JPH0714525U - Cover member for push button switch - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Purpose] The present invention can be used in a dark place such as various in-vehicle push button switches, a password input device for a nighttime access port, a push button of a portable or stationary phone. It is an object of the present invention to provide a push button switch cover member that is useful for various necessary push button switches. [Structure] The cover member 1 for a push button switch of the present invention comprises a key top portion 2 made of a high-hardness silicone resin having a Shore D hardness of 40 ° or more, a thin-walled movable portion 3 made of ordinary silicone rubber, a base portion 4, and conductive movable. In the push button switch cover member 1 in which the contact portions 5 are integrated, coupling is performed on the top surface of the key top portion or the entire key top portion with a fluorescent rare earth compound that is colored only by ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region. It is characterized in that a character / symbol indicating portion 6 is provided in a composition containing 5 to 50% of the agent.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for a push button switch, in particular, a cover member for a push button switch that needs to be operated in a dark place, such as various in-vehicle push button switches, a personal identification number input device, a push button of a portable or stationary telephone. Is.

[0002]

[Prior art]

It is known that cover members for push button switches are made of various materials, but in recent years, cover members for push button switches have been made of silicone rubber, which has characteristics such as high transparency, precision moldability, and excellent springing properties. Integrally molded products are mainly used, but as another example of this, as shown in FIG. 5, the key top portion 32 is made of a high hardness resin such as acrylic or polyester, methyl silicone resin, phenyl silicone resin, or dimethyldiphenyl. It is made of high-hardness silicone resin such as silicone resin, and the thin-walled movable part 33, base part 34, and conductive movable contact point 35, which are made of normal silicone rubber, are integrated, and the key top has a high hardness. the cover member for push button switch 31 which the letter symbols indicating portions 36 provided with a silicone resin inks have also been developed, those of this rigid finger touch There to, from a child that finger on the key top part there is no feeling that the pressure-sensitive adhesive, has been used in favor as that has excellent operability.

On the other hand, as an example of a cover member for a character illuminated push button switch, as shown in FIG. 6, a key top 42 made of various transparent members, a thin movable portion 43, a base portion 44, and a conductive movable contact 45. In addition to providing a shielding film 46 on this surface, a marking part 47 such as letters and symbols is provided on the top surface of the key top part 42, and a visible light emitting source 48 is provided below the base part 44. 7 is a cover member 41 for a push button switch, or a cover member for a push button switch in which the character display portion 52 is formed of a phosphorescent ink as shown in FIG. 7 as a type in which a shielding film may not be provided on the surface of a key top or the like. 51, the character, the symbol indicating portions 62 to form a fluorescent inks and light color inks, there is a known push button switch cover member 61 having a visible light emitting source 63 in this upwardly.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, the character illumination type push button switch cover member 41 provided with a shielding film on the key top portion or the like is capable of clearly distinguishing the characters because the characters are illuminated even in a dark place. It has the disadvantage that it is difficult to distinguish the letters in bright places because it is dark blue, gray, etc.If this product is not dimensioned correctly or is not assembled in the correct position, the light will leak and the letters will be printed. It is difficult to recognize, and there is a disadvantage that the input device itself cannot be thinned because of the light emission source. Further, the cover member 51 for the push button switch using the indicator portion 52 made of the phosphorescent ink shown in FIG. 7 has a light emitting ink emission duration of about 4 hours at the longest, so that the characters can be discriminated little by little during use. It is difficult to do so, and there is a disadvantage that it is necessary to irradiate visible light at regular intervals, and the cover member 61 for the push button switch using the marking portion 62 made of fluorescent ink or bright color ink shown in FIG. There is a disadvantage that it is necessary to pay attention to this because it is necessary to place the light source 63 in a non-existing position and illuminate it from above.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for a push button switch which solves the above disadvantages and drawbacks, and is indicated by a compounding mixture of a fluorescent rare earth compound which emits only ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region. And a key top portion of a cover member for a push button switch having a key top portion made of a high hardness silicone resin having a Shore D hardness of 40 ° or more. Fluorescence that develops color only with ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region The entire part is a mixture of 5 to 50% of a coupling agent to a rare earth compound, and is provided with character and symbol marking parts. To do.

