JPH0982174A - Switch button device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lightweight, small switch button device suitable for use with electronic equipment such as telephones, particularly portable ones, that is of the translucent letter type illuminated from the back and so does not require the use of bridged embossed letters in forming letters. SOLUTION: A thin plate member 22 is formed by a thin metallic or resin plate, and a plurality of flanges 22a aligned with the contours of buttons are arranged in accordance with the arrangement of switches (not shown) and supported by narrow support beams 22c, with the support beams 22c constituting a flat integrated structure in which they lead to slightly wide support parts 22C. Button parts 21 made from a transparent resin are insert molded in such a way as to cover the flanges 22a. Equipment operating procedures are printed on the front or reverse side of the button parts 21 as blank letters by solid printing, so embossed letters need not be provided with bridges as in the case of formation of letters in a thin plate by etching, thus offering sophisticated design.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a switch button device, and more particularly to a light and extremely thin switch button device suitable for portable telephones and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the liberalization of mobile phones, which are typical of mobile communication terminals, various phones have been sold and used in the market. However, it has been several years since a mobile phone was developed and put into practical use. During this period, various new technologies have been developed and adopted. There are still some technologies that are not yet established for the components of the.

The main items of technology required for mobile phones are small size, light weight, communication quality, battery life, dustproof, dripproof,
Although operability, low price, etc. are mentioned, in the future, there will be more and more diverse requirements, and at the same time, there will be a full-scale movement to make improvements and adopt new technologies to meet various requirements. Is coming.

Among these demands, the push button for a mobile phone is also required to be small, lightweight and easy to operate, and those conventionally adopted are shown in FIGS. 8 to 11.

The one shown in FIG. 8 is of a rubber top type and is constituted by connecting a plurality of buttons.
For simplification of description, one of the drawings is taken as a sectional view. The whole is made of transparent or semi-transparent silicon rubber, 1 is a button portion pressed by a fingertip, and is connected to a base portion 2 that is in close contact with a printed circuit board 4 via a thin return portion 3 It is an integrated structure. Reference numeral 1b is a contact on the back surface of the button portion 1, and 4a is a contact on the surface of the printed circuit board 4. When pressed, they contact each other to close the circuit.

The pressing surface on the upper surface of the button portion 1 is printed with a display 1a of numbers, characters, pictures, letters and the like. By using a non-transparent printing ink, if the light source is arranged on the back surface of the rubber top, the whole is illuminated and letters and the like are shaded, so that it can be operated even in a dark place such as at night.

The one shown in FIG. 9 is also of a rubber top type, and in the same construction as that shown in FIG. 8, a transparent or semitransparent silicon rubber is molded and processed, and a button portion 1, a base portion 2 and a returning portion are formed. 3 is formed, and thereafter, characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters and the like 5a are printed on the upper surface of the button portion 1 with a light-transmitting paint of a predetermined color, and further, the printing surface and side surface of the button portion 1, the base portion 2, and the return. The entire surface of the portion 3 is coated with an opaque and laser-processable color tone, and the backlight protective coating layer 5 is formed.
Finally, by burning the back light protective paint layer 5 of the characters, patterns, alphanumerics, etc. with a laser beam to form the laser cut groove 5b, the light source is arranged on the back of the rubber top in the part of the characters burned. Then, it is illuminated and displayed in a raised manner, and can be operated even in a dark place such as at night.

Further, 1b is a contact point on the back surface of the button portion 1, 4
Reference numeral a is a contact on the surface of the printed circuit board, and when pressed, both are in contact with each other to close the circuit, which is similar to the example of FIG.

10 and 11 show a plastic button system, in which the button portion 8 is made of transparent plastic, and characters or the like are printed on the back surface thereof with the light transmitting paint 8a, and then the light transmitting suppressing paint 8b is applied. After coating,
The surface is bonded to the flat part of the silicon rubber cover 6 made of silicon rubber, which is lowered by one step, by the bonding surface 9. Reference numeral 4 is a printed circuit board, 4a is a contact point thereof, and 7 is a metal contact having a spring action, which electrically connects the contact points 4a when pressed. The silicone rubber cover portion 6 serves both as dustproof and dripproof with the recent miniaturization of mobile phones, and also as light guide during illumination.

