JP5846495B2 - Protective cover for portable electronic devices - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a protective cover for use in a portable electronic device, and more particularly to a protective cover for a portable electronic device with improved waterproof performance.

  With the development of mobile communication means, in recent years, portable electronic devices typified by smartphones and tablet computers have rapidly spread. Since such a portable electronic device contains a secondary battery as a power source and a precise electric circuit for realizing various functions, water and dust have entered the inside of the portable electronic device. In some cases, this is fatal to the portable electronic device.

  On the other hand, the user wants to use these portable electronic devices even in an environment where they can be exposed to water droplets, for example, in rainy weather, or in an environment where they can be exposed to dust, such as during strong winds. There is a request. In order to meet such a demand, each portable electronic device manufacturer has introduced a portable electronic device having a waterproof / drip-proof function or a dustproof function to the market. However, the waterproof / drip-proof performance or the dust-proof performance may not always be sufficient. In order to cope with such a case, a cover for a portable electronic device having a waterproof function and a dustproof function has been proposed as means for obtaining further waterproof / dripproof performance or dustproof performance.

  For example, Patent Document 1 has a space having the same shape as the outer shape of a mobile phone, and a cover provided with an accommodation hole into which the mobile phone can be inserted and removed so as to closely cover the mobile phone to be accommodated. There has been proposed a waterproof cover configured to seal a cellular phone by a body and an adhesive body that can be repeatedly peeled off and opens and closes an accommodation hole. (See Figure 4)

  Patent Document 2 discloses a hard cover frame that is injection-molded so as to correspond to the shape of a mobile phone and is attached to and detached from the main body of the mobile phone. The cover is integrated with the cover frame to improve the degree of adhesion between the cover and the mobile phone body so that external dust and foreign matter cannot permeate. A cover that can prevent the main body from being damaged has been proposed. (See Figure 5)

JP 2012-5130 A Utility Model Registration No. 3170660

  While the waterproof cover shown in Patent Document 1 is considered to be able to obtain good waterproof performance, it is configured to cover the entire outer surface of the mobile phone with the waterproof cover. As a result, even if the waterproof cover is formed of a highly transparent material, the influence on the visibility of the display unit is inevitable. Moreover, while the cover shown in Patent Document 2 is considered to be able to obtain a certain dustproof performance, waterproof performance cannot be expected.

  Thus, the conventional cover for portable electronic devices has left room for improvement in terms of both good waterproof performance and good visibility of the display unit. The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and an object of the present invention is to obtain a protective cover for a portable electronic device that can achieve both good waterproof performance and good visibility of a display unit. It is what.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a protective cover for a portable electronic device according to claim 1 according to the present invention is used for a portable electronic device having a display unit that displays through a transparent member, and is elastic. A housing portion having a shape corresponding to the outer shape of the portable electronic device, the housing portion being an opening portion from which the display portion is exposed, and a peripheral portion of the opening portion, The first elastic material is a rubber containing a water absorbing polymer or a synthetic resin containing a water absorbing polymer, and the first elastic material absorbs water. The thickness of the peripheral edge portion of the opening increases due to the expansion .

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the display unit of the portable electronic device is exposed from the opening, the visibility is kept good, and moisture such as raindrops is protected for the portable electronic device. Even when it adheres to the surface of the cover, the first elastic material absorbs the moisture, so that it is possible to effectively prevent moisture from entering the inside of the portable electronic device.

  In addition, since the protective cover for portable electronic devices is formed of an elastic material, even if the portable electronic device is accidentally dropped, the portion covered by the protective cover for portable electronic devices is Since the impact at the time of landing is mitigated, the portable electronic device can be prevented from being destroyed.

  Furthermore, by forming the protective cover for a portable electronic device with a material having appropriate elasticity, the portable electronic device can be easily attached to and detached from the portable electronic device, and can fit well with the portable electronic device.

Moreover, since these materials are excellent in moldability and relatively inexpensive, the mass productivity of the protective cover for portable electronic devices is good.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a protective cover for a portable electronic device, wherein a surface that appears on an outer surface of the protective cover attached to the portable electronic device is processed to prevent water absorption of the first elastic material. And

According to the invention described in claim 2 according to the present invention, moisture adhering to the surface of the protective cover for portable electronic devices and sweat generated from the palm when the portable electronic device is held in hand are unnecessarily absorbed. While preventing this, the first elastic material absorbs the moisture that is about to enter from the contact surface between the transparent member and the peripheral edge of the opening around the opening, so that the intruded moisture is inside the container, and thus It is possible to prevent the mobile electronic device from reaching the inside.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a protective cover for a portable electronic device, wherein a surface appearing on an outer surface when the portable electronic device is attached to the portable electronic device is formed of a second elastic material having no water absorption. A portion made of an elastic material and a portion made of the first elastic material are integrally formed.