That is, the present inventor has conducted various studies to develop a cover member for a push button switch that can easily and clearly recognize a marking portion such as a character or a symbol even in a dark place. The top part is manufactured using a high hardness silicone resin, and the key top part is a mixture of a fluorescent rare earth compound that emits color in the 340 to 400 nm region (UV-A rays) with a coupling agent. When a push button switch cover member is manufactured by forming a character marking part such as a symbol, and combining it with a thin movable part and a base part, this character marking part develops color when irradiated with UV-A rays. Therefore, we have found that it will be possible to clearly identify this, and we will research the fluorescent rare earth compounds, the types of couplings, and the compounding amounts. Umate was the present invention to complete. This will be described in more detail below.

[0007]

[Action]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for a push button switch, which is characterized in that a marking portion is provided with a compound containing a fluorescent rare earth compound that emits only ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region. In particular, the key top part is made of a high hardness silicone resin, and the key top part is mixed with a coupling agent to a fluorescent rare earth compound which emits ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region. It is characterized by forming marking parts such as characters and symbols with a compound, but when a push-button switch cover member having such a key top part is irradiated with UV-A rays. Since the marking portion such as letters and symbols emits fluorescent light, the marking portion can be clearly recognized.

As a member of the cover for the push button switch of the present invention, a conventionally known member, for example, an acrylic resin, a polycarbonate resin, a plastic such as butyl rubber, NBR, ethylene propylene rubber, a rubber, an elastomer, or the like is appropriately used. According to the present invention, a fluorescent rare earth compound capable of developing color at least in the 340 to 400 nm region of ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) is added before or after molding of this member. Is required. Characters, symbols, symbols such as pictures, and / or at least the entire key top portion (fluorescent rare earth compound may be compounded in the entire push button switch cover member, but this is not preferred because it is slightly expensive) You may let me. In addition, it is preferable to form the key top portion with a high-hardness silicone resin because the tackiness is eliminated and the pressing operation becomes smooth. The key top portion made of this high-hardness silicone resin is integrally formed with a thin-walled movable portion and a base portion, which are formed of conventionally known silicone rubber, to form a push button switch cover member.

The chemical structure of the high-hardness silicone resin is silicone oil having a Si skeleton in the main chain, silicone varnish, and silicone resin. The most suitable one has a high crosslink density and a three-dimensional crosslink structure. A silicone resin that is easy to obtain and easy to obtain a block copolymer is preferably a methyl silicone resin, a phenyl silicone resin, a dimethyldiphenyl silicone resin, a silicone polyester resin, a silicone acrylic resin, a silicone epoxy resin, or these. Examples of such modified resins include those which can form a key top portion having a Shore D hardness of 40 ° C. or higher, which has a high hardness, which cannot be obtained with silicone rubber.

When the push button switch cover member is made of silicone rubber, the thin movable part and the base part may be made of commonly known dimethylvinylsiloxane. SE1184U, SE1185U, SE1187U, SE1188U, SH841U, SH851U [above Toray Dow Corning Silicone Co., Ltd. trade name], MM3401, MM3505, MM3605, MM3705, MM4300, MM4406, MM4500. , MM4616, MM4710, MM4810, MM1400, MM1500, MM1310, MM1401, MM1501 [Rhone Poulin Silicone Co., Ltd. product name], TSE260-3U, TSE260-5U, TSE260-7U, TSE221-3U. , TSE221-4U, TSE221-5U [Toshiba Silicone Co., Ltd. product name], KE-966TU, KE-981TU, K -951U, KE-941U, X-30-16 51 [above Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. trade name may be those made of such.

The cover member for a push button switch of the present invention is a compound that causes fluorescent light to be emitted on the molded key top portion, and the symbols such as letters and symbols and the marking portion are preferably printed or painted. Examples of the substance include fluorescent rare earth compounds. As the fluorescent rare earth compound, InOOCl: Tb ³⁺ that emits green color, In ₂ Si ₂ O ₇ : Tb ³⁺ , BaO ・ 6Al ₂ O ₃ : Eu ²⁺ , Mn ²⁺ , BaAl ₁₂ O ₁₉ : Mn, La ₂ O ₃ / 11Al ₂ O ₃ : Eu ²⁺ , Mn ²⁺ , B a ₅ SiO ₄ Cl ₆ : Eu ²⁺ , which develops blue color, BaMgAl ₁₄ O ₂₃ : Eu ²⁺ , InTaO ₄ : Eu ²⁺ , _{^{InNbO 4: Eu 2+, CaWO 4}} : Pb, YBO coloring in red _{^{3: Eu 3+, GdBO 3:}} Eu 3+, YVO 4: the like Eu is exemplified, this polyester resin-based publicly known A Lumilite color formulation prepared by adding a coupling agent to the Lumilite color ink of is used.

