JPH0992070A - Manufacture of push switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate manufacture, and prevent the occurrence of the deformation of a terminal even in a plating process. SOLUTION: A slender plate material 11 is punched to form plural continued contacts 12 and 13 and terminal parts 14 respectively, and insulating resin is insert-formed on the contact 12 and 13 portions of the plate materiel 11 to form a housing 20. The plate material 11 is separated at every individual housing to collect these separated plate separated to apply plating to the individual terminal parts 14. Plating is applied at a time in a state that the terminal parts 14 facing with each other are connected by connecting parts 15, and then to separate the connecting parts 15 from the respective terminal parts 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a push switch mounted on a contact such as a keyboard of electronic equipment or other circuit boards.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, a push switch conventionally used for a contact point of a keyboard is individually mounted on a predetermined circuit board, a mounting plate, or the like from a taped state. Soldered. As shown in FIG. 10, each push switch punches a long strip 1 made of brass or the like to continuously form contacts 2, 3 and a terminal portion 4, and the contacts 2, 3 are located at the positions shown in FIG. As shown in, the housing 6 made of an insulating resin is insert-molded. The plate material 1 is plated with a noble metal such as silver in advance.

The housing 6 has a disk-shaped dome-shaped movable contact which bulges upward. The movable contact urges the upper surface of the housing 6 in the protruding direction and the cover plate 9 The positioned push button 8 is in contact with the movable contact. Further, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the plate member 1 in which the contacts 2, 3 and the like are continuously provided connects the terminal portions 4 adjacent to each other at the tip end position of the terminal portion 4 to the connecting portion 5.

[0004]

In the case of the above-mentioned conventional technique, since the plate material is pressed to form terminals and contacts,
Even if the surface of the plate material 3 is silver-plated, there is a problem that the punched end surface exposes the bare metal and the solderability when mounted on the circuit board is poor. Therefore, it is conceivable to plate the terminal portion 4 and the like in the state shown in FIG. 10 or FIG. 11, but in order to continuously plate the elongated plate material 1, the terminal portion 4 is formed by punching and is extremely The weak plate 1 must be mechanically moved while applying tension, and the terminal portion 4 is often deformed at that time,
It was extremely unproductive. Further, in order to eliminate this deformation, it is possible to provide a dedicated plating line, but it requires a large amount of equipment investment and causes an increase in manufacturing cost, which is not realistic.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional technique, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a push switch which is easy to manufacture and does not cause deformation of terminals even in a plating process.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, an elongated plate member is punched to form a plurality of continuous contacts and terminal portions, and an insulating resin is insert-molded at the contact portions of the plate member to form a housing. Is a method of manufacturing a push switch in which the above-mentioned plate materials are separated for each housing, and these are collected and plated on individual terminal portions and contacts. The above-mentioned terminal part is one in which the above-mentioned plating is applied in a state where the adjacent terminal parts are connected by the connecting part, and then the connecting part is separated from each terminal part.

In the push switch according to the present invention, the terminals and the like formed by punching a plate material are plated at a time after the housing is formed and separated for each push switch so that the terminals are not deformed. It is the one. In particular, by performing plating in a state where the terminal portions are connected by the connecting portions, the deformation of the terminal portions can be reliably prevented.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 show a first embodiment of the present invention. A push switch 10 of this embodiment has an elongated plate member 11 such as brass whose surface is not plated, as shown in FIG. Punch out,
The contacts 12, 13 and the terminal portion 14 are continuously formed.
At this time, the tip portions of the terminal portions 14 adjacent to each other are connected to each other by the connecting portion 15.

Next, in the portion where the contacts 12 and 13 are located,
As shown in FIG. 2, the housing 20 made of insulating resin is used.
Insert-mold. The housing 20 is formed in a box shape and has an opening 22 having a circular upper surface.
Contact points 12 and 13 are exposed inside on the bottom surface on the opposite side of 2. Further, convex portions 24 for fixing a cover plate (not shown) are formed at the four corners of the peripheral edge of the opening 22.

Thereafter, the terminal portion 14 is provided for each housing 20.
Is cut at the portion where the connecting portion 15 is formed, the connecting portion 15 is separated, and each push switch 10 is formed. Then, the push switches 10 in this state are collected, put into a barrel, and the terminal portion 14 and the contacts 12 and 13 are plated with silver. Plating can be performed by both electrolytic plating and electroless plating.

Then, a movable contact (not shown) is housed in the housing 20, a push button (not shown) is attached, a cover plate is attached, and the convex portion 24 is melted to melt the housing 2.
The configuration in 0 is completed. As a result, the movable contact is moved up and down, and the contacts 12 and 13 can be opened and closed. Also, before or after plating, the terminal portion 14 is appropriately bent and formed into a predetermined shape as shown in FIG.

In the push switch 10 of this embodiment, the plating of the terminal portions 14 is performed after separating each push switch, so that a large force is not applied to each terminal portion 14 during the plating. The deformation of the terminal portion 14 is unlikely to occur.