The plurality of button portions 8 are formed in a continuous shape as shown in FIG. This is because the buttons are connected to each other by a branch portion 10 having a certain degree of strength in order to prevent deformation or misalignment during printing after molding, and the branch portions 10 are used to form molding materials for a plurality of button portions 8. It is filled with resin.
Characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters, etc. are printed on the respective back surfaces of the button portion 8 thus formed with the light-transmitting paint 8a of each color tone as described above, and finally, the entire back surface of the button is subjected to the previous step. The printing process is completed by printing the light transmission suppressing paint 8b of the transparent ink for suppressing the printing, and further printing the adhesive surface 9 for adhering to the surface of the silicon cover portion 6.

After that, the pieces are set in a separate cutting die, the branch portions 10 connecting the button portions 8 are cut off, and the plurality of button portions 8 are freed one by one. Adhere by conveying to a predetermined position and pressing,
The whole process is over.

[0012]

Among the above-mentioned three types of conventional switch button devices, the one shown in FIG. 8 uses silicon rubber as the material of the button, and therefore, the rubber elasticity peculiar to the silicon rubber makes it possible to carry it. Since the feel that is suitable for a small stroke of the telephone cannot be obtained, and because the printing of characters etc. is directly applied to the pressing surface, the printing will disappear if the operation is frequent or if it is operated with the tip of a nail etc. There was a drawback.

Next, the one shown in FIG. 9 is used extensively and is in the mainstream at present, but it has a drawback that it requires a large number of steps, takes a long time, and is expensive.

Further, regarding the ones shown in FIGS.
Since there are many printing processes, it takes time until the ink dries in each printing process, and the more colors are used for printing, the more processing time it takes, and the yield including problems such as defects during drying occurs. Is a problem. Further, as described above, after the printing process is completed, it is set in a cutting die of another process, and the branch part 10 connecting the button parts 8 is cut off to make the plurality of button parts 8 free one by one. Since the printing is performed on the back side in the process, it is turned upside down. Therefore, the process is complicated in that it cannot be conveyed to the bonding process unless either branch is cut and the branch 10 is reversed, or the cut one is reversed. Have the drawback to Further, there is also a problem that the transported button is displaced on the silicon cover 6 during transportation, or an external force is applied before the adhesive is hardened to shift the position or peel off.

Therefore, the applicant of the present invention has previously proposed and applied for a switch button device for a telephone which solves these various drawbacks, has a light, thin, short, and small size, has improved operability, and is also effective in reducing the price. did. 13 and 14 show a front view and a side view of a part of the embodiment.

In both figures, 11 is a button portion,
2 is a thin plate member. The thin plate member 12 includes a plurality of display surface portions 12 that are provided in an arrangement corresponding to a plurality of switches.
a and a support beam 12 for supporting the plurality of display surface portions 12a
c and a support portion 12b supporting the support beam 12c, which is a thin plate made of metal or the like and formed integrally as one surface, while the button portion 11 is made of a transparent or translucent resin,
Each of the plurality of display surface portions 12a of the thin plate member 12 is formed by insert molding so as to cover its front and back sides,
Characters 13a, patterns 13c, alphanumeric characters 13b, etc. are formed on the display surface portion 12a of the thin plate member 12 by etching so as to penetrate in a "blank" state.
The light emerges from the back surface, is visible through the button portion 11 formed of a transparent or translucent resin, and has a special effect.

As described above, according to the previously filed invention,
The thin plate member, which is made of ultra-thin plate material and has a display surface that displays characters, etc., and the button part that inserts this, can make the entire switch button very light and thin, making the device thin and compact. Let When a thin metal plate is used for the thin plate member, the outer shape can be removed by etching at the same time as the characters on the display surface and the like. Regardless of whether the thin plate member is made of metal or opaque resin, light can be transmitted only to a portion such as a character, so that the thin plate member can be used as a back-illuminated switch.

However, when an opaque metal or resin is used for the thin plate member, and the characters and the like are removed and penetrated as described above to allow light to pass therethrough, it is used as an illumination type switch from the back surface. As shown in the front view of an example of the thin plate member 12 in FIG.
There was a bridge problem in d. I.e. numbers There is a character that will be dropped unless the island part is connected to the surrounding area with a bridge like this, and this bridge part is not a desirable design from the viewpoint of product quality and aesthetics, and improvement is desired It was something that was. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks, is light, thin and short, has improved operability, is effective in reducing the price, and is excellent in design because it does not use a bridge for island characters such as characters. And a switch button device for a telephone.