This lumilite color composition has a strong adhesiveness particularly to the key top part made of a high hardness silicone resin, and when it is irradiated with UV-A rays in a dark place, only the marking parts such as letters and symbols emit light. Therefore, not only the characters can be easily discriminated, but also the light emission irradiates the key top portion, so that the push button switch cover member has an advantage in that it is visually obscured.

As the coupling agent used here, a coupling agent AP-5 [trade name of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.] is exemplified, and the amount of this coupling agent is this compound. Is 5% or more to adhere to the keyboard made of high hardness silicone resin, and 50% or less to prevent the emission of the marking part from being weakened by UV-A ray irradiation. It is said that The curing conditions of this lumilite composition may be room temperature as long as this lumilite color composition is a two-component reaction type, but when it is a heat curing type, for example, at 130 ° C for 3 to 3 ° C. Heat for 10 minutes.

The cover member for a push button switch of the present invention is the one shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a cover member 1 for a push button switch according to an example of the present invention. The cover member 1 is preferably made of a high hardness silicone resin, and a key top portion 2 is preferably used. The thin movable part 3 made of silicone rubber, the base part 4, and the conductive movable contact part 5 are integrally molded. The top surface of the key top part is made of a lumilite color compound, such as letters and symbols. Although not shown, or the key top part made of high-hardness silicone resin is first printed with a phosphorescent ink, and letters, symbols, etc. are printed on the key top part with the Lumilight color compound. Although the marking portion 6 is provided, when the UV-A light source 7 above the marking portion 6 irradiates the UV-A ray, the marking portion 6 such as the characters and symbols emits light.

As shown in FIG. 2, which is the same vertical sectional view as in FIG. 1, the push button switch cover member 11 is preferably formed on the top surface of the key top 2 which is preferably made of a high hardness silicone resin. First, print the letters and symbols 12 with a high-hardness silicone resin ink that is a high-hardness silicone resin or a similar component mixed with a coloring agent, a cross-linking agent, a diluent, etc., and then mix the Lumilite color on it. It is also possible to overprint the marking part 6 such as characters and symbols, and according to this, when the Lumilite color compound is usually colorless or white under visible light, it is the color of the high hardness silicone resin ink. Gives the advantage of having a visually superior effect.

However, as shown in FIG. 3, which is the same vertical sectional view as FIG. 1, the push button switch cover member 21 is similar to the conventionally known illuminated push button switch cover member. Assuming that a light-shielding coating film 22 is provided on the surface of the above, and the top surface of the key top 2 made of this high-hardness silicone resin is provided with the marking portion 6 such as letters and symbols as a letter without the lumilite color compound. Good. It should be noted that the marking portion 6 for characters, symbols, etc. provided by this Lumilite color compound is a key portion 2 which is usually made of a white high hardness silicone resin, and the marking unit 6 for characters, symbols, etc. is made of the white Lumilite color compound. Since it is provided, characters cannot be recognized under visible light as shown in FIG. 4 (a), but when it is irradiated with UV-A rays in the dark, it is shown in FIG. 4 (b). Since it is possible to recognize characters and symbols like this, it can be used as a push button switch for a PIN code input device of the entrance only at night, and in the daytime it is unobtrusive to match the aesthetics of the building. This is also applicable to push-button switches having a plurality of push-button parts, in which only the push-button parts, which are considered to be particularly important, can be provided with marking parts such as letters and symbols in the Lumilight color compound. Also caught given advantage that this may be differentiated from other push button part.

[0017]

【Example】

 Next, examples of the present invention will be given. Example A dimethyldiphenyl silicone resin, one of high hardness silicone resins, X321195 [trade name of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.] 100 parts by weight of a cross-linking agent, CX-1195 [trade name of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.] 10 Parts by weight, curing catalyst X-93-555 [trade name of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.] 0.4 parts by weight was used as a base material, and a light blue color of the colorant STVX683 [Dainichi Seika Kogyo ( Digging for forming the key top part of the mold heated to 150 ° C using an air dispenser AD3000 [trade name of Iwashita Engineering Co., Ltd.] The filling portion was dropped and filled.

