JP5284597B2 - Luminous decoration device for gaming machines - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a light emitting decoration device for a gaming machine provided with a lens that is provided on the surface of the gaming machine and diffuses light from a light source.

  In a slot machine as a gaming machine, a front door provided with a see-through window through which a design of a rotating reel can be seen is provided on the front surface of a housing that houses a rotating reel having a design drawn on the outer peripheral surface. . On the front door surface, a light emitting decoration device is provided that enhances the fun of the game by giving a visual stimulus to the player by blinking and turning on the light source according to the game situation (for example, , See Patent Document 1).

  The light emitting decoration device includes a light source provided therein and a synthetic resin lens molded so as to be able to confirm light from various directions by refracting and diffusing light emitted from the light source.

The lens is molded by injection molding or the like, and on the inner surface thereof, a fine uneven light diffusing portion, a so-called lens cut is molded, and the light emitted from the light source is refracted and diffused by this lens cut. The light can be confirmed from the direction. Lens cuts are formed by continuously forming irregularities such as a kamaboko shape, a hemisphere, a quadrangular pyramid, etc. with a width of several millimeters, and the light refraction and light diffusion characteristics differ depending on the shape, depending on the purpose of use of light production It is determined. Moreover, it has an important meaning not only in the light diffusion characteristics but also in the design of the gaming machine.
JP-A-10-216299

  In the light decoration device for a gaming machine as described above, it is desirable that various uneven lens cuts can be selected from the viewpoint of light diffusion characteristics and design. However, due to the technical limitations of injection molding in which the lens is molded with synthetic resin, the lens cut is a shape that prevents the injection mold from coming out, that is, a vertical groove that is parallel to the mold drawing direction so that it does not become an undercut. It is limited to the shape. Therefore, the shape of the lens cut becomes simple, the design expression method is limited, and the light diffusion characteristic is also simple with little change.

  The present invention has been made in view of the conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a light decoration device for a gaming machine that can exhibit various expressions by design and light diffusion characteristics.

According to the present invention, the above problem is solved as follows.
A synthetic resin lens in which the front side is closed and the rear side is open has a substantially U-shaped cross-sectional shape, and a light diffusion part for diffusing light emitted from the light source is formed on the inner side surfaces of the opposite side walls. In a light emitting decoration device for a gaming machine provided on a gaming machine surface, the inner side surface of the side wall is planar, and the light diffusing portion has a linear concave portion and a convex portion facing the inner side surface of the side wall in the front-rear direction. The unevenness formed alternately in the crossing direction crossing the front-rear direction, the inner surface of the side wall is a step that the opening width of the lens is wider in the rear part than in the front part, shape along the inner surface of the side wall of the step forms a step portion of the shape including curves and / or polygonal line, the light diffusing portion, and the opening toward the light diffusing portion formed on the rear side than the step portion OkuYadoriki formed on the front side than the step portion The light diffusion part is divided at the step part, and the convex top part of the light diffusion part near the opening is made lower than the bottom part of the concave part of the light diffusion part near the opening, and the unevenness of the light diffusion part near the opening By making the interval larger than the concave-convex interval of the back light diffusing portion, and making the height difference of the concave and convex portions of the light diffusion portion near the opening larger than the height difference of the concave and convex portions of the back light diffusing portion, The uneven spacing and the height difference of the unevenness are made different from each other.

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.
The light diffusing part is divided into an opening-side light diffusing part and a back-side light diffusing part with a step formed on the inner surface of the side wall of the lens as a boundary, and the convex top of the opening-side light diffusing part is By making it lower than the concave bottom of the light diffusion part, the shape of the light diffusion part closer to the opening and the light diffusion part closer to the opening can be made different from each other without being restricted by the resin molding technology. Various expressions based on characteristics can be demonstrated.
Further, the difference in the mutual uneven spacing and height difference of unevenness of the opening toward the light diffusing section and the back closer light diffusing portion can be a representation by design and light diffusion properties more versatile ones.
Furthermore, by making the shape along the inner side surface of the side wall of the stepped portion into a shape including a curve or / and a broken line, the expression by the design and the light diffusion characteristics can be made more diverse.

  1 is a perspective view of a gaming machine to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a front view of a decoration unit, FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 2, and FIG. FIG. In the following description, the lower left diagonal in FIG. 1 is referred to as “front”, and the upper right diagonal is referred to as “rear”.

