JPH0654156U - Cover member for illuminated pushbutton switch - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Objective] The present invention has an object to provide a cover member for an illuminated push-button switch, which has a code portion of a predetermined shape on the top surface of the key top portion and has excellent hard finger touch. To do. [Structure] Cover member 1 for illuminated push-button switch of the present invention
Is formed by integrally molding the key top portion 2, the thin movable portion 3 and the base portion 4 with a light-transmissive thermoplastic elastomer material, and removing characters such as letters, symbols and numbers from the top surface of the key top portion 6 It is characterized in that a film or layer 5 having a shielding property is provided on the top surface of the key top portion 2, the thin movable portion 3 and the base portion 4 which have been processed.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for an illuminated push button switch, and more particularly, an illuminated push button having a key top portion having a hard finger feel, which has a light transmitting portion formed in a predetermined shape on the top surface of the key top. The present invention relates to a switch cover member.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 In recent years, the cover members for illuminated pushbutton switches used for in-vehicle pushbutton switches, dark place pushbutton switches, etc. are illuminated by light passing from a light source provided on the contact side with the parts of symbols such as letters, symbols, and numbers. Widely used products are designed so that the symbols are clearly highlighted and there are no operational mistakes. The cover member for this type of illuminated push-button switch is usually made of silicone rubber, which has excellent insulating properties and has an extremely good light-transmitting property, and the key top side is made of silicone rubber with a pigment, catalyst, and curing agent. It is typical that the key top top surface is formed with a predetermined code by laser processing, etc., after applying a coating with a high shielding property that appropriately mixes a diluent.

However, in the cover member for a push button switch formed only from the silicone rubber, since the top surface of the key top has a peculiar adhesive feeling, this has a drawback that a hard finger touch feeling cannot be obtained. . Therefore, as shown in Fig. 3, the thin movable part 11 and the base part 12 are molded with transparent or translucent silicone rubber, and the key top part 13 is molded with transparent or translucent acrylic resin. It has been proposed that they are integrated into a composite structure or that they are bonded together with an adhesive.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, in this case, it is necessary to successively coat and dry the two types of paint according to the properties of the material of each part of the push button switch member in the subsequent process, so that the compatibility of the paint that is close to Although it is necessary to apply masking in advance so that it does not adhere to bad materials, providing or removing masking for different materials increases the number of processes and costs, and the paint is also removed when removing the masking. However, in reality, it is difficult to perform masking with strict accuracy by separating different materials, and thus the quality becomes unstable.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention relates to an illuminated push-button switch cover member which has solved such disadvantages and drawbacks and is excellent in the feel of a hard finger. The key top part, the thin movable part and the base part are made of a light-transmissive thermoplastic material. It is integrally molded with an elastomeric material, letters, symbols and numerals are removed from the top surface of the key top part to process the characters, and other parts of the key top part, thin movable part and base part are provided with a shielding film or layer. It is characterized by

That is, the inventors of the present invention have variously developed a cover member for an illuminated push-button switch, which has a light-transmitting portion on the top surface of the key top portion, and the key top portion has hard finger touch and is integrally formed. As a result of the examination, the cover member for the push button switch was integrally molded with a light-transmissive plastic elastomer material, and characters, symbols, numbers, etc. were removed from the top surface of the key top part and processed. By providing a shielding film or layer on this part, it can be confirmed by the light from the light source, and the key top part is also made of a thermoplastic elastomer material that is not silicone rubber. It was found that it has a good feel to the fingers because it is molded, and we proceed with research on the selection of the thermoplastic elastomer material used here and its processing method. And completed the present invention. This will be described in more detail below.

[0007]

[Action]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for an illuminated push-button switch, in which the key-top portion, the thin-walled movable portion and the base portion are integrally molded with a light-transmissive thermoplastic elastomer material, and the key top portion has a top surface. Characters, symbols, numerals, etc. are processed by removing the symbols, and other parts of the key top part, the thin movable part and the base part are provided with a light-shielding film or layer. According to the above, it is possible to obtain an illuminated push button switch cover member that has an excellent feeling of touch with a hard finger and that can clearly see only the characters that have been stamped on the top surface of the key top by the light from the light source. Gender is given.

In the illuminated push-button switch cover member of the present invention, the push-button switch cover member itself is integrally formed of a thermoplastic elastomer material from the key top portion, the thin movable portion and the base portion. The longitudinal section of the push button switch cover member 1 is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, but the key top portion 2, the thin movable portion 3 and the base portion 4 are made of a thermoplastic elastomer material. It is supposed to be integrally molded. This can be obtained by injection molding (including LIM) a thermoplastic elastomer material in a mold, or by inserting this into a mold and then heat-pressurizing it for compression molding.

