.1), titanium (specific gravity 4.5), brass (specific gravity 8.3 to 8). .4). In the present invention, the volume ratio of the first exterior part and the second exterior part is set, and the specific gravity of the second exterior part is adjusted so that the specific gravity of the timepiece exterior component is 2.7 to.
The specific gravity is set to 8.4 so that the specific gravity is almost the same as that of the metal.

Metal or high specific gravity plastic is used as the high specific gravity material. The high specific gravity plastic referred to here means a resin formed by mixing inorganic powder (metal powder or the like) having a high specific gravity with a resin to form an injection molding material.
When a metal or a high specific gravity plastic molded in a predetermined shape is used as the high specific gravity material as described above, when the first exterior part is molded, it is made of metal or a high specific gravity plastic molded in a predetermined shape. (2) It can be molded by insert molding the exterior part. Also, when both the first exterior part and the second exterior part are injection-molded using high specific gravity plastic as the high specific gravity material, it is possible to perform molding by using two-material molding.

The specific gravity of the timepiece exterior part formed by combining the first exterior part and the second exterior part as described above is 2.7 to.
By setting it to 8.4, it is possible to form a watch exterior part with the same specific gravity as a watch exterior part using metal, and to form not only the appearance but also the sense of weight that is similar to that of metal. can do.

In particular, the molding method is the same as that of the conventional plastic exterior parts, and the first exterior part made of ABS resin completely covers the second exterior part or the first exterior part in terms of shape accuracy and a place to be plated. By appropriately setting the arrangement positions of the parts, it is possible to realize a timepiece exterior component that can be partially plated with a shape accuracy comparable to that of a conventional plastic exterior component.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a main part of a portable timepiece equipped with a timepiece exterior component according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numeral 2 is a case as an exterior part for a timepiece. In this case 2, there is a movement including a circuit section for clocking time, a pointer or a liquid crystal display section, a drive circuit for driving a train wheel mechanism or a liquid crystal display section for driving the pointer, a dial or a parting board, a solar cell panel, etc. 4 is stored. A glass 8 is press-fitted into the upper step portion 2a of the case 2 with a packing 6 interposed therebetween, and a case back 10 is attached to the lower side of the case 2.

The case 2 in this embodiment comprises a first exterior portion 2A made of ABS resin and a second exterior portion 2B made of metal or high specific gravity plastic. When the second exterior portion 2B is formed of metal or high specific gravity plastic which is molded in a predetermined shape in advance,
It is formed by insert molding in which the second exterior portion 2B is inserted when the exterior portion 2A is formed. That is, insert the second exterior part 2B into the mold attached to the insert molding machine,
Then, the first exterior portion 2A is formed by injection molding. Further, when the second exterior part 2B is made of high specific gravity plastic, the ABS resin forming the first exterior part 2A and the high specific gravity plastic can both be injection-molded, so that the first exterior is formed by molding two materials. The part 2A and the second exterior part 2B are molded. That is, a two-material molding machine capable of injecting different materials from two cylinders is used, and a mold on the fixed cavity side for primary molding and secondary molding is attached to the injection port side of each cylinder. The mold (same mold) on the movable cavity side is attached to each of them. Then, the material is injected from one of the cylinders and the second exterior part 2
Primary molding for forming B is performed. After this primary molding is completed, the movable side mold is moved, and the material is injected from the other cylinder to perform the secondary molding in which the first exterior portion 2A is molded.
When the secondary molding is completed in this way, the molded case 2 is discharged.

The second exterior portion 2B shown in FIG. 1 is arranged so that its entire surface is covered with the first exterior portion 2A and is not visible from the outside of the case 2. Therefore, the second exterior portion 2B may have any shape, such as a ring shape having a rectangular cross section as shown in FIG. 1 or a ring shape having a substantially circular cross section as shown in FIG. The shape that is easy to form is good.

As described above, the first exterior portion 2A is used to form the second exterior portion 2
When insert molding is used to cover B, it is necessary to support the second exterior part 2B in a mold for molding.
The support portion 2b for supporting the second exterior portion 2B is
Several places are provided on the inner surface side of the exterior portion 2B. By providing the support portion 2b in this manner, even if the tip of the support portion 2b is exposed from the first exterior portion 2A, it is exposed to the inside of the case 2, so that it is not visible from the outside and the appearance quality is impaired. Absent.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the first exterior portion 2A
Then, the case 2 can be formed by combining the first exterior portion 2A and the second exterior portion 2B so as to cover a part of the second exterior portion 2B.

Further, in the high specific gravity plastic which will be described in detail later, if the content of the high specific gravity material such as metal powder is increased in order to increase the specific gravity, the flow of the material at the time of injection molding becomes poor and an accurate shape can be obtained. It may disappear. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, when the second exterior portion 2B is covered by the first exterior portion 2A, there is no problem because it is not necessary to form the shape of the second exterior portion 2B accurately. As shown in 3,
In the case 2 in which the first exterior portion 2A is combined so as to cover only a part of the second exterior portion 2B, a high specific gravity of metal powder or the like is provided so that the shape of the second exterior portion 2B can be accurately formed. It is easier to form the shape by using a small amount of the material and a little lower specific gravity. In addition, the first exterior portion 2A made of ABS resin may be arranged in a portion requiring a precise shape, and the second exterior portion 2B made of high specific gravity plastic may be arranged in a portion not requiring a precise shape. good.