Next, a second embodiment of the push switch according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the same members as those in the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. Also in the push switch 10 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, an elongated plate material 11 such as brass whose surface is not plated is punched out to continuously form the contacts 12, 13 and the terminal portion 14. And the contacts 12, 1
As shown in FIG. 5, a housing 20 made of an insulating resin is insert-molded in the portion where the 3 is located, as in the first embodiment.

Thereafter, the connecting portion 15 is provided for each housing 20.
The respective terminal portions 14 are separated at the central portion of the above, and the individual push switches 10 are formed in a state in which the tip portions of the terminal portions 14 are connected by the remaining connecting portions 15. Then, collect the push switches 10 in this state, put them in the barrel, and insert the terminal 1
4 and the contacts 12 and 13 are plated with silver. Plating is by electrolytic plating or the like. In addition, before or after plating, the terminal portion 1
4 is bent appropriately to be formed into a predetermined shape.

Then, the connecting portion 15 is cut off and removed, and as shown in FIG. 7, individual push switches 10 are made into a single body, housing 20 accommodates movable contacts (not shown), and push buttons (not shown) are provided. The push switch 10 is attached and the assembly of the push switch 10 is completed.

According to this embodiment, since the tip of the terminal portion 14 is plated in the individual state while being connected by the connecting portion 15, the terminal portion 14 is not deformed and the product yield is improved. It will improve.

Next, a third embodiment of the push switch of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. Here, the same members as those in the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. Also in the push switch 10 of this embodiment, an elongated plate material 11 such as brass whose surface is not plated is punched to continuously form the contacts 12, 13 and the terminal portion 14, and as shown in FIG. The housing 20 made of an insulating resin is insert-molded as in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the connecting portion 1 connecting the terminal portions 14
5 is formed near the housing 20.

Thereafter, the connecting portion 15 is provided for each housing 20.
The plate member 11 is cut between the housing 20 and the housing 20, and each of the push switches 10 is separated in a state where the leading ends of the terminal portions 14 are connected to each other by the connecting portion 15. Then, the push switches 10 in this state are collected, put into a barrel, and the terminal portion 14 and the contacts 12, 13 are silver-plated in the same manner as in the above embodiment. Then, after plating, the terminal portions 14 are bent at right angles, the individual push switches 10 are united, the movable contact (not shown) is housed in the housing 20, the push button (not shown) is attached, and the cover plate and the like are attached. Then, the convex portion 24 is melted and taping is performed as shown in FIG. When taping, the connecting portion 15 may be taped as it is, or may be cut off and then taped.

According to this embodiment, since the leading end of the terminal portion 14 to be taped is plated in the individual state while being connected by the connecting portion 15, the terminal portion 14 is not deformed and the product can be processed. The retention is improved.

The terminal portion of the present invention may have a plurality of connecting portions, and the number of terminal portions can be set as appropriate. The connection points may be terminal portions that are adjacent to each other in parallel, or terminal portions that are adjacent to each other so as to sandwich the housing and face each other. Further, the connection portion can be cut off at an appropriate step after the housing is formed, and preferably, the cutting after the plating can reduce the deformation of the terminal. In addition to silver plating, other types of plating such as precious metal plating or solder plating can be arbitrarily selected.

[0021]

In the push switch manufacturing method of the present invention, the plating of the terminal portion is performed after the terminals are individually separated, the deformation of the terminal portion is prevented during the plating process, and the product yield is greatly improved. It comes. Moreover, it has good durability and solderability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of a push switch according to a first embodiment of the present invention in a state where a plate member is punched to form a terminal portion and the like.

FIG. 2 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of a state in which a housing is formed in the manufacturing process of the first embodiment of the push switch of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of the push switch according to the first embodiment of the present invention in a state where the push switch is individually separated.

FIG. 4 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of a state in which a plate member is punched out to form a terminal portion and the like in the manufacturing process of the second embodiment of the push switch of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) showing a state in which a housing is formed in the manufacturing process of the second embodiment of the push switch of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of the push switch according to the second embodiment of the present invention in a state where the push switch is individually separated at a connecting portion.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a push switch as a single body according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of a state in which a housing is formed in the manufacturing process of the third embodiment of the push switch according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) showing a state in which a connecting portion of a push switch and a housing are individually separated in a manufacturing process of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of a state in which a plate member is punched out to form a terminal portion and the like in a conventional push switch manufacturing process.

FIG. 11 is a front view (A) and a right side view (B) of a state in which a housing is formed in a conventional push switch manufacturing process.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a push switch.

FIG. 13 is a partial perspective view showing a state in which a push switch is taped.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 push switch 1,11 plate material 2,3,12,13 contact 4,14 terminal part 5,15 connecting part 6,20 housing

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A long and narrow plate material is punched out to form a plurality of continuous contacts and terminal portions, and an insulating resin is insert-molded into the contact portions of the plate material to form a housing, and the plate material is separated for each individual housing. Then, a method of manufacturing a push switch in which these are collected and plated on individual terminals. 2. The push switch according to claim 1, wherein the terminal portions are plated at a time with the terminal portions adjacent to each other being connected by the connecting portions, and then the connecting portions are separated from the respective terminal portions. Production method.