  A gaming machine (slot machine) 1 includes a housing 2 containing three types of left, middle, and right rotating reels 5 and other various gaming devices having a plurality of types of symbols drawn on the outer peripheral surface, and a front surface of the housing 2. By inserting a disc-shaped medal (including coins), which is a game medium, into a medal slot 4 provided on the right side of the front door 3. A predetermined game is played.

  The game of the gaming machine 1 is a credit state in which the player inserts medals into the medal insertion unit 4 or the number of medals previously inserted by the bet button 8 provided on the front surface of the front door 3 is electrically stored. After the number of medals bet is set, the start lever 9 is operated to rotate all the rotating reels 5.

  After a predetermined time has passed since the rotating reel 5 has rotated, the three stop buttons 10 provided on the front surface of the front door 3 are sequentially operated to stop the rotation of the rotating reels 5 and the stopped three Depending on the combination of the symbols on the rotating reel 5, the number of medals to be paid out is determined according to the presence or absence of a prize and the size of the prize. In the case of winning a prize, a predetermined number of medals are provided at the bottom of the front door 3. The medal tray 31 is paid out.

  A front panel 6 made of a transparent acrylic resin having a see-through window 61 through which three symbols of the rotary reels 5 can be visually recognized is fitted at the front center of the front door 3. The decoration unit 7 which forms a part of 3 is provided.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the decorative unit 7 includes a synthetic resin decorative frame 11 fixed to the upper front portion of the front door 3, a transparent front panel 11 a fitted and fixed inside the decorative frame 11, A center light-emitting decoration device 12 and left and right side light-emitting decoration devices 13 and 13 are provided at the top of the frame 11 so as to give a visual stimulus to the player and enhance the interest of the game.

  The center light emitting decoration device 12 is fixed at the center of the front surface of the single color light source 14 such as an LED and the decorative frame 11, and refracts and diffuses the light emitted from the light source 14 arranged inside to confirm the light from various directions. The center lens 16 made of colored synthetic resin is made available.

  The side light emitting decoration device 13 is fixed to the surface of the full color light source 15 such as an LED and the decoration frame 11 so that light emitted from the light source 15 disposed inside can be refracted and diffused to confirm the light from various directions. And a side lens 17 made of transparent synthetic resin.

Next, based on FIGS. 5-8, embodiment which applied this invention to the light emission decoration device 13 is described. In FIGS. 5 to 7, for convenience of explanation, the upper part is “front” and the lower part is “rear”.
The side lens 17 is resin-molded by injection molding and has a front wall 171 and opposite side walls 172 and 172 facing each other as shown mainly in FIG. It has a U shape with an open side. Both side walls 172 of the side lens 17 have an opening width W from the back side (side closer to the front wall 171) to the opening side (mold indicated by a straight line) in order to facilitate removal of the resin molded product from the injection mold. A taper shape is formed so as to gradually become wider toward the side closer to the dividing line 18.

  On the inner surface of the side wall 172 of the side lens 17, an uneven light diffusing portion 174, a so-called lens cut, and a linear step portion 173 extending in a direction crossing the resin molding product extraction direction A are formed. Has been.

  The light diffusion part 174 is for diffusing the light emitted from the light source 15 disposed inside, and is parallel to the drawing direction A of the resin molded product and has a substantially bowl shape (see FIG. 8). An opening-side light diffusion portion 175 formed on the inner side surface 172a on the opening side and a back light diffusion portion 176 formed on the inner side surface 172b on the back side, with the stepped portion 173 as a boundary. Divided into

As shown in FIG. 8, the opening-side light diffusing portion 175 and the back-side diffusing portion 176 are formed so that, for example, the height difference and the interval of the unevenness are different so that the design expression and the light diffusion characteristics are different from each other. . Further, the top portion 175a is a convex portion of the opening toward the light diffusing portion 175 is formed to be lower than the bottom 176a is concave portion in the back toward the light diffusing portion 176.

