JPH08122457A - Analog clock - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain an extensible-contractible hand which gives a visual impression to a viewer by an extensible-contractible hand part having a permanent magnet attached to the fore end part and being made to extend and contract at a prescribed time and of which the weight is not increased. CONSTITUTION: A movement 4 is fixed to the back of a dial plate 3 disposed inside a frame body 1 and extensible-contractible hand 10 each of which is made up of a hand body 10a and a movable hand part 10b are fixed respectively to shafts 4a and 4b of hour and minute hands projecting from the movement 4. Besides, an electromagnet device 2 is disposed inside the frame body 1 and above an index (e.g. a character 12) of the dial plate 3. When the hour comes, the hand part 10 on the minute hand side points to the character 12. At the time when the device 2 is turned ON by an hour signal from the movement 4 in this state, the device 2 and a permanent magnet 10bc fitted to the fore end of the hand part 10b positioned below repel each other and the hand part 10b lowers down. When the device 2 is turned OFF immediately after that, the hand part rises up due to the action of an actuating spring. By the ON-OFF control of the device 2 in this way, the hand parts 10 positioned nearby are made to extend and contract in the direction of extension-contraction. Since the device 2 is disposed in the frame body 1, besides, the weight of the hand parts is not increased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an analog timepiece that displays the time by means of the hands and expands and contracts the hands at the hour.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, in table clocks and wall clocks, it is known that the pointer has an expanding and contracting function. A cam is formed on the expandable and contractible pointer and the dial, and the pointer is expanded and contracted by sliding the cam and the pointer. What is done (for example, JP-A-2-389
No. 89), and one in which a permanent magnet and an electromagnet device are attached to an extendable and retractable pointer to energize and retract the pointer (for example, JP-A-2-112790).

Further, today, as an analog timepiece, a single drive motor is usually used, and the rotation of this motor is sequentially decelerated by a gear train to further rotate the minute hand wheel and minute hand wheel that rotate once in 60 minutes. The hour hand wheel that rotates once in 12 hours is formed by decelerating by the wheel of the sun wheel, etc., the minute hand wheel and the minute hand are rotated, and the hour hand movement that rotates the hour hand axis and hour hand by the hour hand wheel is used. However, the applicant of the present invention uses two pulse motors capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions, and by using one pulse motor for driving the minute hand, the minute hand shaft and the minute hand are 360 degrees in 60 minutes. After rotating or driving in one direction at a constant speed at a predetermined angle of less than 360 degrees for 60 minutes, the rotation angle is reversed to the original rotation angle position every 60 minutes by the predetermined angle. ,other Each pulse motor is used for the hour hand, and the hour hand shaft and the hour hand are rotated 360 degrees in 12 hours, or driven in one direction at a constant speed for less than 360 degrees in 12 hours, and then the predetermined intervals are set every 12 hours. It is assumed that the angle of is reversed in a short time to return to the original rotation angle position,
By controlling the two pulse motors by using a microcomputer, not only the minute hand shaft and the hour hand shaft are continuously rotated by a program, but, for example, 1
Uses a movement that allows the minute hand and hour hand to move within a fixed angle, such as the range of 80 degrees, and uses a dial with various shapes such as a fan for the time display range by the minute hand and hour hand I have proposed an analog clock that I had. (For example, JP-A-5-93784)

[0004]

In a timepiece in which a cam is formed on a dial and an extendable and retractable pointer is slid by the cam to change the length of the pointer, the pointer gradually takes a long time and is slowly moved. It changes its length and cannot give a strong visual impression.

Further, a timepiece in which a permanent magnet and an electromagnet device are attached to an extendable and retractable pointer to energize and deactivate the pointer, the weight of the pointer becomes heavy.

