JPH06295639A - Transmissive illumination type button and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a transmissive illumination type button, of which yield in production is improved widely, and at which leakage of light from the outside of top designed part is eliminated completely. CONSTITUTION:A button main body having a button shape is formed by molding two kinds of resin, one 1 having a crystallization and transmissive property whose tight contactness with a paint is extremely bad while the other 2 having a light shielding property and non-crystallization property whose tight contactness with paint is good, such that the one resin 1 is exposed partially from the other resin 2 and covered therewith only at the top face of the button main body. A required paint is applied on the outer surface of the button main body to form a film 5, and through removal of the film on the first resin to expose a designed part composed of picture, characters or the like. In this way the designed part made of the resin 1 having the transmissive property is exposed clearly from the top of the button main body and defective points in terms of outer view is covered completely by the film 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transillumination button having a design portion on the top surface and a method of manufacturing the same, and in particular, it completely eliminates light leakage from the outside of the design portion and greatly improves the yield of products. The present invention relates to a transillumination button that enables cost reduction and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, transmitted-illumination type buttons have been widely used, such as buttons for vehicle-mounted switches which require a night-lighting function, and various electronic / electrical devices, machines, etc., which display their operating states by illuminating themselves. ing. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the conventional transillumination button has a button-shaped button body 6 formed by molding a translucent resin, and the entire outer surface of the button body 6 has a light-shielding property. A relatively dark color paint is applied to form a light-shielding coating film 7, and then the coating film 7 on the top surface of the button body 6 is partially removed by using a laser or the like to design a part such as a picture or a character. (In this example, the character HI) is formed, and the light from the light source 8 is transmitted only through this design portion.

[0003]

As described above, conventionally, the button body 6 is formed by molding a light-transmitting resin, and the light shielding except for the design portion depends on the coating film 7 made of the light-shielding paint. Therefore, if the coating film is thin or there are local pinholes in the coating film, light leakage occurs. In other words, coating film 7
If the thickness does not exceed a certain value, the light blocking effect cannot be obtained. For this reason, it is the current situation that the coating film 7 can be obtained by applying the coating from any direction until light leakage does not occur. However, since the coating is repeated many times, the variation in the coating thickness becomes large.

Therefore, when the coating film on the top surface of the button body is burned off by laser irradiation to form the design portion shown in FIG. 7, the laser power must be adjusted according to the coating film thickness at each time. There was a problem. Further, even when the back surface of the button body 6 is illuminated by the light source 8, even the pinholes in the coating film cause light leakage due to the translucency of the resin, resulting in poor product yield. Further, there is a defect that an inspection using a transmission table or the like is required.

Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a transillumination type button which eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, completely eliminates leakage of light from the outside of the design portion, and greatly improves the yield. is there. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a transillumination type button which can easily obtain a transillumination type button in which light leakage from the outside of the design portion is completely eliminated.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a first resin having crystallinity and translucency, which has extremely poor adhesion to a coating material,
Two kinds of resin, a non-crystalline and light-shielding second resin having good adhesiveness with the paint, are used, and the light-transmitting first resin is covered with the light-shielding second resin, In addition, the translucent first resin is partially exposed from the light shielding second resin only on the top surface of the button body,
A button-shaped button body is formed by molding, and a paint is applied to the outer surface of the button body to form a coating film. This coating film is formed on the outer surface of the second resin having good adhesion to the coating material. A transillumination type button is constructed by adhering it to the surface and removing it from the first resin, which has extremely poor adhesion to the paint.

[0007]

[Function] With the transillumination type button thus configured,
Since the design portion of the button body is composed of the light-transmissive first resin partially exposed from the light-shielding second resin on the top surface portion thereof, that is, the light-transmissive first resin Since the outer surface of is completely covered with the second resin having a light-shielding property except for the design portion, when the light is illuminated from the back surface of the button body by the light source, no light leaks from the outside of the design portion.

Further, since the outer surface of the button body is covered with a coating film of a paint having good adhesiveness except for the design portion, a defect in appearance caused by a resin flow such as a weld at the time of resin molding. Can be completely eliminated.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 6 are a plan view and a sectional view showing an embodiment of a transillumination type button according to the present invention in the order of manufacturing steps. First, as shown in FIGS. And a light-transmitting first resin 1 and a non-crystalline and light-shielding second resin 2 having excellent adhesiveness to a coating material, and Resin 1 is covered with the light-shielding second resin 2, and the light-transmitting first resin 1 is partially exposed from the light-shielding second resin 2 only on the top surface of the button body. As described above, the button body is formed by molding. That is, the outer surface of the first resin 1 having crystallinity and translucency, which has extremely poor adhesion to the paint, is removed from the outer surface of the design part (in this example, HI character) composed of pictures, characters, etc. Two-color molding is performed in a state in which the second resin 2 having good non-crystalline property and light-shielding property is completely covered.

As shown in FIG. 2, the button body molded in this way has a first resin 1 having a translucent top surface.
Since only a part (designed part) of the button is exposed from the second resin 2 having a light-shielding property, when the light source 3 illuminates from the back surface of the button body, there is a light-transmitting property from the back surface to the front surface. The light is transmitted only through the designed portion made of the resin 1 of 1, and the light cannot be transmitted through the other portions. Therefore, it is possible to configure a button body that has no light leakage from the outside of the design portion.

