JP2018009786A - refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator including a touch panel structure having high accuracy in detecting an operation and convenient for users.SOLUTION: A refrigerator has characteristics in a touch panel structure and includes: a translucent door outer panel 31; a detection sensor which is positioned at the rear side of the outer panel 31 and detects changes of electrostatic capacitance; a support member 44 which supports a flexible substrate 42 including the detection sensor; and a pressing member 43 which presses the detection sensor to the outer panel 31 and is located between the support member 44 and the flexible substrate 42. Recessed parts or openings are formed in the support member 44, and LEDs are disposed in the recessed parts or the openings. The pressing member 43 contacts with the support member 44 at a part thereof and is separated from the support member at a portion other than a contact part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

  Embodiments relate to a refrigerator.

  In refrigerators, there are products in which a touch panel is provided on a door instead of operation buttons, and many proposals have been made on refrigerators equipped with a touch panel. For example, in Patent Document 1, a door front plate made of glass plate, a plurality of operation units located on the front surface of the door front plate, and a static electricity disposed at a position corresponding to the operation unit on the rear surface of the door front plate. There is disclosed a refrigerator including a detection unit that detects a capacity, a display unit that displays an operation result, illumination means that irradiates the display unit with light from behind, and a control unit.

  In this conventional refrigerator, the longitudinal direction of the glass plate (long in the vertical direction) and the longitudinal direction of the substrate assembly (consisting of a detection unit, a display unit, illumination means, a control unit, etc. long in the left and right directions) are orthogonal to each other. Is provided with a substrate assembly, which reduces the bending of the glass plate during operation of the operation unit. Further, by disposing the substrate assembly at a position away from the lower end of the door, water is prevented from entering from the lower end of the glass plate and affecting the substrate and the like.

  However, in a conventional capacitive touch panel having a plurality of operation units, a gap may be formed between the detection unit corresponding to each operation unit and the glass plate, and the detection accuracy may decrease. A structure to ensure proximity to the glass plate was required.

  Further, conventionally, the substrate assembly is arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the glass plate and the longitudinal direction of the substrate assembly are orthogonal to each other so that the bending generated in the glass plate does not affect the detection accuracy of the detection unit. However, there is a need for a touch panel structure that can improve detection accuracy regardless of the orientation of the substrate assembly.

JP 2011-58787 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator having a touch panel structure that has high operation detection accuracy and is easy to use for a user.

The refrigerator according to the embodiment includes a translucent door outer plate, a detection unit that detects a change in capacitance located behind the outer plate, a support unit that supports the detection unit, and the detection unit. A pressing unit disposed between the support unit and the detection unit that presses the outer plate against the outer plate, and an illumination unit disposed behind the detection unit, wherein the detection unit is translucent. And emitting light emitted from the illuminating means forward through the detection unit.

It is a front view of the refrigerator in an embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows the state which removed the door of the said refrigerator. It is sectional drawing of the A-A 'line | wire in FIG. It is sectional drawing to which a part of FIG. 3 was expanded. It is a front view in the state where the operation nameplate, flexible substrate, and pressing member of the touch panel unit were removed. It is a perspective view which shows the state which removed the operation nameplate of the touchscreen unit. It is a disassembled perspective view except the storage box and pushing member of a touch panel unit. It is a front view of an operation nameplate. It is a front view of a pressing member. It is a side view of a pressing member. It is a front view of a flexible substrate. It is a rear view of a flexible substrate. It is a front view of a supporting member. It is a partial expansion perspective view of a support member. It is a partial expansion perspective view of a support member. It is sectional drawing of the B-B 'line | wire of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the C-C 'line | wire of FIG. It is a disassembled perspective view of a touch panel unit.

  Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG.1 and FIG.2, the refrigerator 1 in this embodiment is provided with the heat insulation box 3, and the several doors 21-26 which can open and close the front of the heat insulation box 3. FIG.

