JP2011108429A - Push switch - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a push switch, working with push-down operation, capable of performing smooth operation through restraint of excess sliding friction due to pressing at a corner part of a stem without increasing the switch dimension, even in the switch with a low total height and a short sliding length between a case and the stem. <P>SOLUTION: The case includes a first aperture 11 arranging a switch mechanism part, and a second aperture 12 arranged around the first aperture 11. A curved side wall 17 of the second aperture positioned at a first aperture 11 side is formed on a curved surface protruded in a direction of an outer wall 18 of the case, and a protruded sliding surface 44 located at a first aperture 11 side of a sliding protruded part 42 projecting vertically from a top surface of the stem attached in free sliding to the second aperture 12 is formed in a flat surface, so that pressing force added to a corner part of the top surface becomes a "point" slide contact even when a sliding of the curved side wall 17 to the protruded sliding surface 44 is carried out in an inclined manner. Thereby, a smooth pressing operation is made possible by reducing an effect of friction force. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a switch that operates by a pressing operation, and in particular, even in a switch in which the total height of the switch is low and the sliding length between the stem that receives the pressing operation and the case cannot be increased, the stem is pressed when the corner of the stem is pressed. The present invention relates to a switch structure that enables a switch operation by smoothly pressing with an appropriate load.

FIG. 5 shows a cross section of a conventional push switch 100. A conventional press switch 100 includes a case 101, a contact 102, an elastic body 103, and a stem 104. One of the cases 101 is open, and a central electrode with a conductive metal terminal exposed at the center of the bottom of the opening is integrated with a side electrode with a conductive metal terminal disposed around the central electrode. A molded first opening 105 is formed, and one end of each terminal is connected to a substrate (not shown) on which the pressing switch 100 is mounted by soldering or the like. Further, a plurality of second openings 106 are opened in the pressing direction around the first opening 105, and a sliding protrusion 107 of the stem 104 described later slides.

In the first opening of the case 101, a contact 102 made of a conductive thin metal plate having a tongue extending in the center direction inside the ring is incorporated, and the ring of the contact 102 serves as a side electrode. It is placed, and the tip of the tongue piece at the center is separated from the center electrode. An elastic body 103 made of an elastic insulating material such as a substantially conical rubber is disposed on the contact 102 with the annular bottom of the elastic body placed on the ring of the contact. Furthermore, a flat top surface covering the first opening and the second opening from above, and a slightly similar shape that protrudes substantially perpendicularly from the top surface and is inserted into the second opening and is slidable. A plurality of sliding protrusions 107 formed in parallel with the opposing surface of the second opening, and the top surface locked to the locking part of the case A pressing switch 100 is assembled by incorporating a stem having a locking piece protruding from the edge of the stem by engaging the locking piece with the case.

The press switch 100 assembled in this manner presses the top surface of the stem 104, so that the top of the substantially conical elastic body is pressed and the convex portion protruding in the bottom direction of the opening formed inside the top contacts the The tongue piece of the child 102 is pressed to come into contact with the center electrode, whereby the center electrode and the side electrode are electrically connected via the contact, and the switch is turned on.

JP 2007-323967 A

However, in recent years, this type of push switch 100 has been required to have a lower switch height as the size of the push switch 100 is reduced, so that the tilt of the stem 104 can be further increased when pressing the four corners of the top surface of the stem 104. The sliding length L1 in the sliding mechanism between the sliding protrusion of the stem 104 and the second opening of the case 101 provided to reduce the size has to be shortened, so that the four corners of the top surface of the stem 104 must be reduced. When pressing the stem 104, the stem 104 is greatly inclined, and the frictional force generated between the sliding protrusion and the second opening prevents the stem 104 from moving smoothly in the vertical direction, making it difficult to smoothly switch the switch. It was.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and in response to an operation of pressing the vicinity of the edge of the stem even when the overall height of the press switch is reduced and the sliding length between the stem and the case is shortened. Another object of the present invention is to provide a switch structure capable of smoothly moving the stem in the vertical direction and switching the switch.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first opening having a bottom surface formed with a central electrode and a side electrode located outside the central electrode in the push switch, and a plurality of second openings positioned around the first opening. Slidable to the second opening almost perpendicularly from the top surface, the top mechanism covering the first opening, and the switch mechanism that switches the electrical continuity between the center electrode and the side electrode A pressing switch comprising a stem having a plurality of sliding protrusions protruding to the first opening side of the sliding protrusion and a second opening facing the protruding part sliding surface At least one of the opposing side surfaces of the part is curved in a convex shape with respect to the opposing surface

