JP3020821B2 - Seat heater - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet heater for heating a heated object by mounting a sheet-shaped heater on the heated object.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various types of heater devices for heating an object to be heated have been proposed, and a bar code scanner will be described as an example of the object to be heated. Product name and price,
In recent years, the number of recording methods using a barcode scanner for automatically inputting and managing lot numbers, serial numbers, and the like has been increasing. The barcode scanner optically reads a barcode on an article, and outputs an electric signal corresponding to the read barcode.A gripper gripped by an operator with a hand, and projects forward from the gripper,
It has a rectangular opening for reading a barcode, and a main body that houses an optical barcode reader located inside the opening.

Depending on the application, this bar code scanner may be used in an extremely cold environment such as in a large refrigerator or in a cold region. There are housed light emitting means such as reflecting mirrors and light emitting diodes as optical components, and light receiving means such as photodiodes.
A reading error may occur or an electronic component housed therein may malfunction, and there is a risk that an accurate reading operation cannot be performed. In particular, such a problem often occurs when performing work such as switching between a cold room and a room at normal temperature.

In order to enable an accurate reading operation even in a cold environment, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
No. 89, a sheet heater may be wound around the outer peripheral surface of a bar code scanner to heat the entire bar code scanner to prevent dew condensation on internal components of the optical reader. Conceivable.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned planar heater is constructed by sewing a plurality of energized heat-generating metal wires obtained by twisting a plurality of energized heat-generating metal wires to an insulating sheet with a sewing machine. In this case, it is necessary to arrange the metal wires in a desired shape, or to perform operations such as temporary fixing and sewing in the arrangement state, and these manufacturing processes tend to be complicated, which hinders the reduction of the manufacturing cost of the heater. .

In addition, the heater is thick due to its configuration. If the heater becomes thick, the heater is bent when the heater is wound around a bar code scanner which is a three-dimensional object to be heated. Since the bulge occurs at the portion, it is difficult to bend and form along the outer shape of the barcode scanner, and it is difficult to cover the barcode scanner in a close contact with the outer circumference. Then, there is a problem that the heating of the barcode scanner by the heater tends to be insufficient.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a heater which is easy to manufacture and has a simple structure and, by using this heater, can surely keep an object to be heated warm. It is intended to provide a flexible heating element having a resistor pattern formed on an insulating film, and to superimpose on a resistor pattern forming surface of the heating element to have a flexible insulation. A protective sheet is formed by laminating a plurality of protective sheets, provided with bent portions formed corresponding to the corners of the object to be covered, and not provided with the insulating film on a part of the protective sheet. It is provided with a margin.

[0008] The bent portion is formed of a notch or an opening.

[0009] Further, the stopper is overlapped with the protection sheet and fixed to the object to be heated.

The stop is directly fixed to the outer surface of the object to be insulated.

[0011]

A flexible heating element having a resistor pattern formed on an insulating film is provided, and a flexible insulating protection sheet is laminated on the surface of the heating element on which the resistor pattern is formed. The bent sheet heater is formed by bending along the outer peripheral surface of the insulated material having a three-dimensional shape,
The object to be heated is placed in close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the object to be insulated, and the object to be insulated is kept warm.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 6 show a first embodiment of the present invention. The bar code scanner 1, which is an object to be insulated, is a known hand-held type which optically reads a bar code on an article and outputs an electric signal corresponding to the read bar code. A grip portion 1A which is gripped and gripped by hand, and a rectangular opening 2 which projects forward from the grip portion 1A to read a bar code.
And a main body 1B that houses an optical barcode reader located inside the opening 2. The opening 2 is formed to be at least longer than the size of the barcode to be read, and when the barcode is read, the opening 2 of the scanner is positioned above the barcode so that the barcode can be moved without moving the scanner. It can be read.

In the present embodiment, the seat heater 3 of the present invention is mounted on the outer peripheral surface of the above-described known bar code scanner 1.

The seat heater 3 includes a gripping section heating section 3A for heating the gripping section 1A corresponding to the gripping section 1A of the bar code scanner 1 and the main body section 1B, and a main body heating section for heating the main body section 1B. 3B is provided in a state of being integrally connected. The sheet heater 3 substantially corresponds to the outer peripheral shape of the bar code scanner 1 excluding the opening 2, and has a developed shape in which the gripping portion heating unit 3A and the main unit heating unit 3B are integrally connected. The shape heater is comprised. The sheet heater 3 has a resistor pattern 5 on an insulating film 4.
Is provided, and a flexible insulating protective sheet 9 is superposed on the resistor pattern forming surface S of the heating element 6 and laminated in substantially the same shape as the heating element 6. It is formed and formed.