  The heat insulating box 3 is configured by sandwiching a heat insulating material such as foamed urethane between an inner box and an outer box. The heat insulating box 3 is partitioned into five rooms, a refrigerator room 11, a vegetable room 12, a side-by-side ice making room 13 and a switching room 14, and a freezing room 15 from the top. At the front opening of the refrigerating room 11, a double door refrigerating room first door 21 and a refrigerating room second door 22 are attached. In addition, a drawer type vegetable room door 23, an ice making room door 24, a switching room door 25, and a freezing room door 26 are attached to the front opening of the vegetable room 12, ice making room 13, switching room 14, and freezing room 15, respectively. It has been.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the doors 21 to 26 are arranged in parallel with the outer plate 31 of a colored transparent plate with a surface pattern of an arbitrary color and pattern, such as a colored transparent glass plate, and the outer plate 31. The inner plate 32, the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 are poured between the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32, and liquid urethane is poured and foamed and cured to fix the foam 33 and fix the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 at the outer peripheral portion. A side plate. That is, the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 of each door 21 to 26 are fixed by the side plates, and the heat insulating material 33 is enclosed between the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32. The outer plate 31 has translucency, but is processed so that the internal heat insulating material 33 and the like cannot be seen from the outside. The first refrigerator door 21 is provided with a capacitive touch panel.

  Hereinafter, the configuration of the touch panel will be described in detail.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 to 7, the touch panel unit 40 is installed in the refrigerator compartment first door 21 so that the longitudinal direction is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the refrigerator compartment first door 21.

  The touch panel unit 40 includes an operation nameplate 41, a flexible substrate 42, a pressing member 43, a support member 44, and an operation substrate 45 that are stacked in this order from the front, and are stored in a storage box 47 in a stacked state. Yes.

  The storage box 47 is temporarily bonded to the outer plate 31 at the edge 86, and when the heat insulating material 33 is filled and foamed, the heat insulating material 33 is pressed against the outer plate 31 at a predetermined position in advance. Fixed in position.

  The side of the freezer end face side of the refrigerator compartment first door 21, that is, a part of the side face that faces the free revolution end face of the refrigerator compartment second door 22 in the closed state of the refrigerator compartment door, that is, the touch panel installation part is opened. The side opening 49 of the storage box 47 is fixed in a fitted state. Thereby, the pushing member 48 described later can be inserted from the opening 49.

  The operation name plate 41, the flexible substrate 42, the pressing member 43, the support member 44, and the operation substrate 45 are urged toward the outer plate 31 (door front direction) by the push-in member 48 while being stored in the storage box 47. Yes.

  In the following description, for the sake of explanation, the upper side in FIG. The operation nameplate 41 is formed of a light-shielding sheet material, and a portion for displaying characters, designs, etc. is made transparent (having translucency), and is drawn on that portion when light is applied from the back side. Characters, designs, etc. are formed to emerge. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the operation nameplate 41 includes a transmission part 54 for displaying characters, pictures and the like. The operation nameplate 41 includes an operation menu 51 such as “refrigeration”, “freezing”, “freezing function”, “ice making”, “power saving”, “key lock” (in order 51a to 51f), “freezing” Notification menu to notify the status of the refrigerator 1 such as “Hot food freezing”, “Vegetable refrigeration”, “Dry”, “Ice ice making”, “Ice making off”, “Power saving”, “Outing”, “Peak shift” 52 is provided as the transmission part 54.

Further, the operation nameplate 41 has a transmissive portion 54 for displaying characters, pictures, and the like, and other portions are made of opaque portions that are made opaque by coloring the front surface or the back surface.
Reflecting means for reflecting the light of the LED 91 is provided on the back and opaque portions of the operation nameplate 41, and this reflecting means can be implemented by methods such as silver printing, mirror finishing, plating, or vapor deposition.

  The light of the LED 91 passes through the transmission part 54 of the operation nameplate 41 through the cylindrical reflector (light path part) that guides the light by surrounding the light of the recesses 71a to 71e within a predetermined range, and forwards the light of the LED. Is transmitted. On the other hand, the light of the LED that hits the reflecting means of the opaque portion is reflected and returns to the concave portion 71a, and the light reflected again on the wall surface of the concave portion 71a is guided forward, and the reflected light passes through the transmitting portion 54. Pass forward from. As a result, more light passes through the transmission part 54, and characters, designs, and the like can be displayed brightly and with good contrast.

  Further, since the concave portion 71a has an inverted conical surface shape, the reflected material is easily collected in the center, and light is easily collected in the transmission portion 54 described at the center of the location corresponding to the concave portion 71a of the operation nameplate 41. Therefore, more light passes through the transmission part 54, so that characters, pictures, etc. can be displayed brightly and with good contrast. In this case, a reflecting means may be provided also on the wall surface of the recess 71a, and the conical surface may be a curved surface to further increase the light collection efficiency.

