JP2012242440A - Led indicator for home electrical appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an LED indicator capable of clear indication of only necessary information without diffusing light more widely than necessary when the LED is turned on, and uniformization of color difference between the indicator and its surrounding by making the indication invisible when the LED is turned off.SOLUTION: The LED indicator includes: a body 10 on which at least two LEDs 17 are provided; and a panel 2 which is attached to the body 10 so as to face the LEDs 17. The panel 2 comprises: a light transmission member 19 which comprises a thick part 23 whose portion facing the LEDs 17 is thick in a transmission direction of LED light and a thin part 25 whose portion not facing the LEDs 17 is thin in the transmission direction of the LED light, and transmits light of the LEDs; and a holding member 20 which is disposed between the light transmission member 19 and the LEDs 17, holds the light transmission member 19, and has a light non-transmission part 27 which is positioned at the thin part 25 of the transmission member 19 and does not transmits the light of the LEDs 17.

Description

  The present invention relates to an LED display used in household electrical appliances including air conditioners such as air purifiers, dehumidifiers and humidifiers, and cookers such as rice cookers, and more particularly to a structure that transmits light from the LEDs.

  Conventionally, as described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, an LED display used for an air purifier or the like is provided with LEDs for displaying operation mode, menu, power on / off, etc. In many cases, a hole is provided in a panel covering these LEDs, and a panel sheet coated with a permeable ink such as diffusion ink is attached to the hole.

  However, in the conventional structure, even when the LED is not lit, the diffused ink portion emerges from the panel sheet, and a color difference occurs between the portion where the LED light is transmitted and the surrounding portion, and the appearance is poor. There was a problem.

JP 2004-356035 A JP-A-11-195339

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems. When the LED is turned on, only the necessary LED light is clearly displayed without diffusing light more than necessary, and when the LED is turned off, the display is not visible. It is an object of the present invention to provide an LED display device for household electric appliances that can make the color difference uniform.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention (Claim 1)
A body provided with at least two LEDs;
A panel attached to the main body so as to face the LED,
The panel is
A light-transmitting member that transmits the light of the LED, comprising a thick portion in which the portion facing the LED is thickened in the LED light transmission direction and a thin portion in which the portion not facing the LED is thinned in the LED light transmission direction When,
A holding member that is disposed between the light transmissive member and the LED, holds the light transmissive member, and has a light non-transmissive portion that does not transmit light of the LED located in a thin portion of the light transmissive member;
It consists of

  In this invention (Claim 2), it is preferable that the outer surface of the said light transmissive member is flat in the direction where the said at least 2 LED is located in a line.

  In the present invention (invention 3), it is preferable to provide a gap between the thin portion of the light transmission member and the light non-transmission portion of the holding member.

  In this invention (Claim 4), it is preferable that the color of the light non-transmission part of the said holding member is a darker color than the color of the said light transmission member.

  According to the present invention (Claim 1), when the LED is turned on, the light emitted from the LED is transmitted through the thick portion of the light transmitting member and radiated to the outside. The light transmitted through the thick part is prevented from radiating to the surroundings by the light non-transmitting part located in the thin part, so that the light emitted from the LED can be clearly seen. When the LED is turned off, the color of the thick part of the light transmission member can be seen from the outside, but the light non-transmission part of the holding member can be seen from the thin part, so there is a difference between the color seen through the thick part and the color seen through the thin part. , The entire area of the LED can be visually recognized uniformly, and the appearance is good.

  According to the present invention (Claim 2), since the outer surface of the light transmitting member is flat in the direction in which at least two LEDs are arranged, when the LEDs are lit, the LEDs are projected from the flat surface without unevenness of the light transmitting member. When the LED is turned off and the LED is turned off, only a flat surface without unevenness of the light transmitting member can be seen, so that the appearance is good.

  According to the present invention (Claim 3), a slight amount of light enters the gap between the thin portion of the light transmission member and the light non-transmission portion of the holding member, and the color and thin portion that can be seen through the thick portion by this slight light. It is possible to further eliminate the color difference from the color seen through, and to evenly see the entire area of the LED, further improving the appearance.

  According to the present invention (Claim 4), since the color of the light non-transmissive portion of the holding member is darker than the color of the light transmissive member, the darkness of the LED when turned off, which is visible through the thick portion, and the milky white thin portion Since the darkness of the light non-transmitting portion of the holding member seen through can be seen equally, the entire area of the LED can be seen more uniformly, and the appearance is further improved.