[0019]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, the above-mentioned problem is solved by a plurality of contoured flange-shaped portions provided in an arrangement corresponding to each of a plurality of switches, and a support for supporting the flange-shaped portions. A thin plate member integrally formed with a beam and a support portion supporting the support beam; and a transparent or translucent resin,
A plurality of independent button portions that respectively press the plurality of switches, the button portion protruding toward the peripheral edge by using the collar-shaped portion of the thin plate member as a collar, the front surface serving as an operation pressing portion, and the back surface serving as a switch. This is solved by insert-molding as the pressing portion and forming characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters, etc. for displaying each operation function on the front surface or the back surface.

Further, the above-mentioned problem is that in the preceding paragraph, the characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters, etc. for displaying the operation function of the button section are
It is solved by printing.

Furthermore, in the preceding two paragraphs, the above-mentioned problem is that the characters, patterns, alphanumeric characters, etc. for displaying the operation function of the button section are solid printed with the button surface opaque, and the characters, patterns, alphanumeric characters, etc. are described above. The problem is solved by being formed in a "blank" state in the solid printing surface and being formed to be transparent to the illumination from the back surface side.

[0022]

[Function] The thin plate member formed of an ultra-thin plate material and the button portion having the print indication on the front surface or the back surface by inserting the thin plate member can make the entire switch button extremely light and thin, and the device can be made thin. Make it smaller. Since the insert part of the thin plate member is only the outline brim-shaped part, it does not block the transmission of light, and the button part is printed on the opaque solid print with white characters etc. Since it can be transmitted through and it is printed on the button side, there is no need to make island letters with bridges, so the bridge portion of the island letters does not obstruct and the illuminated type from the back side, which is excellent in design It can be used as a switch button device.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. Reference numeral 21 denotes a button portion, which is formed by using a polycarbonate transparent material and arranging a plurality of thin plate members at predetermined positions by a molding process in which a thin plate member described later is inserted. Reference numeral 22 denotes the thin plate member, which is formed by using a SUS material having a thickness of about 0.1 mm in this embodiment.

A plan view of the thin plate member 22 is shown in FIG. The thin plate member 22 is arranged on a printed circuit board (not shown),
The flange-shaped portions 22a having an oval-shaped contour are respectively arranged at positions corresponding to the positions of a plurality of switches (not shown), and the two opposite sides of the edge portions of the plurality of flanged portions 22a are connected to the support beam 2 having a narrow width.
2c respectively, and the support beam 22c is the support beam 2c.
It is formed in a shape connected to the supporting portion 22b having a width wider than 2c. In this embodiment, a total of 15 switches, three switches horizontally and five switches vertically, are arranged, so that the switches are arranged correspondingly. The shapes of the support beam 22c and the support portion 22b are formed in accordance with the design content of the place to be used, and the support beam may be provided only on one side of the collar-shaped portion 22a depending on the case.

The thin plate member 22 is inserted to mold the button portion 21. That is, the front surface is formed to be slightly larger than the inner circumference of the collar-shaped portion 22a and slightly smaller than the outer circumference thereof, that is, so that the outer periphery of the button portion 21 fits within the width dimension of the collar-shaped portion 22a. On the other hand, as seen in FIG. 3 which is the AA cross section of FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 which is the BB cross section of FIG. 1, the side surface side is thick on the upper surface, and the surface 21a thereof is the pressing operation surface,
Further, the lower surface is thin, and the surface is used as a switch pressing surface 21b, and the button portion 21 is formed by molding around each collar-shaped portion 22a so as to cover the collar-shaped portion 22a. At this time, a slight surface of the collar-shaped portion 22a near the outermost periphery is pressed by the closing mold.

Characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters, etc. are printed on the pressing operation surface 21a which is the surface of the button portion 21 after the molding process is completed. FIG. 6 shows an example in which printing is performed on the upper surface, and 2
Reference numeral 3a denotes a solid printing portion, which uses opaque ink to form a printing surface by means such as silk printing, and the characters 23 and the like are formed as so-called blank without ink. FIG. 1 shows a front view and FIG. 2 shows a side view of the state where the molding process and the printing process have been completed.