As the thermoplastic elastomer material used here, since the cover member for the push button switch is of an illuminating type, a transparent or semi-transparent or milky white light-transmitting molded article can be provided. Well, therefore, styrene-based thermoplastic elastomers (hereinafter abbreviated as TPE), olefin-based TPE, ester-based TPE, urethane-based TPE, amide-based TPE, low crystallinity 1,2-polybutadiene Examples include TPE-based, vinyl chloride-based TPE, chlorinated polyethylene-based TPE, and fluorine-based TPE. Specific examples of styrene-based TPE include Califlex and Kraton [all trade names manufactured by Shell Chemical Co., Ltd.], Toughprene. , Sorprene [trade name of Asahi Kasei Corporation], elastomer AR [Aron Kasei Co., Ltd. Product name], DENKA STR, CLEACEN [product name of Denki Kagaku KK], Europrene [product name of Tosoh Corporation], JISTR [product name of Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd.], Tintac [Zeon Japan ( Co., Ltd. product name], Lavalon [Mitsubishi Yuka Co., Ltd. product name], Septon [Kuraray Co., Ltd. product name], etc. As an olefin fin TPE, Mirastomer [Mitsui Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd.] Product name], Santo Plain [A, E, S, Japan company product name], Sumitomo TPE [Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. product name], Lift Rex [Nippon Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd. product name], TE, TEX series [trade name of Tonen Chemical Co., Ltd.], Orefrelux [trade name of Showa Denko Co., Ltd.], Reactor TPD [trade name of Tokuyama Soda Co., Ltd.], and bread for urethane TPE Examples of products include Lux [trade name of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.]. The pushbutton switch cover member molded with this has a hard finger feel because its key top is molded with these resins. Becomes

However, since the cover member for a push button switch has excellent mechanical properties, the crystallization speed is very fast, the injection moldability is excellent, the dimensional accuracy is good, and precision molding is possible. It is more preferable to use polyester-based TPE such as Perprene [trade name of Toyobo Co., Ltd.] and Hytrel [trade name of Toray-Jupon Co., Ltd.] as materials. In addition, since this polyester-based TPE does not easily turn yellow due to light or heat, the code part on the top surface of the key top, which is transparent, is clear for a long period of time and has excellent oil and chemical resistance. It is highly resistant to oil resistance and has excellent mechanical properties such as strength and abrasion resistance, making it ideal for heavy beauty applications.

When the cover member for the push button switch is required to have particularly high transparency, this is a polypropylene-based thermoplastic TPE formed by hydrogenating styrene / butadiene / rubber on polypropylene, such as Dynaron [Japan]. Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd. ”is the most suitable, but in this case, it is often the case that corona discharge treatment or polypropylene-based primer is applied before painting, which will be described later. It is recommended to use a two-component reactive special modified epoxy paint and a two-component reactive special modified acrylic paint.

As for the push button switch cover member thus manufactured, in order to make it the illuminated type, as shown in FIG. 1, the top surface of the key top portion 2, the thin movable portion 3 and The base 4 is provided with a shielding film or layer 5, which is an acrylic, urethane-based, polyester-based, vinyl-based, polyolefin-based, epoxy-based or alkyd-based paint with strong shielding properties. What is necessary is to add a retarder, a diluent, a slow-drying agent, a reinforcing agent, a curing accelerator, etc., if necessary, and apply them with a coating device, a coating device, a spray gun or the like, and then solidify them.

The shield film or layer may be formed by applying a penetrable paint or baking a paint having a shield property, and the key top portion 2, the thin movable portion 3 and the base portion 4 are formed. The thickness of the shielding film formed on the upper surface of the key top may be 20 to 100 μm. Especially, it is assumed that no part of this film is transparent, and the thickness of the shielding film on the top surface of the key top part is variable. Is preferably 5 μm or less.

Further, the illuminated push-button switch cover member of the present invention needs to be formed with symbols such as letters, symbols, and numbers on the top surface of the key top portion. This is done by masking only these symbols. Then, this code may be formed later by peeling off the portion or by laser processing. Further, the shielding film or layer 5 is also formed on the top surface of the key top portion 2 as described above. This is for the purpose of considering the buffering of the thermal energy of laser processing and for diversifying the design. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, a transparent or semi-transparent film or a transparent film 7 colored so as to transmit light is provided between the transparent base material and the shielding film by means of screen printing or the like. It may be formed.

The cover member for an illuminated push-button switch of the present invention thus manufactured is integrally molded with a thermoplastic elastomer material (TPE), and the key top portion is also molded with this thermoplastic elastomer material. This product has an excellent hard finger feel, and this hardness finger feel can be freely controlled by changing the ratio of the hard segment and the soft segment of the thermoplastic elastomer. Since it is made of thermoplastic elastomer, it has the advantage that it can be recycled as scrap and is effective in solving industrial waste problems.

[0016]

【Example】

 Next, examples of the present invention will be given. Example 1 Polyester-based TPE / Bellprene P 150B (trade name, manufactured by Toyobo Co., Ltd.) was used at 120 ° C. using a screw-in-line injection molding machine, FS-170SE (trade name, manufactured by Nissei Plastic Co., Ltd.). The cover member for the push button switch was made by molding in 20 seconds.

Next, a polyester coating / PAL mat 120 black [Seiko Advance Co., Ltd. product name] is applied to the key top portion, the thin movable portion, and the base portion to form a 20 μm thick coating film at 170 ° C. After solidifying under dry condition for 30 minutes, the key top part was laser-processed to form a code, and the hard finger feel was excellent, and a cover member for the illuminated push button switch that could withstand the use of heavy beauty was obtained. Was given.