The heating element 6 is formed by depositing a resistor pattern 5 made of a thin film or a foil on an insulating film 4 made of PET resin. The resistor pattern 5 is made of stainless steel or the like. After the resistor foil is attached, a pattern is formed by etching, or an insulating film 4 is formed by using a pre-formed plate.
It is formed by printing or metal deposition on the upper surface, and the forming method can be appropriately selected.

The resistor pattern 5 includes a gripper heating unit 3
The power supply cord 8 is provided on the electrode portion 7 formed on the gripping portion heating portion 3A side by being formed around a substantially entire surface of the A and the main body heating portion 3B and formed by a single conductive path. Heating element 6 connected to power supply
Generates heat.

The sheet heater 3 is provided with a flexible insulating insulating sheet 9 such as a rubber sheet or a sponge sheet on the resistor pattern forming surface S of the heating element 6 thus formed.
The sheet heater 3 has an insulating structure in which the resistor pattern 5 is covered with the insulating film 4 and the protective sheet 9. The barcode scanner 1 has flexibility and flexibility as a whole, and is provided to be freely bent along the shape of the outer peripheral surface of the barcode scanner 1 to be mounted.

The protective sheet 9 attached to the heating element 6 includes:
A stop 11 is provided at the end where the protective sheet 9 overlaps in the folded state of the sheet heater 3 to join the ends by overlapping the ends or by directly overlapping the end with the heat-reserved material.
A double-sided adhesive tape 12 is attached to the stop margin 11, and the sheet heater 3 is fixed in a state where the sheet heater 3 is bent and mounted along the uneven shape of the outer peripheral surface of the bar code scanner 1.

The stop 11 of the protective sheet 9 is
A portion of the insulating film 4 where the insulating film 4 is not polymerized, that is, the protective sheet 9
The sheet heater 3 can be wound around the bar code scanner 1 having a three-dimensional shape by utilizing the flexibility and slight elasticity of the barcode scanner 1 itself and utilizing the slight elasticity of the 11 stop margins. The seat heater 3 is fixed by the stop margin 11, and the seat heater 3 can be attached in this tightly adhered state.

The holding portion heating section 3A of the bar code scanner 1 is formed by extending the stop margin 11 in the same manner as the stop margin 11, and is provided as a portion where the insulating film 4 is not superimposed on the protective sheet 9. A band-like band portion 9A is provided, and the close contact state is increased by the elasticity of the band portion 9A.

Further, the seat heater 3 is provided with a bent portion 13 formed of an arc-shaped notch corresponding to the corner 1C of the bar code scanner 1, which is a material to be kept warm. The bent portion 13 enables the sheet heater to be bent well along the corner without swelling and floating at the bent portion when the bent portion 13 is bent along the outer peripheral surface shape of the barcode scanner 1 having a three-dimensional shape. The seat heater 3 is formed so that it can be attached to the outer peripheral surface of the barcode scanner 1 in close contact.

In the present embodiment, an arc-shaped notch is provided as the bent portion 13 of the seat heater 3.
The shape of the notch is appropriately selected. In addition, one or a plurality of opening holes may be formed along the bent portion instead of the notch. The shape of the opening hole is also appropriately selected, but may be, for example, a slit shape.

When the sheet heater 3 is attached to the bar code scanner 1, the flexible protective sheet 9 is used as the outer surface, the insulating film 4 is set inside, and the insulating film 4 is placed on the outer peripheral surface of the bar code scanner 1. This is done by contact. Then, the sheet heater 3 can be bent along the outer peripheral surface of the barcode scanner 1 by bending the sheet heater 3 in accordance with the notch 13 provided at the bent portion of the sheet heater 3. The stopper 11 is directly adhered to the overlapping portion of the protection sheet 9 or the outer surface of the bar code scanner 1 to attach the sheet heater 3.
Is fixed, the seat heater 3 is covered in a close state along the outer peripheral surface of the barcode scanner 1.
At this time, if the protective sheet 9 is attached with the stop margin 11 and the band 9A being pulled, the sheet heater 3 is attached without sagging even on the contact surface of the bar code scanner 1 between the bent portions. In addition, the adhesion of the sheet heater 3 to the barcode scanner 1 is improved.

FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which two resistor patterns 5, 5 'are provided in parallel so as to be able to respond widely to changes in the voltage of the power supply and the like. Things. In this manner, the amount of heat generated by the seat heater 3 can be adjusted by selectively using or using the two resistor patterns 5, 5 '.

The resistor patterns 5 and 5 'may be made of the same kind of material and have the same heat value, or may be made to have different heat values by changing the pattern area by the same kind of material. It may be configured, or may be a pattern formed of different materials having different heat values. In this way, a desired amount of heat can be obtained by selectively using or using the resistor patterns 5, 5 'in accordance with the power supply voltage supplied.

In the seat heater 3 of the present invention, the bar code scanner 1 is applied as an object to be heated. However, the present invention is not limited to this. And so on.

[0027]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
A flexible heating element having a resistor pattern formed on an insulative film is provided, and a flexible insulating protection sheet is laminated and formed on the resistor pattern forming surface of the heating element, Since a bent portion formed corresponding to a corner portion of a heat-insulated material to be mounted is provided, and a stop for not providing the insulating film is provided in a part of the protective sheet, a simple manufacturing method is provided. In addition to this, it is possible to provide an inexpensive sheet heater, and since it is composed of a heater having a thinner structure than the conventional one, it is bent at the corners of the object to be warmed using this sheet heater to conform to the irregularities on the outer peripheral surface of the object to be heated. When bending to be covered with heat, the bent portion of the material to be warmed can be bent neatly without bulging, and the fixing margin is fixed to the material to be warmed in an extended state to achieve heat shedding.
Since the heater is fixed, the seat heater can be mounted on the object to be heated in a good contact state along the shape of the outer peripheral surface, so that the heat insulating property is improved.

Further, the seat heater is configured to be freely bent along the outer peripheral surface shape of the object to be insulated, and the bent portion of the seat heater is formed by a notch or an opening. At the same time, the sheet heater 3 is easily bent, so that the adhesion of the seat heater 3 to the object to be heated is increased.

Further, since the stop margin is fixed to the object to be heated while being superposed on the protective sheet, the stop margin made of a flexible material is stretched to match the shape of the outer peripheral surface of the object to be heated. It is possible to fix the sheet heater,
The seat heater can be mounted on the heat-retained object in a good contact state, and the heat-retaining property can be kept good.

Further, since the stop margin is for fixing the sheet heater by directly fixing it to the outer surface of the object to be insulated, the stop margin made of a flexible material is extended in a stretched state. The sheet heater can be fixed in accordance with the shape of the outer peripheral surface, and the seat heater can be mounted on the object to be heated in a good contact state, thereby improving the heat insulating property.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a heating element according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a heating element according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a seat heater according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a seat heater according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a mounted state of a seat heater in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a mounted state of the seat heater in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a heating element according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Barcode scanner (insulated material) 1A gripping section 1B main body section 1C corner section 3 sheet heater 3A gripping section heating section 3B main body heating section 4 film 5 resistor pattern 6 heating element 9 protection sheet 11 stopper 13 bending section S Resistor pattern forming surface

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Tsuchida 2-2-234 Higashizao, Nagaoka City, Niigata Pref. Inspector, Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. Yui Toshima (56) References JP-A-63-232284 (JP, A) ) Japanese Utility Model Hei 3-53792 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 62-69387 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Utility Model Showa 61-68490 (JP, U) (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H05B 3/20 H05B 3/34

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] A flexible heating element having a resistor pattern formed on an insulating film is provided, and a flexible insulating protection sheet is laminated on the resistor pattern forming surface of the heating element. And forming a bent portion corresponding to a corner portion of the heat-insulated material to be covered, and providing a stop margin on a part of the protective sheet without the insulating film. Characterized seat heater. 2. The seat heater according to claim 1, wherein the bent portion comprises a notch or an opening. 3. The sheet heater according to claim 1, wherein the stop margin is fixed to the object to be heated while overlapping the protection sheet. 4. The fixing device according to claim 1, wherein the stop margin is directly fixed to an outer surface of the object to be insulated.
The described sheet heater.