In view of such a situation, the present invention provides an extendable and retractable pointer that gives a strong visual impression to the viewer and does not make the pointer heavier.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a frame body, a dial located inside the frame, a movement located behind the dial, and a protrusion protruding from the movement and protruding to the front of the dial. A pointer shaft, a needle portion main body that is fixed to the pointer shaft, a movable needle portion that is attached to the needle portion main body so as to be extendable and retractable, and a permanent magnet is added, and a frame body that is positioned in the extension and contraction direction of the movable needle portion. And an electromagnet device disposed in the analog timepiece. Furthermore, in the analog timepiece according to claim 1, the movement has a pointer shaft motor that can rotate forward and backward for moving the pointer shaft to the left and right.

[0008]

By controlling the ON / OFF of the electromagnet device arranged in the frame by a signal from the movement at a predetermined time such as hour, an extendable needle having a permanent magnet arranged at its tip located in the vicinity thereof. The part receives the force of repulsion or suction, and the needle part can expand and contract in the expansion and contraction direction. Furthermore, if a movement having a forward / reverse rotatable pulse motor is used, the hands can be expanded and contracted in the expansion and contraction direction while moving the pointer shaft to the left and right, and thus a variation analog timepiece can be made.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on the illustrated embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 2, a dial 3 is arranged inside the frame 1, and a movement 4 is fixed to the back surface of the dial. A through hole 5 for projecting the hour hand shaft 4a and the minute hand shaft 4b projecting from the movement 4 to the front surface of the dial is provided at substantially the center of the dial plate 3, and the hour hand shaft 4a and the minute hand shaft 4b are provided in the through hole 5. Is the needle body 10
a and 10a are fixed.

The details of the needle portion 10 are composed of a needle portion main body 10a and a movable needle portion 10b as shown in FIG.
A holding portion 10aa for holding the movable needle portion 10b and a mounting portion 10ab for fixing to the hour hand shaft 4a and the minute hand shaft 4b are provided at both tip ends of the.

Locking portions 10ba and 10bb are provided near both ends of one movable needle portion 10b so as to sandwich the holding portion 10aa, and the locking portion 10bb located at the outer peripheral position from the mounting portion 10ab. An urging spring 10bd is arranged between the holding portion 10aa and the holding portion 10aa and serves to urge the movable needle portion 10b in the outer peripheral direction. A permanent magnet is attached to the tip of the movable needle portion 10b.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an electromagnet device 2 is arranged on the frame body 1 so as to be located above an index 15 (particularly 12 characters in the embodiment) of the dial plate 3.

Next, the specific operation of the above configuration will be described.

First, on the hour, as shown in FIG. 1, the needle portion 10, which is the minute hand, always points to the 12th character of the index 15. Therefore, when the electromagnet device 2 is turned on by the hour signal from the movement 4 in this state, the electromagnet device 2 and the permanent magnet 10bc attached to the needle portion located below the electromagnet device 2 repel each other, and the movable needle portion 10b. Is Figure 3
4 to the state shown in FIG. Immediately thereafter, when the electromagnet device 2 is turned off, the urging spring 10bd acts to move upward from the state shown in FIG. 4 to the state shown in FIG.

In this case, since the electromagnet device 2 and the permanent magnet 10bc repel each other, both magnets have the same pole, but it is not always necessary to do so, and they may have mutually different poles.

When the electromagnet device 2 and the permanent magnet have different polarities, when the electromagnet device 2 is energized, an attractive force acts on both, so that the urging spring 10bd is internally moved as shown in FIG. It is arranged between the locking portion 10ba and the holding portion 10aa in the circumferential position.

Therefore, the operation in this case will be described. When the electromagnet device 2 is turned on, the permanent magnet 10b attached to the electromagnet device 2 and the needle portion 10 located therebelow.
When the movable needle portion 10b and the movable needle portion 10b are attracted to each other, the movable needle portion 10b moves upward from the state shown in FIG. 5 to the state shown in FIG. Immediately after that, if the electromagnet device 2 is turned off, the biasing spring 10bd
The action lowers the state of FIG. 6 to the state shown in FIG.

Therefore, by controlling ON / OFF of the electromagnet device 2 in accordance with the back music, an analog timepiece having variations can be obtained.

