JPH0215967B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In electrical equipment such as various audio equipment, a large number of operating knobs, for example push buttons, are arranged on the operating section or remote control section. The work of attaching and arranging a large number of operating knobs on the operating section in this way is
Usually, this is done for each operation knob, so
The assembly work is extremely complicated, and errors may occur in the placement of the operating knobs.

The present invention provides a method for attaching operating knobs that eliminates these drawbacks and allows a plurality of operating knobs to be arranged and attached at predetermined positions simultaneously.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an operation unit to be obtained by applying the method of the present invention, which is comprised of an operation panel 1 and a plurality of various operation knobs 2, such as a push button type, a slide type, a seesaw type, etc., arranged. Each operating knob 2 is provided with a display section 3 of characters, symbols, etc. for displaying the respective functions, etc. by printing or the like.

The present invention is applied to the arrangement and mounting of a plurality of operating knobs 2 on the operating plate 1 in this manner.

An example of the mounting method according to the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 10.

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of operating knobs that will eventually become each operating knob are arranged in a manner that matches the arrangement of the operating knobs of the operating section that is to be finally obtained. A molded body 5 is obtained by integrally molding the protrusion 2' with the substrate 4. This molded body 5
is made of resin such as ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) or PP (polypropylene).

Next, on the outer surface (top surface) of each protruding part 2' of this molded body 5, characters, symbols, etc. indicating the function of the operating knob 2 to which each protruding part 2' corresponds are placed, as shown in FIG. For example, display 3 is printed. Thereafter, the surface of the molded body 5, especially the surface of the protruding portion 2', is plated with metal to give it a feel and appearance similar to that of a metal paste.
For example, a metal surface layer is formed by electroless plating and electroplating thereon. In this way, for example, the printed part of display 3 will not be plated,
This remains as Display 3. However, it is not limited to performing the plating process after printing the display 3 as described above, but it is also possible to form the display 3 by printing or the like after the plating process.

Next, the protruding portion 2' of the molded body 5 is attached to the substrate 4.
Then, the operating knobs are cut out and the operating knobs, that is, the protrusions 2' are fitted back into the original position on the substrate 4, so to speak, a pushback process is performed. This pushback is, for example, the third
As shown in the figure, an upper mold 6 and a lower mold 7 having abutting surfaces 6a and 7a having irregularities corresponding to the molded body 5 are provided. The upper mold 6 and the lower mold 7 each have movable molds 6b and 7b in their respective portions for molding the protrusion 2', and these are substantially perpendicular to the plate surface of the substrate 4 with respect to the other fixed molds 6c and 7c. It is made possible to move in any direction.

A molded body 5 is placed between these upper mold 6 and lower mold 7.
While holding the movable molds 6b and 7b in each protrusion 2' down as shown in FIG.
Each protruding part 2' is punched and cut from the base plate 4 to cut out the operating knob 2 made up of these protruding parts 2', and a punch hole 8 corresponding to the knob 2 is bored in the base plate 4 by this cutting.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the movable molds 6b and 7b are returned to their original positions within the fixed molds 6c and 7c, thereby moving each protrusion 2' and therefore the knob 2 back onto the base plate 4. It is press-fitted into each corresponding punch hole 8.

In this way, as shown in FIG. 6, the same molded body 5 as the initial molded body shown in FIG. 2 is restored. (knobs 2) are fitted into their respective punch holes 8 and held in a positional relationship that matches the positional relationship of the operating knobs finally obtained by the base plate 4, and each protrusion 2' (knob 2) is 2) is in a state where it can escape from the punch hole 8. Incidentally, when cutting each protruding part 2' from the substrate 4, the cutting is done leaving a part of the periphery of the protruding part 2', so that a flange part 9 is formed that protrudes from the periphery in each direction. Form knob 2. Note that when the thickness of the molded body 5 is selected to be 0.5 mm to 2 mm, for example 1 mm, the cutting of these protrusions 2', that is, the punching of the operating knob 2, is performed using the upper mold 6 and lower mold 7 described above. However, in order to do this more easily and reliably, when molding the molded body 5 shown in FIG. It is also possible to form protrusions, which serve as so-called cutting blades of the molded body 5, on the periphery of the lower surface of the movable die 6b of the above-mentioned upper die 6.