Although not shown in the drawing, the usage state attached to the equipment is
Even if each button portion 21 is pressed, the collar-shaped portion 22a in the button portion 21 is supported by the support beam 22c.
Has a very narrow width and has an extremely thin plate thickness, so that it does not affect other buttons or switches at all.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the characters, patterns, alphanumeric characters, etc. are printed and processed by means of silk printing or the like on the upper surface of the button portion 21, and are displayed. This is an explanatory side view of FIG. Even if characters, patterns, alphanumeric characters, etc. are printed on the back side 21b of the button part 21 as shown in, the button part 21 can be seen through and visible, so when considering the wear of the characters due to the pressure on the surface, It can be said to be an effective method.

When the upper surface of the button portion 21 is printed and processed by means such as silk printing to be displayed, a transparent film made of a wear resistant material is printed and coated after the printing process is completed. Is also considered to be effective against pressure wear.

In the above embodiments, the thin plate member 22 is a thin metal plate, and the brim portion 22a is formed to have a very narrow width so as not to block light. However, other thin plates such as plastics can be used. it can. In this case, a transparent material can also be used, so that an illuminated type can be obtained.

Further, although the above embodiments have been described mainly for a telephone, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to electronic equipment other than a telephone.

In the above description, the molding process is described by the term "insert", but it is a general term considering that the projected area of the thin plate member is larger than that of the button portion. It can be said that it is more appropriate to rephrase it as "outsert" which has been lost. In any case, it is a technique that can be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the switch button device, the button portion is insert-molded with the transparent or translucent resin on the collar portion of the extremely thin plate member having the contoured collar portion. Therefore, it is possible to realize an ultra-thin and compact switch button device that is effective when used in an electronic device that requires a plurality of switches such as a telephone.

Further, since a plurality of button portions can be integrally formed, improvement can be expected in terms of assembly and quality.

Further, since the function is displayed by blank printing on the upper surface or the back surface of the button portion, even if there are so-called island characters such as 0, 8, and pad in letters, numbers, etc., the bridge is prevented from falling off. There is no need to provide a part, and the design is not damaged. Further, since the printing is performed, multicoloring is possible, and since the printing can be performed by a general printing method, the cost is low.

Further, by using a thin metal plate as the thin plate member and grounding this, it is possible to prevent static electricity entering from the button portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 1 of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a B-B portion in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a back view of the thin plate member according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a side view for explaining the printing of the button part according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a side view for explaining the printing of the button part according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory sectional view of a conventional switch button device.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory sectional view of a conventional switch button device.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory sectional view of a conventional switch button device.

FIG. 11 is a front view of a conventional switch button device.

FIG. 12 is a front view of a thin plate member of a conventional switch button device.

FIG. 13 is a front view of a conventional switch button device.

FIG. 14 is a side view of a conventional switch button device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21 Button Part 21a Pressing Operation Surface 22b Switch Pressing Surface 22 Thin Plate Member 22a Collar-shaped Part 22b (of Thin Plate Member) Supporting Part 22c Support Beam

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of contoured flange-shaped portions provided in an arrangement corresponding to each of a plurality of switches, a support beam supporting the flange-shaped portions, and a support portion supporting the support beams are integrally formed. The thin plate member is formed, and a plurality of independent button portions that are formed of transparent or semitransparent resin and press the plurality of switches, respectively, are provided, and the button portion includes the collar-shaped portion of the thin plate member. As the operation pressing portion on the front surface and the switch pressing portion on the front surface, and insert molding is performed, and characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters indicating each operation function are formed on the front surface or the back surface. Switch button device. 2. The switch button device according to claim 1, wherein the characters, pictures, alphanumeric characters and the like for displaying the operation function of the button portion are formed by printing. 3. A character, a pattern, an alphanumeric character, etc., which displays the operation function of the button section, is formed by opaque solid printing on the button surface, and the character, the design, the alphanumeric character, etc. are in a “without” state on the solid printing surface. The switch button device according to claim 1, wherein the switch button device is formed on the rear surface of the switch button so as to be transparent to the illumination from the back surface side.