  As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, the pressing member 43 is arranged in parallel by the number corresponding to the number of detection sensors 57 (here, six) reflecting plates 61 (61a to 61f), and each reflecting plate. And a connecting member 62 for connecting 61. The reflection plate 61 has a function of reflecting light emitted from the front and an optical function of emitting light emitted from an LED 91 (described later) uniformly emitted from the rear and then emitting the light forward. Among the six reflecting plates 61, five in order from the top (61a to 61e) have a disk shape with the same size, and are arranged in a line at equal intervals so that the centers are located on the same straight line. Yes. The remaining one reflection plate 61f is a substantially hexagonal plate-like body smaller than the disk-shaped reflection plates 61a to 61e.

  The connecting member 62 is an arm-shaped member that connects the six reflecting plates 61, and the reflecting plates 61 are connected by two arm-shaped bodies. 9B, the connecting member 62 is connected to the rear surface side of each reflecting plate 61, and the reflecting plate 61 and the connecting member 62 are flush with each other at the rear end surface. And each reflector 61a-61f will be located directly under each detection sensor 57a-57f of the flexible substrate 42, when the flexible substrate 42 and the pressing member 43 are piled up.

  The flexible board 42 is a printed board having translucency and flexibility. As shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, the flexible substrate 42 has a lower right portion extending downward and a lower end protruding leftward to form a terminal portion 55. A reinforcing plate 56 is attached to the front side of the terminal portion 55.

  As shown in FIG. 10B, the flexible substrate 42 is provided with six detection sensors 57 (57a to 57f) for detecting a change in capacitance at a position corresponding to the operation menu 51 of the operation nameplate 41. Yes. The six detection sensors 57 are formed at positions corresponding to the operation menu 51 when the operation nameplate 41 and the flexible substrate 42 are overlapped. That is, when the operation nameplate 41 and the flexible substrate 42 are overlapped, the detection sensor 57a is positioned immediately below (rear side) the character “refrigeration” (51a), and the detection sensor 57b is directly below the character “freezing” (51b). Is located, the detection sensor 57c is located immediately below the characters “refrigeration function” (51c), the detection sensor 57d is located directly below the characters “ice making” (51d), and the characters “power saving” (57e) The detection sensor 57e is positioned immediately below, and the detection sensor 57f is positioned immediately below the characters “key lock” (57f). The number of detection sensors 57 is not limited to six, and the required number is determined according to the number of operation menus.

  As shown in FIG. 11, the support member 44 is formed of a light-shielding material and is a substantially rectangular plate-like body. A plurality of recesses 71 are formed in the support member 44 at a position located immediately below (on the rear surface side) of the transmission part 54 when the operation nameplate 41 is overlapped, and an operation board (to be described later) is formed at the bottom of each recess 71. An LED opening 75 in which 45 LEDs 91 are located is formed. Moreover, the recessed parts 71a-71e located in the part by which the disk-shaped reflecting plates 61a-61e of the pressing member 43 are arrange | positioned are formed in the reverse cone surface shape. The reason why the recesses 71a to 71e are formed in an inverted conical surface shape is to provide a function as a reflector of the LED 91. The concave portions 71 a to 71 e and the concave portion 71 f of the pressing member 43 where the substantially hexagonal reflecting plate 61 f is disposed are continuous by the groove 72.

  The groove 72 is formed at a position directly below the connecting member 62 when the pressing member 43 is overlapped. A protrusion 73 is formed in the groove 72. The protruding portion 73 is a portion that comes into contact with the end of the bent portion of the connecting member 62 of the pressing member 43. That is, when the pressing member 43 is overlapped with the support member 44, only the bent end portion of the connecting member 62 is in contact with the protruding portion 73, and the other portions are separated from the bottom surface of the groove 72. The recess 71f is not provided with the LED opening 75. Further, only the LED opening 75 may be provided without providing the recess 71.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the support member 44 is provided with a notch 76 by notching the vicinity of the lower right corner (near the recess 71 f), and the upper portion of the notch 76 is rearward. It is set as the inclination part 76a which inclines toward. And the control board 77 is arrange | positioned so that rotation is possible so that this notch part 76 may be plugged up. The notch 76 is a path through which the flexible substrate 42 passes when the terminal portion 55 of the flexible substrate 42 is connected to the operation substrate 45. The restricting plate 77 is a plate for suppressing the flexible substrate 42 that enters the rear surface side of the support member 44 from the notch 76.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 14A, the support member 44 includes first pushing mechanism portions 78 at both ends (upper and lower ends) in the longitudinal direction. The first pushing mechanism 78 is a mechanism that is pushed into the outer plate 31 by a pushing rod 98 of a pushing member 48 described later. The first push-in mechanism portion 78 includes an insertion hole 79 into which the push-in rod 98 of the push-in member 48 formed between the support box 44 and the storage box 47 is inserted at the upper and lower ends of the support member 44, and the outer plate 31 side by the push-in rod 98. And a pushing piece 80 to be pushed into. The pushing piece 80 enters the insertion hole 79. When the pushing rod 98 enters the insertion hole 79, it is pushed out to the outer plate 31 side by the pushing rod 98, and as a result, the support member 44 together with the front side member thereof. It will be pressed against the back side of the outer plate 31.