Then, 30 seconds after the dropped liquid material was semi-cured and lost its fluidity, 100 parts by weight of silicone rubber compound KE-9510U (trade name of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) and a crosslinking agent Perhexa25B were added. [Product name of Nippon Oil & Fats Co., Ltd.] 1 part by weight of the compound is filled in the dug part of the mold that forms the thin-walled movable part and the base part, and the molding pressure is 100 kg / cm ² , molding When heat compression molding was performed under molding conditions for 10 minutes, a molded product of a cover member for a push button switch having a slightly light blue hard key top portion was obtained.

Next, 10% of a coupling agent AP-5 [trade name of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.] was added to the red color of the polyester resin-based Lumilite color ink [trade name of Shin-Leuhi Co., Ltd.]. The resulting Lumilite color compound was screen-printed on the top surface of the molded keytop of the cover member for pushbutton switches obtained above, and dried at a drying temperature of 130 ° C for 10 minutes, resulting in a high hardness silicone resin. We obtained a cover member for a push-button switch in which the markings such as letters and symbols were printed on the top surface of the key top with the lumilight color compound. A mercury lamp type black lamp [made by Shin Roihi] 250 w was installed at a remote position, and when UV-A rays were irradiated from now on in the dark, the cover for the push button switch was detected. Indicia portion emits light, it will be improved upon readability. In addition, the appearance of the key top part, which is made of a high-hardness silicone resin with high clearness, was excellent due to the slight light emission from the side surface. Since it was made of, there was no stickiness to the finger even with the pressing operation, and the operability was excellent.

[0020]

[Effect of device]

 The present invention relates to a cover member for a push button switch, which comprises a composition containing a fluorescent rare earth compound that emits only ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region as described above, and is provided with a marking portion. In particular, this has a key top part made of a high hardness silicone resin with a Shore D hardness of 40 ° or more. The top surface of the key top part of the cover member for pushbutton switches or the entire key top part is 340 to 400 nm It is characterized in that it comprises a fluorescent rare earth compound which is colored only by ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in a region and is mixed with a coupling agent in an amount of 5 to 50% and is provided with a marking portion such as characters and symbols. However, since the marking parts such as letters and symbols emit light under the UV-A light line, this product has good visibility even in the dark, and this is similar to the conventional cover member for illuminated push-button switches. There is an advantage that the input device can be made thinner because there is no need to provide a visible light source inside the storage unit, which is also hard if the key top is made of high-hardness silicone resin. The touch feeling is excellent and the pressing operation is favorable.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

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

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of a cover member for an illuminated push button switch according to the present invention.

FIG. 4A is a top view of the characters and symbols of the push button switch cover member of the present invention under visible light, and FIG. 4B is a top view of this product under UV-A rays. is there.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view of an example of a conventionally known cover member for a push button switch.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of a conventionally known cover member for an illuminated push button switch.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a cover member for a push button switch, in which characters and symbols are formed with a conventionally known phosphorescent ink.

FIG. 8 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a cover member for a push button switch, in which characters and symbols are formed with a conventionally known fluorescent ink.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 , 11 , 21 , 21 , 31 , 41 , 51 , 61 ... Cover member for push button switch, 2, 32, 42 ... Key top part, 3, 33, 43 ... Thin movable part, 4, 34, 44 … Base part, 5, 35, 45… Conductive movable contact part, 6… Characters and symbols provided with Lumilite color compound, 7… UV-A light source, 12, 36… Provided with high hardness silicone resin ink Characters, symbol display part, 22, 46 ... Light-shielding coating film, 47 ... Blank character, symbol marking part, 52 ... Characters provided with phosphorescent ink, symbol marking part, 62 ... Characters provided with fluorescent ink, Reference sign, 63 ... Visible light source.

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A cover member for a push button switch, characterized in that a marking portion is provided with a mixture containing a fluorescent rare earth compound which emits only ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region. 2. The top surface of the key top portion or the entire key top portion of a cover member for a push button switch having a key top portion made of a high hardness silicone resin having a Shore D hardness of 40 ° or more.
A push button characterized by being provided with a marking portion such as letters and symbols made of a mixture of 5 to 50% of a coupling agent to a fluorescent rare earth compound which is colored only by ultraviolet rays (UV-A rays) in the 340 to 400 nm region. Switch cover member.