JPH0431713Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a rubber switch board in which operating bodies for a plurality of inverted bowl-shaped switches arranged in a row are integrally molded.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a remote control switch using this type of rubber switch board, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the remote control switch. Here, the remote control switch 1 mainly includes a case main body 11 having checkerboard-shaped protrusions 111 formed on the inner bottom wall surface, a square through hole 112 in the center surrounded by these protrusions, and an edge The cover 12, which forms the housing 10 together with the case body 11 by joining them together, and the operation bodies of the plurality of inverted bowl-shaped switches are integrally molded, and the operation protrusions of these operation bodies, for example, 131 and 132 are slidably inserted into the through holes 112, on which the rubber switch board 13 and the electronic component 15 are mounted, and the connecting portions 133 that connect the operating bodies of the rubber switch board 13 are connected together with the grid-shaped protrusions 111. It is composed of a printed circuit board 14 that is attached to the case body 11 in a sandwiching manner.

Since the inverted bowl type switch is well known, a detailed explanation of its configuration and operation will be omitted. For example, when the operation protrusion 131 is pressed, the conductive rubber 13a provided on the bottom surface of the switch is pressed against the printed circuit board 14.
At this time, in order to release the air in the small space 13b surrounded by the operating body 131 and the printed circuit board 14, this small space 13b and at least one adjacent conductor are connected to each other. A communication groove is provided between each operating body and the small space. This connecting groove (not shown) is usually connected to the connecting portion 133.
As a result, the thickness T of the connecting portion 133 is greater than the strength required to simply connect the operating body.

By the way, although the remote control switch 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 is partially missing operating protrusions, there are 30 in total, 8 in the vertical direction and 4 in the horizontal direction of the housing 10. . When all such operation protrusions are integrally molded, even if the pitch P ₁ of the square hole 112 drilled in the case body 11 is machined with the precision specified by the standard, the rubber switch board 13
Because it is made of rubber, it expands and contracts, for example,
It is predicted that the error in the center-to-center distance L between the eight end operating protrusions arranged in a row will be quite large.

This makes it extremely difficult to fit the operation protrusions into the respective through holes 112 of the case body 11, and even if the protrusions are inserted securely, the protrusions may get stuck when operating the switch.

On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a remote control switch having a large number of operation protrusions includes, for example, an operation protrusion surrounded by a dashed line A in order to prevent erroneous operation.
The operation protrusion surrounded by the dashed line B may be color-coded.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a mold for explaining the manufacturing process of the color-coded operation protrusions 131 and 132. In the space surrounded by the upper mold 21 and the lower mold 22,
By pouring liquid rubber of different colors from the direction of the arrow P and the direction of the arrow Q, so that they are joined to each other in the space C forming the connecting part 133, the operating protrusions 131 and 132 can be clearly color-coded. It turns out. However, the thickness of this space C is
As mentioned above, because it is relatively large, even if a predetermined amount of liquid rubber is poured, its boundaries are not uniformly defined, and a large proportion of the liquid rubber invades into other areas, which significantly reduces the product yield. The disadvantage was that it decreased.

The present invention was developed in order to eliminate the drawbacks of the above-mentioned conventional devices.It facilitates the work of attaching the operation protrusion to the through hole of the case body, enables smooth switch operation, and also has a color-coded system. The purpose is to provide an easy rubber switchboard.

In order to achieve the above object, the rubber switchboard of the present invention has a connecting part of the operating bodies that is a boundary when two-color molding of the operating protrusions of the operating bodies is made at a substantially right angle to the arrangement direction of these operating bodies. The present invention is characterized in that a groove is formed along the direction, and a thin wall portion is formed at the connecting portion of the operation body, which becomes the boundary portion due to the formation of the groove, and is expandable and contractible in the direction in which the operation bodies are arranged.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the shape of the rubber switchboard according to the present invention and the shape of the mold for forming it, showing the operating bodies (operating protrusions, inverted bowl parts, and conductive rubber 13a) arranged in a row. a connecting portion 133 that interconnects the operating body (including the operating body in this specification).
A groove 134 having a width of W and a depth of D is provided at the lower bottom portion, that is, at the contact surface with the printed circuit board 14. In this case, if the thickness of the connecting portion 133 is 1.0 mm, the depth D of the groove 134 is 0.8 mm, and the width W is 1.0 mm.
Formed to a certain degree. Therefore, the thickness T ₁ of the thin portion 133a formed at the center of the connecting portion 133 is approximately 0.2.
mm.

Note that this groove 134 is carved in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction in which a large number of operating bodies are arranged, and by providing two to three such grooves, the thin part 133a with a thickness of T ₁ can be It can be easily expanded and contracted in the arrangement direction, and the through hole 112 (second
As shown in FIG. 2, the operation of inserting all of the operating protrusions into each other is significantly facilitated, and it is possible to prevent the operating protrusions from getting caught on the edge of the through hole.

