JPH06131942A - Manufacture of push button switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a display face clearly displaying a surface character and having a long life by coating a nontranslucent paint on the surface of a translucent push button switch, and forming a stamp-out character. CONSTITUTION:A white or pale translucent paint film 7 of silicone rubber is coated on the whole outer surface of a push button switch main body 4 made of silicone rubber. A character 5 is printed on the upper face of a pressing section 3 with a material not stuck to the main body 4, and it is temporarily stuck to the surface of the paint film 7. A nontranslucent paint film 6 of the same material is coated on the upper face of the paint film 7 including the character 5. The paint films 6, 7 are of the same material, and they are not closely stuck to the character 5. The character is peeled off together with the paint film 6. Character peeling is formed after peeling, and a stamp-out character can be formed on the upper face of the pressing section 3. Even if switching actions pressing the upper face of the pressing section 3 are frequently made, the character is not made unclear, and a display section having a long life can be obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a key for equipment mounted on an automobile.
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a translucent push button used as a switch.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a key switch for a vehicle-mounted device,
In particular, a push button formed of a translucent material is widely used in order to make it easy to see in a car at night. As such a translucent material, milky white silicone rubber or S.I.
E. P and the like are widely used. Usually, the push buttons are spaced apart from each other on the base portion, and the pressing portions are projected through the plurality of thin trapezoidal rising portions, and characters and figures are printed on the surfaces of the pressing portions. In this type, since the character portion is printed, when viewed microscopically, the character portion is ejected from the surface of the pressing portion by the thickness of the print. Therefore, the printed surface is damaged each time the push button is used, and the life of the character portion is short. Therefore, on the letter print, a more transparent o
A bar coat may be applied. Furthermore, in order to protect character printing, a transparent cap may be attached to all push buttons. Further, as another push button, a non-transparent coating film is coated on the entire upper surface of the pressing portion, leaving an edge of the upper surface, and the character portion is baked by a laser to make a blank character.

[0003]

As described above, the character printing on the pressing portion of the translucent push button switch has a short life of the character portion.
Further, in order to prolong the life of the character portion, the one in which the transparent cap is fitted on the pressing portion of the switch is inevitably costly. In the case of printing characters only on the upper surface of the translucent push button, the light from the light source provided on the back side of the switch passes through the entire switch, so that the characters are hard to be clear. Next, the one in which a so-called blank character is formed by coating the entire pressing portion with a non-translucent coating film and baking the character portion with a laser is a processing laser.
Since the light is extremely thin, it takes a lot of time to engrave a character of a predetermined size. Further, since the method is to bake the surface of the coating film and the silicone rubber with a laser, there is a drawback that the appearance is often bad and the defective rate is very high and the cost is high. Therefore, the present inventor, as a result of various experiments, while performing non-translucent coating on the surface of the translucent push button switch,
The present invention has been made based on the knowledge that there is a method capable of forming a blank character extremely easily and quickly.

[0004]

According to the method of manufacturing a push button switch of the present invention, a pressing portion 3 is integrally provided on a base portion 1 via an annular thin rising portion 2 and is entirely made of a flexible material. A push button switch main body 4 having the Then, a step of forming the push button switch body 4 with a light-transmissive material and a step of printing characters 5 or a figure on the surface of the pressing portion 3 with a material that is difficult to adhere to the material of the push button switch body 4 are provided.
Next, a step of coating a non-translucent material that adheres to the material of the push button switch body 4 on at least a large part of the outer surface of the push button switch body 4 including the characters 5 or figures is provided. Next, a step of peeling off the character 5 or graphic printed portion and the non-translucent coating film 6 on the character or graphic portion is provided. Further, as one of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, after coating the outer surface of the push button switch body 4 with a light-transmitting coating film 7 made of a material that is adhered to the material of the push button switch body 4, the film is coated on the coating film. Is provided with a step of printing the character 5 or the graphic.

[0005]

Since the material of the character 5 or the graphic printed on the surface of the pressing portion 3 is difficult to adhere to the material of the push button switch body 4, the non-translucent portion of the portion covered by the surface of the character 5 or the graphic. The characteristic coating film 6 can be easily peeled off, and blank characters can be formed there.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are cross-sectional views sequentially showing each step in the first embodiment of the present manufacturing method, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a push button switch manufactured by the method. In the push button switch of this embodiment, a large number of pressing portions 3 (only one is drawn in the drawing) separated from each other on a flat base portion 1 are projected through a trapezoidal thin rising portion 2. This push button switch is made of milky white silicone rubber or S.I. E. It is integrally molded of a transparent material such as P. Here, the translucent material means a material in which the light appears or leaks on the outer surface side of the switch by providing a light source on the inner surface side of the switch body. Such a thin rising portion 2 of the push button switch body 4 has a structure that is easily deformed by pressing.

That is, by pressing the upper surface of the pressing portion 3, the rising portion 2 is buckled, and the contact 8 provided on the lower surface of the pressing portion 3 is temporarily contacted with the contact 8a such as a printed wiring for switching. It is a thing. When it is made of a translucent material, the back side of the pressing portion 3 is covered with a white mask 10 made of the same material as the push button switch body 4, that is, made of silicon rubber, and the contacts 8 are bonded or conductive to the surface of the white mask 10. It is joined by printing. The white mask 10 is designed so that the contacts cannot be seen through the surface of the pressing portion.