In the present embodiment, as an example, the side wall thickness t1 of the portion where the opening-side light diffusion portion 175 is formed is 2.5 mm, and the side wall thickness t2 of the portion where the back-side light diffusion portion 175 is formed is 3 mm. The height difference between the concaves and convexes of the opening-side light diffusion portion 175 is 0.4 mm and the interval is 2 mm, and the height difference of the unevenness of the back-side light diffusion portion 176 is 0.2 mm and the interval is 1 mm. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8, the bottom 176 a that is a recess in the back light diffusion portion 176 and the bottom 175 b that is a recess in the opening light diffusion portion 175 are arranged so as not to overlap each other.

  By the above, it is possible to prevent the undercut at the time of injection molding in the synthetic resin, and to form a plurality of types of light diffusion portions 174 having different design expressions and light diffusion characteristics on the inner surface of the side wall 172 in the side lens 17, Various expressions by design and light diffusion characteristics can be made.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the following various modifications and changes can be made to the present embodiment without departing from the gist of the present invention. (I) The gaming machine 1 is a pachinko machine in which the gaming medium is a pachinko ball, a slot machine, and other gaming machines, instead of a slot machine in which the gaming medium is a medal (including coins).
(Ii) As shown in FIG. 9, the stepped portion 173 is formed along the inner surface of the side wall 172 in a shape including a curved line 173 a and a broken line 173 b. This makes it possible to perform various design expressions.
(Iii) A stepped portion 173c is also provided on the outer surface of the side wall 172 in the side lens 17, so that the thickness of the side wall 172 closer to the opening and the thickness of the side wall 172 closer to the back side are the same.
(Iv) The light diffusion portion 174 according to the present invention is applied to the center lens 16 or other lenses.
(V) The light diffusing portion 174 is divided into two or more locations in the drawing direction A of the resin molded product, and three or more types of light diffusing portions having different designs and light diffusing characteristics are separated from each other at the dividing position. Provide.

It is a perspective view of a gaming machine to which the present invention is applied. It is a front view of a decoration unit. FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 2. It is a disassembled perspective view of a decoration unit. It is sectional drawing of a side lens. It is the VI-VI sectional view taken on the line in FIG. It is an expanded sectional view of the important section of a side lens. It is the VIII-VIII line expanded sectional view in FIG. It is sectional drawing of the side lens in another Example. It is sectional drawing of the side lens in another Example.

Explanation of symbols

1 gaming machine (slot machine)
2 Housing 3 Front door 4 Medal insertion part 5 Rotating reel 6 Front panel 7 Decoration unit 8 Bet button 9 Start lever 10 Stop button 11 Decoration frame 11a Front panel 12 Center light emission decoration device 13 Side light emission decoration device 14, 15 Light source 16 Center Lens 17 Side lens 18 Mold dividing line 31 Medal tray 61 Perspective window 171 Front wall 172 Side wall 172a, 172b Inner side surface 173 Stepped portion 173a Curved 173b Polygonal line 173c Stepped portion 174 Light diffusing portion 175 Opening light diffusing portion 175a Top (convex portion) )
176b bottom (concave)
176 Back light diffuser 176a Bottom (concave)
A Extraction direction W Opening width

Claims (1)

A synthetic resin lens in which the front side is closed and the rear side is open has a substantially U-shaped cross-sectional shape, and a light diffusion part for diffusing light emitted from the light source is formed on the inner side surfaces of the opposite side walls. In the light emitting decoration device of the gaming machine provided on the surface of the gaming machine,
The inner surface of the side wall is planar,
The light diffusing portion is an uneven shape in which linear concave portions and convex portions facing in the front-rear direction are alternately formed in the cross direction intersecting the front-rear direction on the inner side surface of the side wall,
A step in which the opening width of the lens is wider on the inner side surface of the side wall in the rear side than in the front side portion, and the shape of the step along the inner side surface of the side wall is curved or / and / or Form a stepped part with a shape including a polygonal line,
The light diffusing section, divided by the boundary of the stepped portion on the back near the light diffusing portion formed on the front side than the step portion and the opening near the light diffusing portion formed on the rear side than the step portion,
The top of the convex light diffusion portion is lower than the bottom of the concave light diffusion portion,
The unevenness interval of the light diffusion portion near the opening is made larger than the unevenness interval of the light diffusion portion near the opening, and the unevenness of the unevenness of the light diffusion portion near the opening The light decoration device for a gaming machine, wherein the unevenness interval and the height difference of the unevenness are made different from each other.

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