  As shown in FIGS. 11 and 14B, the support member 44 includes a second push-in mechanism 82 that extends laterally on one end surface in the short-side direction (a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction). The second push-in mechanism portion 82 is composed of three projecting members 83 projecting leftward. The projecting member 83 includes a substantially U-shaped frame 84 in front view and a pushing piece 85 that is located inside the frame 84 and projects rearward. Then, the second pushing mechanism portion 82 inserts the pushing member 48 from the side of the support member 44 and pushes the support member 44 to the side, and the pushing piece 85 of the projecting member 83 enters the step 87 of the storage box 47 described later. It is a mechanism that is biased toward the outer plate 31 by riding on.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the operation board 45 includes a plurality of LEDs 91 at positions corresponding to the LED openings 75 of the support member 44. A terminal receiving portion 93 for connecting the terminal portion 55 of the flexible substrate 42 is provided in the vicinity of the lower right corner of the operation substrate 45. As shown in FIG. 14B, the operation substrate 45 is held by the support member 44 behind the support member 44.

  As shown in FIG. 15, the storage box 47 includes a side opening 49 on the right side, and the front is also open. . In the vicinity of the left end of the storage box 47, a step 87 is formed toward the front. An edge 86 is provided at the front end portion of the storage box 47. The storage box 47 has an edge 86 pressed against and fixed to the back surface of the outer plate 31 so that the right side edge coincides with the right side edge of the outer plate 31 of the refrigerator door 1.

  The pushing member 48 includes a side plate 97, a pushing rod 98 extending perpendicularly to the side plate 97 from the vicinity of the end in the longitudinal direction of the side plate 97, and a plurality of push members formed perpendicular to the side plate 97. And a locking piece 99. The push-in member 48 is inserted from the side opening 49 of the storage box 47 so that the support member 44 stored in the storage box 47 is pushed forward (the outer plate 31) by the locking piece 99 by the locking piece 99. 47 is fixed.

  As described above, the touch panel unit 40 is formed by sequentially stacking the operation nameplate 41, the flexible substrate 42, the pressing member 43, the support member 44, and the operation substrate 45 from the front. In the laminated body, the operation menu 51 of the operation nameplate 41, the detection sensor 57 of the flexible substrate 42, the pressing member 43, and the recesses 71a to 71f of the support member 44 are overlapped. The pressing member 43 is overlapped with the support member 44 in a state in which the connecting member 62 is in contact with the protruding portion 73 formed in the groove 72 of the support member 44. In other words, the pressing member 43 and the supporting member 44 are in a state where only the protruding portion 73 and the connecting member 62 are in contact with each other, and the other portions are provided with a slight gap.

  Further, the terminal portion 55 of the flexible substrate 42 reaches the rear operation substrate 45 from the notch portion 76 via the inclined portion 76 a of the support member 44, and is connected to the terminal receiving portion 93. The movement of the flexible substrate 42 is restricted by the restriction plate 77 of the support member 44 in a state where the terminal portion 55 and the terminal receiving portion 93 are connected.

  The laminated body is stored in the storage box 47. The storage box 47 is temporarily fixed to the outer plate 31 with a tape or the like at the edge 86, and further, due to the volume expansion force when the heat insulating material 33 is foamed. It is pressed against the outer plate 31 side. When the pushing member 48 is inserted from the opening (side surface) of the storage box 47, the pushing rod 98 enters the insertion hole 95 of the support member 44 and pushes the pushing piece 80 forward (see FIG. 14A). ). Further, since the pushing member 48 is pushed from the side of the storage box 47, the stacked body is pushed to the side, and the protruding member 83 of the support member 44 rides on the step 87 of the storage box 47 and moves forward (FIG. 14B). reference). As a result, the laminate is pressed against the back surface side of the outer plate 31, so that the operation name plate 41 and the flexible substrate 42 are in close contact with the back surface of the outer plate 31 without any gap. Therefore, the touch panel in the present embodiment can reliably detect the touch operation from the front of the outer plate 31 by the detection sensor 57 on the flexible substrate 42.