According to the invention described in claim 3 according to the present invention, since the outer surface does not have water absorption at the stage of forming the protective cover for portable electronic equipment, the invention is claimed without performing post-processing such as surface treatment. As in the case of the invention described in Item 2 , unnecessary water absorption of moisture can be prevented.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a protective cover for a portable electronic device, wherein the portable electronic device is a smartphone or a tablet computer.

  The present invention is particularly suitable for a smartphone or a tablet computer, which is a typical portable electronic device having a display unit.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the protective cover for portable electronic devices which compatible the favorable waterproof performance and the visibility of the favorable display part can be obtained.

It is a figure which shows the protective cover for portable electronic devices which concerns on one Example of this invention, (a) is an external appearance perspective view, (b) is an AA sectional view. It is the figure which showed the protective cover for portable electronic devices which concerns on one Example of this invention with a portable electronic device, (a) is an external appearance perspective view, (b) is an AA sectional view. It is sectional drawing of the center part of the protective cover for portable electronic devices which concerns on the other Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the conventional protective cover for portable electronic devices. It is a figure which shows the other example of the conventional protective cover for portable electronic devices.

  A portable electronic device protective cover 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

  The protective cover 1 for portable electronic devices according to the first embodiment of the present invention is for mounting on a so-called smartphone 3. In addition, the cross section of the smart phone 3 in FIG.2 (b) has abbreviate | omitted and shown the internal structure.

  The smartphone 3 has a rectangular display unit 3a using a liquid crystal display device (a range indicated by a broken line in FIG. 2A). Information acquired in response to an operation on the smartphone 3 is displayed on the display unit 3a. The display unit 3a is covered with a transparent member 3b made of a glass plate in order to prevent damage when the smartphone 3 is used. The transparent member 3b covers almost the entire surface (hereinafter referred to as a main surface) on which the display unit 3a is disposed in the smartphone 3. The transparent member 3b has good translucency, and the display contents appearing on the display unit 3a can be clearly recognized.

  The portable electronic device protective cover 1 according to the present embodiment is entirely formed of a synthetic rubber containing a water-absorbing polymer as a first elastic material. The first elastic material is not limited to a synthetic rubber containing a water-absorbing polymer, but is a water-absorbing material such as a natural rubber containing a water-absorbing polymer, a synthetic resin (elastomer) containing a water-absorbing polymer, or a urethane foam having water absorption. Any material may be used as long as it is a material having elasticity and excellent moldability.

  The protective cover 1 for a portable electronic device includes a housing 1 a that is substantially the same shape as the above-described smartphone 3 and that is slightly smaller than the smartphone 3 overall. The reason why the accommodating portion 1a is formed to be slightly smaller than the outer shape of the smartphone 3 is to fit the protective cover 1 for the portable electronic device to the smartphone 3 by the elasticity of the protective cover 1 for the portable electronic device. The accommodating part 1a has an opening 1b through which the entire display part 3a is exposed. The size of the opening 1b in a plan view as viewed from the main surface of the smartphone 3 is smaller than the main surface of the smartphone 3 over the entire circumference, and is sufficiently large to expose the entire display unit 3a. The bowl-shaped part which is located in the peripheral part of the opening part 1b and opposes the main surface of the smart phone 3 is the opening peripheral part 1c. The opening periphery 1c is in close contact with the transparent member 3b of the smartphone 3, so that moisture such as raindrops cannot easily enter the interior of the housing 1a from the contact surface between the transparent member 3b and the opening periphery 1c. It has become.

  The entire surface that appears on the outer surface of the protective cover 1 for the mobile electronic device when attached to the smartphone 3, that is, the inner surface of the housing portion 1a (the surface that faces the surface of the smartphone 3 when the smartphone 3 is attached). A polyurethane coat having a function of preventing water absorption of the first elastic material is applied to the entire surface (not shown). By performing such processing, moisture adhering to the surface of the protective cover 1 for portable electronic devices and sweat generated from the palm when the portable electronic device is held in hand are absorbed unnecessarily. Can be prevented. The polyurethane coat described above is merely an example, and any process may be used as long as it has a function of preventing water absorption of the first elastic material.