By combining the first outer casing 2A and the second outer casing 2B having a high specific gravity as described above, the specific gravity of the case 2 can be increased to the same level as that of the metal case. For example, the first exterior part 2A is made of ABS resin,
When the second exterior portion 2B is made of brass, the first exterior portion 2A
When the volume ratio between the second outer casing 2B and the second outer casing 2B is set to 1: 1, the overall specific gravity of the case 2 is about 4.5, which is about the same as titanium. Therefore, the first exterior portion 2A and the second exterior portion 2B
By applying plating or painting to the titanium to give it an appearance color, the appearance and weight can be made to be the same as the case made of titanium.

When the second exterior part 2B is made of high specific gravity plastic, it is as follows. For example, as the high specific gravity plastic, a nylon resin mixed with tungsten (specific gravity 19) having a high specific gravity is used. For example, with respect to 100 parts by weight of the nylon resin, about 400 parts by weight of tungsten powder, 80 parts by weight of glass fiber, inorganic When 40 parts by weight of powder is mixed and the second exterior part 2B is molded by injection molding, the specific gravity of the second exterior part 2B becomes about 4.5. When the volume ratio of the first exterior portion 2A made of ABS resin to the second exterior portion 2B is set to 1: 1 by using the second exterior portion 2B, the specific gravity of the case 2 is about 2.75, It has the same specific gravity as. Therefore, if the first exterior portion 2A and the second exterior portion 2B are plated or painted to make the appearance color aluminum, the appearance and weight can be finished in the same manner as an aluminum case.

Further, the specific gravity of this high specific gravity plastic can be increased to about 10 by changing the composition of tungsten. In this way, by using the second exterior portion 2B made of high specific gravity plastic having a specific gravity of 10,
First exterior portion 2A made of BS resin and the second exterior portion 2B
When the volume ratio of is set to 1: 2, the specific gravity of Case 2 can be increased to the same level as that of zinc cast.

In addition, the second exterior portion 2B is provided with tungsten,
Using a baked metal having a specific gravity of 16 obtained by mixing cobalt, nickel metal powder, etc. and baking, the first exterior part 2A
When the volume ratio is set to 1: 1, Case 2 having a specific gravity of 8.5 is obtained, and the weight can be finished to be about the same as brass.

As described above, the specific gravity is changed by arbitrarily changing the specific gravity of the metal or high specific gravity plastic used for the second exterior portion 2B and the volume ratio of the first exterior portion 2A and the second exterior portion 2B. It is possible to increase the specific gravity and adjust the specific gravity, and it is possible to form a timepiece exterior component having a weight feeling equivalent to that of a desired metal.

[0026]

According to the present invention, the specific gravity of the exterior parts can be increased by combining the first exterior part made of ABS resin with the second exterior part made of metal or high specific gravity plastic, and the appearance color tone can be improved. Not only that, but also the feeling of weight can be approximated to that of the metal exterior parts.

Further, since the first exterior part made of ABS resin and the second exterior part made of metal or high specific gravity plastic are combined, even if the entire surface of the first exterior part is uniformly plated, 1 exterior part It is possible to increase design variations by combining with the 2nd exterior part.
It is possible to provide the timepiece exterior parts of various designs depending on how to combine the exterior part and the second exterior part.

Further, the above-mentioned timepiece exterior component exerts a great effect when it is used in a portable timepiece attached to an arm or the like. It is possible to give the user a feel similar to that of a watch made by the manufacturer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of a portable timepiece including a timepiece exterior component according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the case shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the case shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 cases 2A First exterior part 2B Second exterior part 4 movements 6 packing 8 glass 10 Case back

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yasuhiko Takayama             2 6663 Funatsu, Kawaguchiko Town, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture               Kawaguchiko Precision Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tsuneichi Watanabe             2 6663 Funatsu, Kawaguchiko Town, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture               Kawaguchiko Precision Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Katsuyuki Yamaguchi             6-12 Tanashi-cho, Nishi-Tokyo, Tokyo             Chisun Watch Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Katsuaki Tamaru             6-12 Tanashi-cho, Nishi-Tokyo, Tokyo             Chisun Watch Co., Ltd.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A first exterior part made of an ABS resin and a second exterior part made of a high specific gravity material having a higher specific gravity than the ABS resin, the first exterior part and the second exterior part being provided. An exterior part for a watch, which has a combined specific gravity of 2.7 to 8.4. 2. The exterior component for a timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the high specific gravity material is made of metal. 3. The exterior component for a timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the high specific gravity material is a high specific gravity plastic. 4. The timepiece exterior component according to claim 1, wherein the second exterior portion is covered with the first exterior portion and disposed inside thereof. 5. The timepiece exterior component according to claim 1, wherein a part of the second exterior portion is covered with the first exterior portion. 6. The timepiece exterior component according to claim 1, wherein the first exterior portion is plated. 7. A portable timepiece comprising the timepiece exterior component according to any one of claims 1 to 6.