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the switch mechanism portion includes an outer ring portion placed on the side electrode and a conductive thin plate metal having a tongue piece portion extending from the outer ring portion and spaced apart from the central electrode. And an elastic body in which a base on the bottom side placed on the outer ring portion and a top base that is spaced apart from the tongue piece and has a protrusion toward the center electrode are continuous by an inclined portion. Features.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the vicinity of the edge of the stem of the pressure switch is pressed, the protruding portion sliding surface on the first opening side of the sliding protruding portion is inclined and the protruding portion sliding surface is At this time, at least one of the projecting portion sliding surface and the side surface of the second opening facing the projecting portion sliding surface is on the facing surface. Since it is curved toward the top, the above-mentioned sliding is not a sliding performed with a large sliding area by “surface” and “surface”, but one is a surface and the other is the top of the curved portion. Sliding at the “point” or sliding at the “point” where both are the top of the curved portion, the stem and the case slide smoothly, and the stem moves up and down smoothly by the pressing operation. In addition, the switch can be switched.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the switch mechanism is composed of a contact made of a conductive thin metal plate and an elastic body, the load characteristic of the switch is determined by the elastic body, and the center electrode and the side electrode Since the electrical conduction is performed by a contact made of a conductive metal, it is possible to provide variations in load characteristics, and it is possible to perform reliable contact and switch the switch stably.

The perspective view of the press switch which concerns on this invention The exploded perspective view of the press switch concerning the present invention Sectional drawing in the AA line of FIG. Operational state diagram by partial cross section along line BB in FIG. Cross-sectional view of a conventional push switch

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pressure switch according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the pressure switch according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is an operational state diagram of a partial cross section taken along the line BB of FIG. 1, and FIG. The press switch 01 includes a case 10 in which a central electrode 13 and a side electrode 14 are integrally formed, a contact 50, an elastic body 30, and a stem 40.

The case 10 is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped made of an insulating material, and a central electrode 13 made of a conductive metal and having a surface exposed is arranged at the center, and a plurality of side electrodes 14 made of the same conductive metal are arranged around the central electrode 13. The substantially cylindrical 1st opening part 11 opened to the one side which has the arrange | positioned bottom face 15 is formed, and the surroundings of the 1st opening part 11 are centered on the center electrode 13 and are about 90 degree | times to the four corners of the case 10. Are formed, and the second opening 12 is a side wall of the substantially cylindrical first opening 11 and is parallel to the inner side surface of the first opening 11. An opposing side surface 16 that forms a curved side wall 17, an outer wall side surface 19 that is positioned at four corners of the case outer wall that forms a substantially rectangular case outer shape, and has an angle of approximately 90 degrees, and a bottom surface And formed by Arrow from direction is to appear in a substantially isosceles triangle to base the opposite sides 16 as shown in FIG. Further, the pair of outer walls of the case 10 is formed with a recess 20 in which a locking piece 43 extending from the stem 40 is locked.

The contact 50 is made of a thin plate-like conductive metal, and has an annular outer ring portion 51 and a certain angle in the thickness direction with respect to the outer ring portion 51 from the inner edge of the outer ring portion 51 toward the central portion. The tongue portion 52 is extended, and the tip 53 of the tongue portion 52 is formed in a disc shape and is located substantially at the center of the outer ring portion 21.

The elastic body 30 is formed of a rubber, which is an insulating material, and is formed in a substantially conical shape with a hollow inside. The elastic body 30 has a base 31 on the bottom side that is substantially perpendicular to the bottom and is thicker than the tapered portion of the cone. And the top base 32 formed thickly also at the top is formed, and a pressing protrusion (not shown) protrudes from the top toward the hollow interior.