However, in the structure as it is, the weld 4 formed by the flow of the resin at the time of molding at the joint portion of the two kinds of resins 1 and 2 (in FIG. 1, only the representative portion where the weld can be formed is indicated. Other than that, welds can be done), but external defects remain. Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, an arbitrary coating material is applied to the entire outer surface of the button body formed by two-color molding to form the coating film 5. After that, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the coating film deposited on the translucent first resin 1 exposed on the top surface is removed to remove the translucent first resin from the back to the front. The design part made of the resin 1 is exposed.

As described above, the translucent first resin 1 is a crystalline resin having extremely poor adhesion to the paint, and the paint applied to the surface (design portion) does not adhere. Therefore, the coating film on this portion can be easily peeled off by adhering it to an adhesive tape, or by ejecting water or air. On the other hand, the light-shielding second resin 2 is a non-crystalline resin having good adhesion to the paint, and therefore the paint applied to the surface of the second resin 2 adheres well to the second resin. Therefore, the coating film on this portion does not peel off at all even when the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is brought into contact therewith or when water pressure or air pressure is applied.

Thus, external defects such as welds 4 caused by the flow of resin during molding are completely covered with the coating film 5 and are not exposed on the surface.
As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
Thus, a transillumination button having a design part made of the resin 1 clearly exposed on the top surface of the button body and having no defect in appearance can be obtained.

Further, the coating film 5b on the side surface of the button body is inevitably thinner than the coating film 5a on the top surface when the coating material is ejected from a direction substantially perpendicular to the top surface, but in the present invention. Since the second resin 2 having a light-shielding property is located below the coating film 5b on the side surface portion, light leakage does not occur at all even if the coating film is thin. Of course, there is no need to use light-shielding paint, and
Since the side surface does not appear on the surface, it is not always necessary to apply coating. Therefore, in order to prevent light leakage, it is not necessary to eject and apply the paint from any direction as in the prior art, so the work of applying the paint is very simple.

The above embodiment is merely an example of the present invention. Therefore, the structure, shape, size and the like of the button and the manufacturing process are not limited to those shown in the above embodiment, and may be necessary. It can be variously modified and changed according to need.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the outer surface of the first resin having crystallinity and translucency, which has extremely poor adhesion to the coating material, except for the design portion of the top surface portion, is coated. Since it is completely covered with the non-crystalline and light-shielding second resin having good adhesiveness, the light transmits only the design portion made of the first resin having the light-transmitting property from the back side to the front side, and The part cannot transmit light. Therefore, there is an effect that a transillumination type button in which light is not leaked from the outside of the design part can be easily configured and the product yield is significantly improved.

Further, a visual defect such as a weld caused by the flow of resin at the time of molding is completely hidden by the coating film and is not exposed on the surface. Therefore, the design made of the translucent first resin. There is an effect that it is possible to easily obtain a transillumination-type button having no external appearance defect whose part is clearly exposed on the top surface of the button body. Furthermore, since there is no light leakage from the side surface that does not appear on the surface, the coating film only needs to be on the top surface, so it is not necessary to carefully coat the side surface as in the past, so the painting work is simple. Moreover, there is an effect that the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a button body for explaining a manufacturing process of an embodiment of a transillumination button according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of FIG. 1 taken along the line AA.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state where the entire outer surface of the button body of FIG. 1 is coated.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a transillumination button according to the present invention.

6 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 5 taken along the line C-C.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing an example of a conventional transillumination button.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 7 taken along the line D-D.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Light-transmitting first resin with extremely poor adhesion to paint 2 Light-blocking second resin with good adhesion to paint 3 Light source 4 Weld 5 Coating 5a Button top coating 5b Button side coating Film 6 Button body 7 Coating 8 Light source

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A button-shaped first resin having crystallinity and translucency, which has extremely poor adhesion to a paint, and an outer surface of the translucent button-shaped first resin, in a top surface portion. And a second resin having a non-crystalline and light-shielding property, which has good adhesion to the coating material and which covers a part of the first resin in an exposed state,
A coating film applied to at least the top surface portion of the outer surface of the light-shielding second resin, and a picture, character, etc. by the light-transmitting first resin exposed on the top surface portion. The transillumination type button is characterized in that the design part is configured so that the light from the back surface is transmitted only through the design part. 2. A first resin having a crystallinity and a light-transmitting property, which has extremely poor adhesion to a paint, and a second resin having an amorphous property and a light-shielding property, which has good adhesion to the paint, are molded, The light-transmitting first resin is covered with the light-shielding second resin, and the light-transmitting first resin is provided only on the top surface portion of the button body. Forming a button-shaped button body partially exposed from the resin, applying a paint to at least the entire top surface portion of the outer surface of the button body to form a coating film, and forming a coating film on the top surface portion of the coating film. A method of manufacturing a transillumination button, comprising the step of removing a coating film applied on a first resin having a light-transmitting property that has extremely poor adhesion to the exposed coating material.