JPH0566721A - Display panel device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the display panel device having an exposing part larger than heretofore and functions as a display part having good visibility without increasing the number of light emitting elements by constituting a light guide of transparent lens member and diffusing member CONSTITUTION:The light guide 11 is constituted of the diffusing member 11A and the transparent lens member 11B. Further, the two members 11A, 11B are fixed by a transparent adhesive. The diffusing member 11A is formed of, for example, a polystyrene resin or acrylic resin contg. diffusing particles and the one transparent lens member 11B is formed of a transparent acrylic resin. The luminous flux 10A from a light emitting diode 10 is projected by having the directivity of a certain range and is made incident in a substantially wasteless form on the diffusing member 11A. The incident light on the diffusing member 11A is diffused by its diffusivity but the diffusing member 11A is formed in the position of the display part 9 and, therefore, the most of the diffused light is visible. The visibility from vertical and lateral directions is thus improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display panel device,
Specifically, various information devices, such as an office computer, in which a light emitting element such as a light emitting diode is used for a display unit,
The present invention relates to a display panel device provided in a main body of an information processing device such as a personal computer or a word processor, or a recording device which is an output device thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the personalization of information processing devices, the size and cost of these devices have been reduced.
In particular, personal computers, word processors, or printers that are output devices, which were conventionally used on desks, can now be carried due to their compact size, and as a result, this type of device that can be battery-powered is widely used. It became so.

By the way, a light emitting element, particularly a light emitting diode among them, is often used for the operation display of these devices. Furthermore, in order to improve the visibility, a light guide is used to collect the light, or the light is made to enter the diffusive material to be diffused. FIG. 4 shows the configuration of a display panel device using such a conventional light guide. Here, 101 and 102 are an upper case and a lower case, respectively, of the exterior 100 of the apparatus, 103 is a chassis for mounting a circuit board and other components, 104 is an electric circuit board, and the board 104 is a lower case 102 via the chassis 103. It is screwed to. Reference numeral 105 denotes a light guide for guiding the light from the light emitting diode 106 to the display portion (exposure portion) 105A on the upper portion 101, which is fixed to the upper case 101, and the light emitting diode 106 is soldered to the circuit board 104. Has been done. In the case of this example, the light guide 105
Is made of a material containing a diffusing material and has a function of diffusing light. Further, the bottom surface 105B of the side facing the light emitting diode 106 is formed with a smooth curvature, and the light from the light emitting diode 106 is caused by the lens effect. On the front surface side exposed portion 105A of the upper case 101.

Now, when light having directivity is emitted from the light emitting diode 106 toward the light guide 105,
The light flux is guided to the bottom surface 105B of the light guide 105. Then, the light is refracted by the curvature of the bottom surface 105B of the light guide and is condensed toward the surface of the exposure portion 105A on the upper case side. However, the light is further diffused by the diffusivity of the light guide 105, and as a result, the vertical and horizontal directions. It is configured to increase visibility from.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, if the amount of light emitted from the light guide exposed surface is increased or the exposed portion itself is enlarged in order to further improve the visibility, there are the following drawbacks. It was

1) A light guide containing a diffusing material has a property that the light guide has a poor diffusivity instead of a good diffusivity. Therefore,
Even if an attempt is made to enhance the lens effect for condensing light by changing the curvature of the bottom surface 105B of the light guide, the amount of light is reduced as compared with a transparent light guide. In particular, when the exposed portion is made large, the transmittance is further deteriorated, so that the light emitted through the exposed surface becomes considerably dark.

2) A plurality of light emitting diodes may be used to compensate for the drawback of 1), but this leads to an increase in cost and power consumption. In particular, in the case of a battery-powered printer, this is a big disadvantage that the usage time of the printer is shortened due to an increase in power consumption.

3) In addition, it is possible to use a light guide having a high transmittance although the diffusivity is low in order to increase the amount of light. However, since the diffusivity is low, the visibility from the left, right, up and down directions is deteriorated. There's a problem.

An object of the present invention is to provide an easy-to-see display panel device that functions as a display unit with good visibility in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a light guide attached to an exterior and exposing at least a part of one surface of the exterior to the exterior surface, and the one of the light guides. A display having at least one light emitting element arranged on the side opposite to the exposed side of the light emitting element and transmitting the light emitted from the light emitting element to the one exposed surface through the light guide. In the panel device, the light guide is composed of a transparent lens member capable of condensing and / or polarizing light from the light emitting element, and a diffusion member capable of diffusing the light transmitted through the transparent lens member. It is a feature.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the light emitted from the light emitting element is first incident on the transparent and condensable and / or polarizable transparent lens member of the light guide, so that a sufficient amount of light can be efficiently generated. It can be guided through a transparent lens member to a diffusing member provided in contact therewith, and can be made sufficiently large so that the exposed surface of the diffusing member in the display section can be easily seen. The degree of freedom of selectivity is increased.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 1 shows an outline of the configuration of a portable serial printer used in an information processing apparatus as an example to which the present invention can be applied.

In this case, the recording system may be a wire dot system, a thermal transfer system, an ink jet system or the like. However, in the case of this example, an ink jet recording head is used as the recording head 1. Here, 100 is an exterior of the printer, 3 is a platen roller for holding the recording sheet 4 as a recording material at a recording position, that is, a position facing the recording head 1, 5 is a discharge roller,
A discharge tray 6 receives and supports the recorded recording sheet 4 discharged by the discharge roller 5. The recording head 1 is guided by a guide member (not shown) and moved along the recording sheet 1 held by the platen roller 3 in the apparatus, and recording is performed at the timing of the movement.