The stem 40 is made of an insulating material, and has a substantially square top surface 41 covering the first opening 11 and the second opening 12 of the case 10 and four sliding protrusions extending from four corners of the top surface 41. 42. The sliding protrusion 42 is inserted into the second opening 12 and is slidable. The horizontal cross section is formed in a substantially isosceles triangle shape, and the opposite side surface of the case 10 is the base of the approximately isosceles triangle. 16 is a flat surface, and when the sliding protrusion 42 is inserted into the second opening 12, the four opposing side surfaces 16 and the protruding portion sliding surface 44 are It is set to be in the range of 0.02 mm to 0.05 mm in a state where the gap a (inner sliding clearance) is equally divided. Further, the projecting portion outer wall 46 which is the other two sides of the isosceles triangle and faces the outer wall side surface 19 of the case 10 is parallel to the outer wall side surface 19 and each of the four outer wall side surfaces 19 and the projecting portion. The gap b (outside clearance) with the outer side wall 46 is set to be equal to or greater than 0.1 mm in a state where the gap is set to be equally divided.

And a press switch is completed by assembling as follows using the above components. First, the contact 50 is incorporated into the first opening 11 of the case 10. At this time, the outer ring portion 51 of the contact 50 is placed on the side electrode 14 and the tip 53 of the tongue piece 52 is positioned so as to be separated from the central electrode 13. Then, the elastic body 30 is incorporated in the outer ring portion 51 of the contact 50 by placing the base on the bottom side, so that the pressing protrusion of the elastic body 30 is positioned away from the tip 53 of the contact 50. It becomes.

In this manner, the stem 40 is finally assembled with the contact 20 and the elastic body 30 in the first opening 11. Assembling is completed by inserting the four sliding protrusions 42 of the stem 40 into the second opening 12 and locking the locking pieces 43 of the stem 40 in the recesses 20 of the case 10. And the second opening 12 are covered with the top surface 41 of the stem 40, and the top surface 41 slightly presses the top base 32 of the elastic body 30 to be the initial state of the press switch.

From this initial state, the pressing switch 01 is first pressed substantially at the center of the top surface 41 of the stem 40, so that the top surface 41 moves substantially horizontally without being tilted, and the top base 32 of the elastic body 30 is pressed and pressed. The protrusion comes into contact with the tip 53 of the contact 50 and receives a further pressing operation so that the tip 53 comes into contact with the center electrode 13, whereby the center electrode 13 and the side electrode 14 are conducted through the contact 50. The push switch is turned on. Then, since the elastic body 30 has a conical shape in the process of this pressing operation, the conical shape is substantially reversed in a certain pressing stroke, and a pressing operation with a click feeling is thereby performed.

When the center of the top surface 41 of the stem 40 is pressed in this way, it is natural that the top surface 41 moves without being inclined and the top base portion 32 of the elastic body 30 moves by the pressed distance. However, in the push switch 01, the inclination of the top surface 41 can be made as small as possible even when the corner of the top surface 41 of the stem 40 is pressed, and the operation state when the center of the top surface 41 is pressed can be made closer. Therefore, the operation will be described below.

When the position to be pressed is not the center of the top surface 41 of the stem 40 but the corner close to the corner, the top surface 41 starts to tilt when the corner is pressed. As a result, the sliding protrusion 42 extending perpendicularly from the corner of the top surface 41 also starts to tilt, and as described above, the gap a is set smaller than the gap b, so that it is closest to the pressing position. The lowermost portion 47 of the protrusion sliding surface 44 of a certain sliding protrusion 42 abuts against the opposing side surface 16 of the second opening 12, and the center position of the top surface 41 or the center position of the center electrode is brought into contact with the sliding protrusion 42. The protrusion sliding surface 44 of another sliding protrusion 42 that is in a symmetrical position with respect to the abutment comes into contact with the top corner 21 of the other opposing side surface 16 that faces the other. In the contact between the lowermost portion 47 and the top corner portion 21, the top surface 41 is pressed while being inclined, so that a component force in the plane direction acts on the lowermost portion 47 and the top portion 21 due to the pressing force. A frictional force that prevents pushing in is generated. However, in the pressing switch 01 of the present invention, the opposing side surface 16 is a curved surface having a circular cross section in a plane perpendicular to the pressing operation direction, and the protruding portion sliding surface 44 is a flat surface. Each contact at 21 is a contact at a “point”. The contact at this “point” is extremely smaller in friction coefficient than the contact at “line”, which is inherently caused by the opposing side surface 16 and the protruding portion sliding surface 44 being flat. The frictional force at the lowermost portion 47 and the apex corner portion 21 is also reduced.