The front view (A) of the front panel of an air cleaner, a top view (B), and a side view (C). FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of the front panel of FIG. 1. The front view of the main body of an air cleaner. The vertical sectional view of the display part of an air cleaner. The VV line horizontal sectional view of FIG. 4 of the display part of an air cleaner. The perspective view of the light transmissive member (A) and holding member (B) of LED, and the side view (C) of a light transmissive member. FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 5. The front view seen through each member in the enlarged view of a LED display part. The enlarged view of a LED display part, the front view (A) of a LED lighting state, the front view (B) of a LED light extinction state when there is no light non-transmissive member, and the front view (C) of a LED light extinction state.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a front panel 2 of an air purifier 1 provided with an LED display device according to the present invention. The front panel 2 is composed of a front surface portion 3 in which both end edges of a rectangular vertical surface are curved rearward, and a top surface portion 4 extending horizontally from the upper end edge of the front surface portion 3. A louver 5 for taking in air is formed in the center of the front surface portion 3. On the right side portion of the ridge 6 formed by the front surface portion 3 and the top surface portion 4 continuous therewith, switch operation portions 7a and 7b of a first switch (off timer) and a second switch (on / off selection switch) are provided. Is provided. An LED display window 8 extending in the horizontal direction for displaying various selection courses with LEDs is provided on the front surface portion 3 below the switch operation portions 7a and 7b. FIG. 2 shows an example of the display provided on the upper part of the LED display window 8, in order from left to right: “timer”, “clean monitor”, “automatic” “automatic”, “pollen”, and “eco” modes. , “Silent”, “Standard”, and “Rapid” modes of the continuous course are displayed. A pair of projecting pieces 9 are formed as positioning portions on the inner surface in the center of the ridge portion 6 formed by the front surface portion 3 and the top surface portion 4 of the front panel 2.

FIG. 3 shows the main body 10 viewed from the front of the air cleaner 1 with the front panel 2 removed. The main body 10 is formed with a suction port 12 for sucking air that has passed through the louver 5 of the front panel 2 into an internal fan (not shown) through a filter 11. As shown in FIG. 3, two switch holes 13a and 13b for the first switch and the second switch are formed in the upper right of the front surface of the main body 10, and an air purifier is provided below the switch holes 13a and 13b. One LED hole 14 is formed in one row in the horizontal direction. A sheet 15 is attached so as to cover the switch holes 13a and 13b and the LED hole 14, and the LED hole 14 is a transparent window.
A recess 16 is formed in the center of the ridge portion of the front surface and the top surface of the main body 10 to engage with the pair of protrusions 9 of the front panel 2.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a substrate 18 on which first and second switches (not shown) and a plurality of LEDs 17 are mounted is arranged in the main body 1 in parallel to the vertical direction. Each LED 17 faces the LED hole 14 on the front surface of the main body 10.

  FIG. 6 shows a light transmitting member 19 that transmits light from the LED 17 and a holding member 20 that holds the light transmitting member 19. The light transmitting member 19 is made of milky white material such as acrylic resin, and the holding member 20 is made of a material darker than the light transmitting member 19 such as HIPS (impact resistant polystyrene) resin, for example, gray or black.

  The light transmitting member 19 is provided with a rectangular flat base 21, a ridge 22 fitted into the LED display window 8 of the front panel 2 from the inside on the front surface of the base 21, and a back surface of the base 21 at regular intervals. It consists of a plurality of thick projections 23 and a knob 24 that projects upward from a part of the base 21. A thin concave portion 25 is formed between adjacent thick projections 23. The outer surface of the ridge 22 serving as the outer surface of the light transmitting member 19 is a flat surface in the direction in which the plurality of LEDs 17 are arranged, that is, in the horizontal direction in the embodiment. Further, the vertical direction of the outer surface of the protrusion 22 is slightly curved.

  The holding member 20 is disposed between the light transmitting member 19 and the LED 17 when the front panel 2 is attached to the main body 10. The holding member 20 has a plurality of holes 26 into which the plurality of thick protrusions 23 of the light transmitting member 19 are fitted. The wall around the hole 26 is a light non-transmissive portion 27.

As shown in FIG. 7, the gap G ₁ between the thick protrusion 23 and the side surface of the light non-transmissive part 27 is about 0.2 mm, and the gap between the thin concave part 25 and the tip surface of the light non-transmissive part 27. G ₂ is, has become a gap of about 1.2mm. These gaps are not limited to the numerical values of the embodiments.

  Next, the operation of the LED display device of the present invention having the above configuration will be described.

  First, when the front panel 2 is attached to the main body 10, the pair of projecting pieces 9 of the front panel 2 are engaged with the concave portions 16 of the main body 10. Therefore, the front panel 2 and the main body 10 can be accurately positioned with a simple configuration and operation, and the positional relationship between the LED display window 8 and the light transmitting member 19 of the front panel 2 and the LED 17 of the main body 10 is maintained. be able to.