An upper case 1 is provided with various key switches 8 for operating the printer and a display section 9 for displaying the operating state and malfunction occurrence by light emission.
This is a panel for operation and display on the 01 side. Each display unit 9 of the display panel device has a light emitting element 10 and a light emitting element 10.
And a light guide 11 for exposing the panel 7 to the light from the panel 7. Before describing the configuration of the display unit 9 according to the present invention in detail below, a description will be given when the printer shown in FIG. A series of operations relating to the display panel device will be briefly described.

Now, when the key switch 8 is pressed with the recording sheet 4 set on the discharge tray 6 or there is a command from the host side personal computer (not shown), the sheet 4 is placed on the platen roller 3 by this. While being wound, the platen roller 3 conveys it to a position facing the recording head 1. After that, recording is performed on the recording sheet 4 by the recording head 1 in accordance with a command from the personal computer, and when the recording is completed, the discharge roller 5 is used again to discharge the discharge tray 6.
Discharged on top. A display unit 9 is provided to display the series of operations and the occurrence of troubles. Since this device is extremely small, it can be placed anywhere on the table. It is also possible to use it with the surface indicated by. For that purpose, it is desirable that the light output from the exposure portion of the light guide 11 can be visually recognized from all directions.

The display section 9 of the display panel device of the present invention is constructed in consideration of such consideration, and FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration. Here, the light guide 11 is composed of a diffusion member 11A and a transparent lens member 11B,
These two members 11A and 11B are fixed by a transparent adhesive. The diffusing member 11A is made of, for example, polystyrene resin or acrylic resin containing diffusing particles, and the one transparent lens member 11B is made of transparent acrylic resin. Therefore, when the light flux 10A from the light emitting diode 10 is projected with a certain range of directivity and is incident on the transparent lens member 11B of the light guide from its bottom surface, most of the light flux 10A is incident on the transparent lens member 11B. As described above, the relationship between the directivity of the light flux 10A and the position of the transparent lens member 11B is relatively determined in advance. Further, the curvature of the side surface of the member 11B is designed so that the light flux 10A incident on the transparent lens member 11B is almost evenly transmitted from the upper surface thereof toward the diffusion member 11A.

Therefore, the luminous flux 10A output from the light emitting diode 10 is incident on the diffusing member 11A in a form with almost no waste of the amount of light. Note that the light incident on the diffusing member 11A is diffused due to its diffusivity, but since the diffusing member 11A is formed at the position of the display unit 9, most of the diffused light can be visually recognized, and the visibility from the up, down, left, and right directions is high. Is improved.

FIG. 3 shows a structure around a light guide according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 13 is a light guide. However, in the case of the present embodiment, at least a part of the panel 7 including the display unit 9 is on the front surface 105 of the device exterior 100, and therefore the light guide 13 has the light-emitting diode 1
It is formed in a curved shape so that light from 0 is emitted to the front surface 105. Here, 13A and 13B are a diffusion member and a transparent lens member that constitute the light guide 13. Thus, the luminous flux 1 emitted from the light emitting diode 10
0A is made incident on the transparent lens member 13B of the light guide 13, and is made incident on the diffusion member 13A via the adhesive surface while reflecting the inside of the transparent lens member 13B as shown in the figure. The light flux 10A that has entered the diffusing member 13B is radiated outward from its surface in a state of being diffused vertically and horizontally within the diffusing member 13B due to its diffusivity.
This can contribute to the improvement of visibility.

It is needless to say that the diffusing member 11A or 13A and the transparent lens member 11B or 13B in the above-described embodiments may be formed by a combination of two different colors. .

In the above description, the application example to the ink jet printer has been described, but the application of the present invention is not limited to the ink jet system, and not only the printer of each system but also various types including a display portion. Needless to say, it can be widely applied to electronic devices of.

[0022]

According to the present invention, attached to the exterior,
A light guide having a part of at least one surface exposed to the exterior surface, and at least one light emitting element arranged on the side opposite to the one exposed side of the light guide,
In a display panel device in which light emitted from the light emitting element is transmitted through the light guide to reach the one exposed surface, the light guide is configured to collect and / or polarize light from the light emitting element. Since it is composed of a transparent lens member capable of diffusing and the diffusing member capable of diffusing the light transmitted through the transparent lens member, it has an exposure portion larger than the conventional one without increasing the number of light emitting elements, It has become possible to provide a display panel that functions as a display unit with good performance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a configuration according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a configuration of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Recording Head 7 Panel 9 Display Part 10 Light Emitting Element (Light Emitting Diode) 10A Luminous Flux 11,13 Light Guide 11A, 13A Diffusing Member 11B, 13B Transparent Lens Member 100 Exterior 101 Upper Case 105 Front

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A light guide attached to an exterior, exposing at least a part of one surface of the exterior to the exterior surface, and at least one light emission arranged on the opposite side of the one exposed side of the light guide. In the display panel device having an element, the light emitted from the light emitting element is transmitted through the light guide to reach the one exposed surface, the light guide, the light from the light emitting element. A display panel device comprising a transparent lens member capable of condensing and / or polarizing and a diffusion member capable of diffusing the light transmitted through the transparent lens member. 2. The display panel device according to claim 1, wherein the transparent lens member and the diffusing member are adhered to each other. 3. The display panel device according to claim 1, wherein the transparent lens member and the diffusion member are two-color molded members.