In a second embodiment of the present invention, a microcomputer (hereinafter simply referred to as a microcomputer) drives a pulse motor for the hour hand and a pulse motor for the minute hand, and the hour hand pulse motor rotates the hour hand shaft 4a at a constant speed. It is supposed to rotate 360 degrees for 12 hours, and the minute hand shaft 4b is rotated at a constant speed by the minute hand pulse motor and 360 minutes for one hour.
It uses a timepiece movement that is supposed to rotate once.

For example, it has a minute hand motor connected to the minute hand shaft 4b through an appropriate reduction gear so as to rotate the minute hand shaft 4a once by one step rotation of the pulse motor. A movement having a hour hand motor connected to the hour hand shaft 4b through a reduction gear so as to rotate the hour hand shaft 4a once by one rotation, wherein a drive pulse of 1/10 hertz is applied to the minute hand motor. Then, the minute hand shaft 4a is rotated once every 10 seconds, and the minute hand motor and the hour hand motor are controlled by the microcomputer with a control program that applies one pulse motor to the hour hand motor every two minutes as a drive pulse. Using a controlled timepiece movement, change a part of the program embedded in this microcomputer and
It is possible to apply a drive pulse such as a remainder of 00 Hz to the minute hand motor to rapidly reciprocate the minute hand shaft 4a within a predetermined range.

Therefore, the movement 4 described in the first embodiment
Is changed to a timepiece movement that controls the minute hand motor and the hour hand motor by the microcomputer, so that the needle portion 10 can be moved left and right around the attachment portion 10ab and at the same time extendable and retractable in the extension and contraction direction of the needle portion 10. You can make a nice analog clock.

In this embodiment, the electromagnet device 2 arranged in the frame 1 is described as being positioned above the 12 characters of the dial 3 as shown in FIG. 1, but the invention is not limited to this. Instead, it may be located in the expansion / contraction direction.

In the present embodiment, the permanent magnet 10bc is provided at the tip of the movable needle portion 10b.
The whole may be a permanent magnet, or the permanent magnet may be arranged in a portion other than the tip portion and close to the tip portion.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of electromagnet devices 2 may be arranged in a frame body positioned in the expansion / contraction direction of the movable needle portion 10b and controlled individually.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the electromagnet device arranged in the frame is energized at a predetermined time, and the permanent magnet is arranged on the expandable needle part. By controlling ON and OFF of the needle, the needle portion located in the vicinity of the needle is expanded and contracted in the expansion and contraction direction.

Further, since the electromagnet device is arranged in the frame, there is no drawback that the needle portion as a pointer becomes heavy as described in the prior art.

Further, in the second embodiment of the present application, as shown in FIG. 7, if a plurality of electromagnet devices 2 are arranged in a frame body positioned in the extension / contraction direction of the movable needle portion 10b and controlled respectively, an analog timepiece having variations can be obtained. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an analog timepiece according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of an analog timepiece according to the invention.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the needle portion according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a rear view showing a state in which the needle portion according to the present invention receives a repulsive force.

FIG. 5 is a rear view of the needle portion according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a rear view showing a state in which the needle portion according to the present invention receives a suction force.

FIG. 7 is a front view of an analog timepiece according to the invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 frame 2 electromagnet device 3 dial 4 movement 10 needle part 10a needle part body 10aa holding part 10ab mounting part 10b movable needle part 10ba locking part (inner peripheral direction) 10bb locking part (outer peripheral direction) 10bc with permanent magnet 10bd Power spring

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A frame, a dial located inside the frame, a movement located on the back of the dial, a pointer shaft protruding from the movement and protruding toward the front of the dial, and the pointer shaft. A fixed needle portion main body, a movable needle portion that is attached to the needle portion main body in a stretchable manner and to which a permanent magnet is added, and an electromagnet device that is located in a frame body that is positioned in the extension and contraction direction of the movable needle portion, Analog clock equipped with. 2. The analog timepiece according to claim 1,
An analog timepiece characterized in that the movement has a pointer shaft motor capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions to move the pointer shaft left and right.