Therefore, even when the corner of the top surface 41 is pressed, the sliding of the sliding protrusion 42 and the second opening 12 is hindered by the frictional force although the top surface 41 is inclined in the initial pressing state. As a result, the sliding protrusion 42 smoothly slides in the second opening 12. Then, as the pressing operation is continued thereafter, the distance over which the sliding protrusion 42 and the second opening 12 overlap gradually, that is, the sliding distance becomes longer, whereby the inclination of the top surface 41 gradually decreases, and the contact When the tip 53 of the child 50 contacts the center electrode 13, the operation state is almost the same as the operation state when the center portion of the top surface 41 is pressed, and the pressing switch 01 is turned on.

As described above, the pressing switch 01 has a structure in which the sliding protrusion 42 and the second opening 12 are in contact with each other at “points”, so that even if the corner of the top surface 41 is pressed during the pressing operation. A smooth pressing operation is possible, and a smooth operation is possible even with a switch having a small switch height and a short sliding distance. As a result, even when the pressing switch 01 is incorporated into an electric device, the point to be pressed is not limited to a small size, and the assembly of the electric device can be made easier.

In this embodiment, the opposing side surface 16 is curved and the protruding portion sliding surface 44 is flat. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the opposing side surface 16 may be flat and the protruding portion sliding surface 44 may be curved. Both the side surface 16 and the protruding portion sliding surface 44 may be curved surfaces whose convex directions face each other in cross section. That is, if the sliding protrusion 42 and the second opening 12 are brought into contact with each other at a “point”, a smooth operation is performed even when the corner of the top surface 41 is pressed.

The present invention is used for a pressure switch having a small height and a short sliding distance between the case and the stem. The side surface of the second opening provided in the case is a curved surface, and the side surface of the stem sliding protrusion is a flat surface. In this way, even when the top surface of the stem is pressed and the top surface of the stem is tilted, contact is made at the “point” when sliding, and the frictional force during sliding is reduced. Therefore, it can be used for a push switch that needs to obtain a smooth operation.

01 Press switch 10 Case 11 First opening 12 Second opening 13 Central electrode 14 Side electrode 15 Bottom 16 Opposite side 17 Curved side wall 18 Case outer wall 19 Outer wall side 20 Recess 21 Top corner 30 Elastic body 31 Base side base 32 Top base 33 Inclined portion 40 Stem 41 Top surface 42 Sliding protrusion 43 Locking piece 44 Protruding portion sliding surface 46 Protruding portion outer wall 47 Bottom 50 Contactor 51 Outer ring portion 52 Tongue piece portion 53 Tip 100 Conventional pressure Switch L1 Sliding length

Claims (2)

A first opening (11) having a bottom surface (15) on which a central electrode (13) and a side electrode (14) positioned outside the central electrode (13) are formed, and around the first opening (11) A case (10) having a plurality of second openings (12) positioned; a switch mechanism for switching electrical conduction between the center electrode (13) and the side electrode (14); and a first opening (11 And a stem (40) having a plurality of sliding projections (42) projecting slidably from the top surface (41) to the second opening (12) substantially vertically. A projection switch sliding surface (44) on the first opening (11) side of the sliding projection (42) and a second opening facing the projection sliding surface (44). Either one of the opposing side surfaces (16) of (12) is curved convexly with respect to the opposing surface, and the other Push switch, characterized in that convexly curved with respect to a plane shape or the surface facing the. The switch mechanism has an outer ring part (51) mounted on the side electrode (14) and a tongue piece part (52) extending from the outer ring part (51) and positioned away from the central electrode (13). A contact (50) made of a conductive thin metal plate, a bottom side base (31) placed on the outer ring portion (51), and a tongue piece (52) away from and toward the central electrode (13) The press switch according to claim 1, wherein the top base portion (32) having a protruding portion and an elastic body (30) continuous by the inclined portion (33).

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