Example 2 Polypropylene-based TPE / Dyalon HN41,000 (trade name, manufactured by Japan Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd.) was used at 100 ° C. for a molding time using a screw in-line type injection molding machine FS-170SE (described above). Mold in 30 seconds to make a cover material for pushbutton switches, wash the surface with toluene, and then use a two-component reactive special modified acrylic paint, Micron # 3,00 00 White [trade name of Cashew Paint Co., Ltd.]. A 10 μm-thick coating film was applied to the top surface of the key top by screen printing, and was solidified by drying at 80 ° C for 25 minutes.

Then, using a two-component reactive special deformation urethane coating, Senosoft Black [trade name of Cashew Coating Co., Ltd.], a 20 μm thick shielding coating on the key top, thin movable part and base part. After providing the key, a code was formed on the key top portion by laser processing, and a cover member for an illuminated push button switch having an excellent hard finger feel was obtained.

[0020]

[Effect of device]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for an illuminated push-button switch, in which the key-top portion, the thin-walled movable portion and the base portion are integrally molded with a light-transmissive thermoplastic elastomer material, and the key top portion has a top surface. Characters, symbols, numbers, etc. are processed by removing the signs, and other than that, the top surface of the key top part, the thin movable part and the base part are provided with a shielding film or layer. According to the above, since the key top part is molded of a thermoplastic elastomer material, it has a good feel of a hard finger and has an advantage that it is possible to easily obtain a cover member for an illuminated push button switch capable of scrap reproduction. To be

[Submission date] February 5, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0009

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

As the thermoplastic elastomer material used here, since the cover member for the push button switch is of an illuminating type, a transparent or semi-transparent or milky white light-transmitting molded article can be provided. Well, therefore, styrene type thermoplastic elastomer (Thermo Plastic Elastomer, hereinafter abbreviated as TPE), olefin type TPE, ester type TPE, urethane type TPE, amide type TPE, low crystalline 1,2-polybutadiene type. TPE, vinyl chloride-based TPE, chlorinated polyethylene-based TPE, fluorine-based TPE and the like are exemplified. Specific examples of the styrene-based TPE are Califlex TR , Kraton D [all are trade names manufactured by Shell Chemical Co., Ltd.], Tauprene, Sorprene. [Asahi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. product name , Elastomer AR [Aronkasei (trade name) manufactured], Denka STR, clear-les-down [Denki Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. product name], Yuropuren [Tosoh Corporation, trade name], JISTR [Japan Synthetic Rubber (Co. ) trade name], click Intakku [Nippon Zeon Co., Ltd., trade name], RABALON [Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd., trade name], there is such as Septon [Kuraray Co., Ltd., trade name], as the olefin-based TPE the MILASTOMER [Mitsui oil chemical industry Co., trade name], Santoprene [er-e-es, Japan Co. Commercial product name], Sumitomo TPE [Sumitomo chemical Co., Ltd. trade name], lift Rex [Japan petroleum chemical industry Co., Ltd., trade name], TE, TEX series [Tonen chemical Co., trade name], Orefure Tsu box [Showa Denko Co., Ltd., trade name], reactor TP O [Tokuyama Soda Co., Ltd. Product name But also the like Pande Tsu box [Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. trade name as urethane TPE is illustrated, which pushbutton switch cover member which is molded in the molding in the key top portion of resins As a result, the feel of the hard finger is excellent.

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0010

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

However, since the cover member for a push button switch has excellent mechanical properties, the crystallization speed is very fast, the injection moldability is excellent, the dimensional accuracy is good, and precision molding is possible. polyester-based TPE, for example Pelprene [manufactured by Toyobo Co., trade name], it is more preferable to use as a material Hytrel [Toure de Yupon (trade name) manufactured]. In addition, since this polyester-based TPE does not easily turn yellow due to light or heat, the code part on the top surface of the key top, which is transparent, is clear for a long period of time and has excellent oil and chemical resistance. is very resistant to oil resistance, because of its great machine械的properties such as strength wear resistance, which are ideal for the heavy de Yuti.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a cover member for an illuminated push button switch according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of another example of the cover member for an illuminated push button switch according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of a conventionally known cover member for a push button switch.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 ... Cover member for illuminated push button switch, 2, 13 ... Key top part, 3, 11 ... Thin movable part, 4, 12 ... Base part, 5 ... Shielding film or layer, 6 ... Code part , 7 ... Transparent coating film.

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A key top portion, a thin-walled movable portion, and a base portion are integrally molded of a light-transmitting thermoplastic elastomer material, and characters, symbols, numerals, etc. are removed from the top surface of the key top portion to form a letter. A cover member for an illuminated push-button switch, characterized in that a film or layer having a shielding property is provided on the other key top portion, thin movable portion and base portion. 2. The cover member for an illuminated push button switch according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic elastomer material is a polyester thermoplastic elastomer or a thermoplastic elastomer obtained by hydrogenating ethylene / butadiene rubber with polypropylene.