In this way, the operating knob 2 is fitted into the hole 8 of the base plate 4 and the molded body 5 is held in a predetermined positional relationship with each other, and the operating knob is arranged as shown in FIG. The control panel 1 is placed opposite the control panel 1. That is, the base plate 4 is opposed to the operation plate 1 with the required spacing and positional relationship using an appropriate jig (not shown) as necessary, and the head of each operation knob 2 is drilled into the operation plate 1. 2. Insert each operated knob into the insertion hole 10.

Thereafter, each knob 2 is pressed from the back as shown by the arrow in FIG. into the corresponding insertion hole 10. The inner diameter of these insertion holes 10 is selected to be smaller than the outer diameter of the flange portion 9 of the operating knob 2.
is locked in the insertion hole 10 by the abutment between the flange portion 9 and the peripheral portion of the insertion hole 10 .

Next, the board 4 is removed, and the contact mechanism 11 is placed opposite the operation panel 1, as shown in FIG. This contact mechanism 11 has, for example, an insulating substrate 12 mounted to face the operation panel 1 with a required distance therebetween, and a so-called printed wiring circuit, for example, on the side of the substrate 12 facing the operation panel 1. A contact circuit section 13 is provided. Further, an elastic body 14 having elasticity, such as rubber, is provided opposite to the substrate 12. This elastic body 14
is provided with a cap body portion 15 that faces each operation knob 2 and protrudes toward the operation plate 1 side, and a movable contact portion 16 for opening/closing or switching the contact circuit portion 13 is provided on the inner surface of these cap body portions 15. It is made up of Then, by forcibly crushing the cap body part 15 by pressing each operating knob 2 from the outer end of the operating plate 1, and bringing the contacts 16 into contact with the contact circuit part 13, the knob An operating section is configured in which various operations for opening, closing, or switching each contact point are performed by pressing and releasing 2. Note that this operation section can be connected to the 10th
As shown in the figure, the contact mechanism 11 is installed inside the case 17.
is accommodated. However, it goes without saying that the configuration of the operating section may take various forms, such as in some cases the case itself may constitute the base plate 12 of the contact mechanism 11.

As described above, in the present invention, the arrangement of the plurality of operation knobs 2 with respect to the operation panel 1 is
The knobs 2 were molded in a predetermined positional relationship with each other as protrusions 2' integrally molded with the base plate 4, and then punched out and returned to their original positions to maintain the predetermined positional relationship with each other. The handles are handled as they are, and when they are finally attached to the operation panel 1, they are separated from each other, making the installation work more efficient even when there are a large number of knobs 2, such as in a desktop computer. In particular, it is possible to eliminate misplacement on the operation panel 1 that occurs when handling the knobs 2 individually, which further improves mass production and reduces costs.
Its industrial benefits are enormous.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an example of an operating section obtained by the method of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 10 are process diagrams of an example of the method of attaching an operating knob according to the present invention. 1 is an operation panel, 2 is an operation knob, 3 is a display section, 2'
Reference numeral 4 indicates a protruding portion serving as an operating knob, 4 a substrate, and 5 a molded body.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A plurality of protrusions and a substrate that connects and integrates these protrusions in an arrangement relationship that corresponds to a plurality of operation knobs that are ultimately arranged in a required arrangement relationship. They are molded simultaneously and integrally, an operation display is provided, and then each of the protrusions is cut from the substrate by moving the mold of the part facing each of the protrusions forward relative to the mold of the other part, Each of the protrusions is deviated from the substrate, and then the mold of the part opposite to each of the protrusions is moved back to the mold of the other part, and the hole of each protrusion created by this deviation is inserted into the hole of the above-mentioned part. The respective protrusions are fitted together, and in this state, the board is faced to an operation plate provided with insertion holes for the plurality of operation knobs, with each of the protrusions corresponding to the insertion holes, and then, A method for attaching an operating knob, characterized in that each of the protrusions is deviated from the substrate and inserted into the corresponding insertion hole, and each of the protrusions is used as an operating knob and attached to the operating plate. .