  When the LED 17 of the main body 10 is turned on, the light a that travels straight out of the LED 17 passes through the thick projection 23 of the light transmitting member 19 and is radiated to the outside, as shown by a one-dot chain line in FIG. Further, the light b traveling obliquely from the LED light transmitting member 19 is transmitted through the side surface of the thick protrusion 23 and reflected by the light non-transmitting portion 27 of the holding member 20 to return to the thick protrusion 23. Emission is prevented. For this reason, all the light emitted from the LED 17 is radiated to the outside through the thick protrusion 23, so that the light from the LED 17 can be clearly seen as shown in FIG.

When the LED 17 of the main body 10 is turned off, the thick projection 23 is thinner than the thin projection 25 when it is assumed that there is no light non-transmissive member 27. From the outside, as shown in FIG. Since the meat protrusion 23 looks darker than the thin protrusion 25, color unevenness occurs over the entire area of the ED 17.
However, in this embodiment, when the LED 17 of the main body 10 is turned off, the inside becomes dark, but the color of the thick protrusion 23 of the light transmitting member 19 can be seen from the outside. Further, since the color of the light non-transmissive portion 27 of the holding member 20 is visible from the thin-walled recess 25, there is no difference between the color seen through the thick-walled projection 23 and the color seen through the thin-walled recess 25, as shown in FIG. Moreover, the entire region of the LED 17 can be visually recognized uniformly, and the appearance is good.

  Further, since the outer surface of the light transmitting member 19 is flat in the direction in which the plurality of LEDs 17 are arranged, that is, in the horizontal direction, when the LED 17 is lit, the light of the LED 17 is emitted from the flat surface without unevenness of the light transmitting member 19. When it is visible and the LED 17 is turned off, only the flat surface without unevenness of the light transmitting member 19 is visible, so that the appearance is good.

  Further, a slight amount of light enters the gap between the thin recessed portion 25 of the light transmitting member 19 and the light non-transmitting portion 27 of the holding member 20, and the color seen through the thick protrusion 23 and the thin recessed portion 25 are seen by this slight light. The color difference between the colors can be further eliminated, and the entire area of the LED 17 can be visually recognized more uniformly, and the appearance is further improved.

  In addition, if the color of the light non-transmission part 27 of the holding member 20 is an intermediate color between black and milky white, the darkness of the LED 17 at the time of extinction that can be seen through the thick protrusion 23 and the light of the holding member 20 that can be seen through the milky thin recess 25 Since the darkness of the non-transmissive portion 27 appears to be equal, the entire region of the LED 17 can be visually recognized more uniformly, and the appearance is further improved.

  The embodiment can be variously changed. For example, the thick protrusion 23 that is a thick portion may be the entire surface of the portion facing the LED 17, or may be a part of the portion facing the LED 17, that is, a shape smaller than the LED 17. Similarly, the thin concave portion 25 that is a thin portion may be the entire surface of the portion that does not face the LED 17 or may be a part thereof.

  Although the said embodiment was demonstrated with the air cleaner, it is applicable also to household electric equipment containing cooking appliances, such as other dehumidifiers and LED humidifiers which have an LED display part, and a rice cooker.

1 Air Cleaner 2 Front Panel (Panel)
10 Body 17 LED
19 Light transmission member 20 Holding member 23 Thick protrusion (thick part)
25 Thin-walled concave part (thin-walled part)
27 Light non-transmitting portion G ₁ , G ₂ gap

Claims (4)

A body provided with at least two LEDs;
A panel attached to the main body so as to face the LED,
The panel is
A light-transmitting member that transmits the light of the LED, comprising a thick portion in which the portion facing the LED is thickened in the LED light transmission direction and a thin portion in which the portion not facing the LED is thinned in the LED light transmission direction When,
A holding member that is disposed between the light transmissive member and the LED, holds the light transmissive member, and has a light non-transmissive portion that does not transmit light of the LED located in a thin portion of the light transmissive member;
An LED display device for household electric appliances, comprising:   2. The LED display device for household electric appliance according to claim 1, wherein an outer surface of the light transmission member is flat in a direction in which the at least two LEDs are arranged.   The LED display device for household electric appliances according to claim 1, wherein a gap is provided between the thin portion of the light transmitting member and the light non-transmitting portion of the holding member.   4. The LED display device for household electric appliance according to claim 1, wherein a color of the light non-transmissive portion of the holding member is darker than a color of the light transmissive member. 5.

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