On the other hand, in order to form these grooves 134, a lower die 22a with the groove portions protruding is used. Therefore, when the operating protrusions 131 and 132 are color-coded, when a predetermined amount of liquid rubber is poured from both sides, the protrusions for forming the grooves act as a low resistance against the flow of liquid rubber.
The area where liquid rubbers of different colors are mixed with each other can be kept small, and clear color separation can be made along the substantially grooves 134.

The case where the groove 134 is provided at the bottom of the connecting part 133 of the operating body has been described above, but the groove 134 is provided not only at the bottom of the connecting part 133 but also at the surface on the opposite side, that is, in contact with the case body 11. The same effect can be expected even if it is provided on the surface.

Next, FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the configuration of a second embodiment of the rubber switch board according to the present invention, in which a groove 135 with a concave bottom surface is formed on the printed circuit board 14 side of the connecting portion 133, and a groove 135 on the case body 11 side is formed in FIG. A groove 136 having a convex bottom surface is provided in each of the grooves 136 . Therefore, a thin walled portion 133a is formed in the center of the connecting portion 133 in the shape of a rubber tube cut in half in the axial direction, thereby allowing the pitch of the operating body to be freely adjusted.

In this case, the protrusion 1 formed on the case body 11
11 may get stuck in the groove 136, so
35 and 136 may be bent into a waveform as shown in FIG. 6 so that the protrusions 111 formed in a checkerboard pattern do not overlap with the grooves 136. The thin wall portion 133a formed by the grooves 135 and 136 which are bent into a waveform is also bent into a waveform.

It goes without saying that the same results as described above can be obtained even if the grooves 135 and 136 shown in FIG. 5 have an opposite unevenness relationship. Further, although the groove 134 shown in FIG. 4 is provided on the printed circuit board 14 side, it may be provided on the case body side if the groove is formed in a waveform as shown in FIG. 6.

In addition, in the above embodiment, a groove is formed in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction in which a large number of operating bodies are arranged, and by forming the groove, a thin wall portion that can be freely expanded and contracted in the direction in which the operating bodies are arranged is formed. However, these grooves and thin parts have no direct relation to the number of arrays, and the connecting part of the operating body, which is the boundary part when the operating protrusion of the operating body is molded in two colors, has a direction in which these operating bodies are arranged. It is sufficient to provide a groove and a thin wall section in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of the switch, and in an extreme case, a groove and a thin wall section may be provided between all the operating bodies of the remote control switch illustrated in FIG.

As is clear from the above description, according to the rubber switchboard of the present invention, the connecting part of the operating body, which is the boundary when performing two-color molding, has a thin wall that can be expanded and contracted in the direction in which the operating bodies are arranged. This makes it extremely easy to attach the operation protrusion to the through hole in the case body, and its expansion and contraction prevents it from getting caught when operating the switch, allowing smooth operation of the switch. It has a unique effect that makes it possible.

Further, according to the rubber switch board of the present invention, when the operating protrusion of the operating body is molded in two colors, it is necessary to form the groove along the direction substantially perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the operating body of the rubber switch board. , protrusions for forming grooves are formed on the mold, and the protrusions act as a low antibody against the flow of each liquid rubber filled into the mold, so rubbers of different colors are In addition to keeping the area of mutual mixing small, it is also possible to clearly color code along the grooves, which makes it extremely easy to color code when molding the operating protrusions of the rubber switch board in two colors, which improves product yield. It has a unique effect that can significantly improve the

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a remote control switch illustrated to explain the configuration of a conventional rubber switch board, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of this remote control switch.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of a mold for manufacturing a conventional rubber switchboard, and Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view simultaneously showing the configuration of an embodiment of the rubber switchboard according to the present invention and the shape of the mold for manufacturing it. 5 is a sectional view showing the structure of another embodiment of the rubber switch board according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the structure of another embodiment of the rubber switch board according to the present invention. It is. 1... Remote control switch, 10... Housing, 11
... Case body, 12 ... Cover, 13 ... Rubber switch board, 14 ... Printed circuit board, 21
...Upper mold, 22, 22a...Lower mold, 111...Protrusion, 112...Through hole, 131, 132...Operation projection, 133...Connection part, 133a...Thin wall part
134, 135, 136... groove.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) The operating bodies of a plurality of inverted bowl-shaped switches arranged in a row are integrally molded, and the operating protrusions of these operating bodies connected by a connecting part are each a plate body. In a rubber switch board that is slidably inserted into a through hole provided in a A groove is formed along a direction substantially perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the operating bodies, and a connecting portion of the operating body that becomes the boundary portion due to the formation of the groove has a thin wall portion that is expandable and contractible with respect to the arrangement direction of the operating body. A rubber switchboard characterized by the formation of a rubber switch board. (2) The rubber switchboard according to claim 1, wherein the groove is formed on the surface of the connecting portion serving as the boundary portion. (3) The grooves are formed on both sides of the connecting portion serving as the boundary portion, and the bottom surface of one groove is concave and the bottom surface of the other groove is concave so that the thickness of the thin wall portion is approximately constant. A rubber switch board according to claim 1, characterized in that the rubber switch board has a convex shape. (4) Utility model registration claim 2, characterized in that the groove is bent in a waveform in its longitudinal direction.
The rubber switchboard described in item 3 or item 3.