  On the other hand, since the first elastic material surely absorbs the moisture that is about to enter from the gap between the transparent member 3b and the opening peripheral edge portion 1c, the moisture that has entered the interior of the housing portion 1a and eventually the inside of the smartphone 3 Can be prevented. Further, when the first elastic material absorbs moisture that has entered from this portion, the thickness of the opening peripheral portion 1c increases due to the expansion of the first elastic material due to water absorption, so that the transparent member 3b and the opening peripheral portion 1c Increased adhesion between the two. As a result, the waterproof property against the moisture entering from this portion is further improved. The expanded first elastic material can be restored to its original size by drying.

  When the smartphone 3 is accommodated in the accommodating portion 1a, that is, when the mobile electronic device protective cover 1 is attached to the smartphone 3, the one end side of the smartphone 3 is accommodated from the opening 1b while expanding the opening 1b. 1a is inserted, the one end side inserted is abutted against the side wall portion that forms the accommodating portion 1a, and the other end side is inserted into the accommodating portion 1a, and the opening peripheral edge portion 1c is brought into close contact with the transparent member 3b. It will be completed.

  Since the protective cover 1 for portable electronic devices configured as described above has no portion covering the display unit 3a and the display unit 3a is exposed unlike the conventional waterproof cover, the protective cover 1 for portable electronic device is exposed. Even if it is the state which mounted | wore, the original visibility which the smart phone 3 has can be acquired. Moreover, since the water | moisture content which is going to penetrate | invade into the accommodating part 1a is absorbed by the protective cover 1 for portable electronic devices, a water | moisture content penetrate | invades into the inside of the smart phone 3 reliably is prevented. Demonstrate.

  A portable electronic device protective cover 2 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  The protective cover 2 for the portable electronic device according to the second embodiment, in the first embodiment, instead of having applied the processing to prevent water absorption on the surface appearing on the outer surface with the smartphone 3 attached, The corresponding portion is different from the first embodiment in that it is formed of a second elastic material that does not have water absorption. The structure of the accommodating part 2a, the opening part 2b, the opening peripheral part 2c, and the smart phone 3 accommodated is the same as the case of a 1st Example.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the protective cover 2 for a portable electronic device according to the second embodiment is entirely composed of two layers of a first elastic material having water absorption and a second elastic material having no water absorption. Is formed. In order to obtain such a protective cover 2 for portable electronic devices, a method of integrally molding by applying a two-color molding method is suitable. Specifically, first, the inner layer portion 2d made of the first elastic material is formed using the first mold, and then the outer layer portion 2e made of the second elastic material is formed using the second die. It may be formed integrally with the portion 2d. The molding method is not limited to this two-color molding method, and any method may be used as long as the two layers can be integrally formed, such as bonding the layers.

  Thus, the inside of the accommodating part 2a including the inside of the opening peripheral part 2c is formed with the first elastic material having water absorption, and the outside is integrally covered with the second elastic material without water absorption. By doing so, in the first embodiment, it is possible to obtain the same effect as in the case where the surface appearing on the outer surface is subjected to processing that prevents water absorption of the first elastic material. Compared to the configuration of the first embodiment, the second embodiment is more mass-productive in that post-processing after forming the protective cover 2 for portable electronic devices is not necessary.

  The present invention can be suitably applied to a protective cover for portable electronic devices such as a smartphone or a tablet computer.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 2 Protective cover for portable electronic devices 1a, 2a Housing part 1b, 2b Opening part 1c, 2c Opening peripheral part 2d Inner layer part (1st elastic material formation part)
2e outer layer part (second elastic material forming part)
3 Smartphones (mobile electronic devices)
3a Display part 3b Transparent member

Claims (4)

In a protective cover for a portable electronic device having a display unit that displays through a transparent member,
Formed by a first elastic material having elasticity;
A housing portion having a shape corresponding to the outer shape of the portable electronic device;
The accommodating part is
An opening through which the display unit is exposed;
An opening peripheral edge closely contacting the transparent member at the peripheral edge of the opening;
Having
The first elastic material is a rubber containing a water-absorbing polymer or a synthetic resin containing a water-absorbing polymer;
A protective cover for a portable electronic device , wherein the first peripheral elastic material expands with water absorption, thereby increasing the thickness of the peripheral edge of the opening . The portable in a state mounted to the electronic device on a surface which appears on the outer surface, wherein the claim 1 portable electronic equipment protective cover according to processing to prevent the water absorption of the first elastomeric material is characterized in that it is subjected. The surface that appears on the outer surface in a state of being mounted on the portable electronic device is formed of a second elastic material that does not absorb water, a portion made of the second elastic material, and a portion made of the first elastic material , The protective cover for a portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the cover is formed integrally. The portable electronic device according to claim 1 to a protective cover for a portable electronic device 3, wherein the a smartphone or a tablet computer.

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