Next, on the outer surface side of the push button switch body 4, a translucent coating film 7 made of the same material as the body 4 is formed.
Is applied over the entire surface to form a first-layer coating. That is, if the push button switch body 4 is made of silicon rubber, a white or thin translucent transparent coating film 7 made of the same silicon rubber is applied to the entire outer surface of the push button switch body 4. In addition, what is sufficient here is that the same material has the same main part. Next, the character 5 is printed on only a part of the upper surface of the pressing portion 3. As this printing means, for example, screen printing or pad printing can be used. The material of this letter 5 is the push button switch body 4
Printing is performed with a different material that does not adhere to, for example, a material made of urethane or a resin material. Then, by printing the letter 5,
Is temporarily attached to the surface of the transparent coating 7. However, the bonding strength is extremely weak.

Next, a silicon-based non-translucent coating 6 made of the same material as the push button switch body 4 is applied to the upper surface of the character 5 and the upper surface of the transparent coating 7. This non-translucent coating film 6
Is made of the same material as the translucent coating film 7 which is the first layer coating film, and therefore adheres only to the translucent coating film 7. However, it does not adhere to the character 5. Next, the character 5 is mechanically peeled off together with the non-translucent coating film 6. For example, it is mechanically peeled off with the tip of a pin. Since only this character portion is not in close contact with the first layer and the third layer, only that portion can be separated from other portions and easily mechanically peeled off. In addition,
The character and the non-translucent coating film 6 may be first cut along the outer circumference of the character 5 by a laser, and the character 5 and the non-transparent coating film 6 may be peeled off at the same time. After the peeling, the character peeling portion 9 is formed, and so-called blank characters are formed on the upper surface of the pressing portion 3 as shown in FIG. In such a push button switch, by providing a light source on the inner surface side of the body 4, light passes through the pressing portion 3, only the translucent coating film 7 and the character peeling portion 9, and the character peeling portion 9 portion. Clearly indicated by light. Then, only the character portion on the upper surface of each pressing portion is illuminated by the light source. Further, since the character peeling portion 9 is a blank character, the character is not unclear even if the switching operation of pressing the upper surface of the pressing portion 3 is frequently performed. That is, a display portion having a long life is configured.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present manufacturing method. In this embodiment, characters 5 are directly printed on the upper surface of the pressing portion 3 of the main body made of translucent silicone rubber. This character 5
The material of is different from the material of the push button switch body 4 and is printed with a material such as urethane or resin, and the pressing portion 3
It is applied to the upper surface with relatively weak adhesive strength. Then, a non-translucent coating film 6 of silicon rubber containing characters 5 is applied on the entire upper surface of the push button switch body 4. Then, similarly to the first embodiment, only the character 5 and the non-translucent coating film 6 on the character 5 are mechanically peeled off. According to the experiment
The blank character processing by this method can be shortened to about one-third of the processing time for the blank character processing by the conventional laser. Moreover, it has been found that low-cost push button switches can be mass-produced because the defect rate is low and the productivity is high.

[0011]

The push button manufacturing method of the present invention is
Since the step of printing the character 5 or the graphic on the surface of the push button switch main body 4 with a material which is difficult to bond with the push button switch main body 4, the character 5 or graphic printed portion and the non-translucent coating film on the printed portion are included. Can be easily peeled off to form the character peeling portion 9 thereon. Therefore, the translucent character peeling portion 9 is provided on the push button switch body 4.
Can be formed quickly and reliably. That is, the manufacturing can be performed in an extremely short time as compared with the conventional engraving of the character portion by the laser. Further, since the other portion of the translucent character peeling portion 9 is formed by the non-translucent coating film 6,
It becomes possible to transmit light only to the character peeling portion 9 and clearly display the characters on the surface. Since the character portion is recessed relative to the non-translucent coating film 6, there is no fear that the character portion will disappear due to long-term use, and a display surface having a long life can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory cross-sectional enlarged view of an intermediate step showing a manufacturing method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a post process of the process of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory enlarged cross-sectional view of a push button manufactured by this manufacturing method.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the manufacturing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 base part 2 rising part 3 pressing part 4 push button switch body 5 character 6 non-translucent coating film 7 translucent coating film 8 contact 8a contact 9 character peeling part 10 white mask

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A push button switch body comprising a base portion 1 and a push portion 3 integrally projecting from an annular thin rising portion 2 and having a push button switch body 4 entirely made of a flexible material. A step of molding the main body 4 with a translucent material, a step of printing a character 5 or a graphic on the surface of the pressing portion 3 with a material that is difficult to adhere to the material of the main body, and then a step of including the character 5 or the graphic. And applying a non-translucent material that adheres at least a large part of the outer surface of the main body 4 to the material of the main body 4, and the printed portion of the character 5 or the figure and the non-transparent portion on the printed portion. A method of manufacturing a push button switch, comprising the step of peeling off the light coating film 6. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the outer surface of the main body 4 is coated with a translucent coating film 7 made of a material that adheres to the material of the main body 4, and then the characters 5 or figures are formed on the coating film. A manufacturing method including a step of printing on.