  In the touch panel unit 40 configured as described above, since the flexible substrate 42 can be pressed against the outer plate 31 by the pressing member 43, the user's touch operation on the outer plate 31 can be reliably detected. Therefore, a user-friendly refrigerator that is user-friendly and user-friendly can be realized.

  Further, since the support member 44 includes the inverted conical recesses 71a to 71e, the recesses 71a to 71e can serve as reflectors and reliably irradiate the operation menu 51 of the operation nameplate 41 with light.

  Furthermore, since the flexible substrate 42 is formed of a material having translucency, light from the LED 91 can be transmitted, and light can be irradiated to the transmission part 54 of the operation nameplate 41. Therefore, the user can clearly read the characters on the operation nameplate 41 from the front of the outer plate 31.

  Further, since the pressing member 43 includes a plurality of reflecting plates 61 and each reflecting plate 61 is continuously formed by the connecting member 62, the plurality of detection sensors 57 can be reliably pressed against the outer plate 31. . Further, since the connecting member 62 has elasticity, the detection sensor 57 can be surely pressed against the outer plate 31 even when the outer plate 31 is bent due to a temperature change or a pressing force during operation. The detection accuracy of touch operation can always be maintained.

  In the conventional refrigerator, when the detection sensor 57 is arranged along the longitudinal direction of the outer plate 31, there is a problem that the detection accuracy is lowered because the outer plate 31 is easily bent. By providing the member 43, the detection accuracy can be kept high even if the detection sensor 57 is arranged along the longitudinal direction of the outer plate 31.

  Since the pressing member 43 is in contact with the support member 44 only at a part (projecting part 73) and the other part is separated, the outer plate 31 bends inward due to temperature change or pressing force during operation. Even if it is a case, a bending part can be absorbed and it can prevent that a touch panel is damaged.

  Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described, this embodiment is presented as an example and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The novel embodiment can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator 3 Heat insulation box 11 Refrigerating room 12 Vegetable room 13 Ice making room 14 Switching room 15 Freezing room 21 Refrigerating room first door 22 Refrigerating room second door 23 Vegetable room door 24 Ice making room door 25 Switching room door 26 Freezing room door 31 Outer plate 32 Inner plate 33 Vacuum insulation 34 Foam insulation
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 40 Touch panel unit 41 Operation nameplate 42 Flexible board 43 Pushing member 44 Support member 45 Operation board 47 Storage box 48 Pushing member 49 Opening part 51 Operation menu 52 Notification menu 54 Transmission part 55 Terminal part 56 Reinforcement board 57 Detection sensor 61 Reflection board 62 Connecting member 71 Concave part 72 Groove 73 Projection part 75 LED opening 76 Notch part 76a Inclination part 77 Restriction plate 78 First push-in mechanism part 79 Insertion hole 80 Push-in piece 82 Second push-in mechanism part 83 Projection member 84 Frame 85 Push-in piece 86 Edge Part 87 Step 91 LED
93 Terminal receiving part 95 Insertion hole 97 Side plate 98 Push rod

Claims (6)

A translucent door skin;
A detection unit for detecting a change in capacitance located behind the outer plate;
A support part for supporting the detection part from the rear side;
A pressing means inserted between the support portion and the detection portion to press the detection portion against the outer plate;
Illuminating means arranged behind the detection unit,
The said detection part has translucency, The emitted light from the said illumination means is irradiated ahead through the said detection part, The refrigerator characterized by the above-mentioned.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the support portion includes an opening or a recess.   The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the illumination unit is disposed in an opening or a recess of the support part. A plurality of the detection unit and the pressing means,
The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the pressing means are connected to each other by a connecting member.   The refrigerator according to claim 4, wherein a plurality of the detection units are arranged along a longitudinal direction of the outer plate.   6. The pressing device according to claim 1, wherein the pressing unit is in contact with a part of the support part and is separated from the support part at a place other than the contact part. Refrigerator.

Images