JPS6019475B2 - lcd clock - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention improves functionality and decoration by using a reflector that improves the light path for illumination, and by coloring the lamp itself or coating the outer periphery of the lamp with a colored substance. This relates to a liquid crystal watch that aims to achieve the following.

An object of the present invention is to improve the lighting effect at night and twilight, that is, the brightness and uniformity, while maintaining the normal appearance by improving the structure of the reflector. The objective is to obtain a liquid crystal clock with a high decorative effect whose appearance is changed between normal times and when a lamp is lit by coloring.

Still another object is to provide brighter illumination by providing a light source with a color close to the color of the liquid crystal display device, thereby making it possible to accurately read the time on a clock. Conventionally, most of the reflectors used in LCD watches have aluminum foil attached directly to the lower polarizing plate.

However, in recent years, the number of products equipped with lamps has rapidly increased so that the time can be read even at night or at dusk.
Reflectors using this lamp illumination method use glass or plastic transparent materials as light guides to transmit lamp light, and one or both sides of the light guides are polished to a satin finish by honing, etc., or are coated with aluminum evaporation. In all of these, the brightness and uniformity of the lamp illumination was insufficient, making it difficult to read the time accurately.

On the other hand, when the lamp was lit, it had only the yellow-red color of an incandescent lamp, and was extremely tasteless in a time when there was a growing trend to respect decorative value. In particular, in recent years, lighting systems that use radiation such as tritium and have beautiful green tones have come out, and there is a strong desire for lighting decorations that are comparable to or better than these. The present invention has solved these drawbacks and succeeded in providing a liquid crystal watch that satisfies both the lighting effect and the decorative effect when the lamp is lit. To explain the features of the present invention with reference to the drawings, firstly, the illumination effect can be improved by using a reflecting plate composed of a semi-transparent diffused reflection layer 1, a light guiding layer 2 and a reflecting layer 3, as shown in FIG. The emitted light passes through 2 and is partially transmitted to the surface of 1.

Other light is completely reflected by grooves 4 provided on the back surfaces of 3 and 2 and transmitted to the surface of 1. Next, we will talk about the individual details of the reflector. First, we will talk about the semi-transparent diffuse reflection layer 1. It can be made of foam molded products such as polyurethane, polystyrene, polyethylene, synthetic paper, Japanese paper, cloth, mountains, Ag, etc. with high reflectance. If it has a semi-transparent diffused reflection function that reflects external light and transmits and diffuses internal light (via the light guide), such as a plastic sheet with a high-density metal vapor-deposited at tens to hundreds of amperes, its material and configuration can be used. It doesn't matter, but foam molded products are effective.

Regarding the light guide layer 2, grooves are provided on the entire surface or a part of the light guide layer to improve the light transmission effect from the side surfaces of the light guide layer. It is effective to provide grooves that are parallel to the light and cross appropriately. In particular, by making the density of the grooves denser as they move away from the light source and looser as they are closer to the light source, that is, by making the grooves have shading, it is possible to bring about even more uniform illumination. The material may be either inorganic or organic, but from the viewpoint of cost and processability, organic, especially acrylic,
Materials such as polyester are effective. As for the reflective layer 3, vapor deposition or foil of a metal with high reflectance such as AI or Ag may be used, or various plastics or synthetic papers may be used, and the material and composition are not particularly limited, but economically. Synthetic paper is effective.

Next, we will discuss another feature of the present invention, which is the method of coloring the lamp itself or coating the outer periphery of the lamp with colored transparent or semi-transparent material. Alternatively, a metal oxide film may be formed on the surface.

Regarding the coloring of the outer periphery of the lamp, a cap 6 made of colored transparent plastic may be attached as shown in Figure 2, or a filter of each color may be placed between the light guide and the lamp for decoration. It is possible to achieve this goal. As a result, the appearance under normal conditions shows the color of the semi-transparent diffusely reflective layer, but when the lamp is turned on at night or at dusk, it takes on the color of the lamp itself or the color coating applied to the outer periphery of the lamp, making it a highly decorative product. became. Particularly effective were methods using ant lights, phosphorescent paints, and the like. The details of the present invention will be explained below with reference to Examples.

Example 1 0.4 skin t previously dyed green with oil-soluble dye
A groove with a surface roughness of 8 to 10 mm is provided on the back side of the acrylic light guide parallel to and intersecting the lamp light. ．．
The polypropylene synthetic paper reflective sheets on the 06 side t are bonded together using an acrylic adhesive to form a finished product as a reflective plate. Next, an acrylic cap dyed green with an oil-soluble dye is attached to the outer periphery of the 0.8 skin 0 microlamp. When we installed this in an LCD watch and confirmed its effectiveness, we found that while the normal appearance was white and maintained the contrast with the displayed text, the appearance when the lamp was turned on at night or at twilight was a beautiful green color comparable to tritium. It was possible to obtain lamp lighting decorative effects that could not be obtained with conventional lamps. In particular, the effect was even greater because both the outer periphery of the lamp and the light guide were colored. Furthermore, the brightness that is reduced due to colorization is not a practical problem at all because of the use of the reflective plate with excellent light transmission effect according to the present invention. The liquid crystal display device normally used in watches is a field effect type twisted nematic liquid crystal, uses a polarizing plate, and the color of the display device is close to green.

In addition, by attaching the green-dyed acrylic cap of this example to the lamp, the lighting effect was enhanced, and the characters on the liquid crystal display were displayed in a embossed manner, making it possible to accurately read the time on the clock. In the above examples, only green color was described, but by changing the dye using the same method,
It is also possible to obtain illumination with a wide variety of colors.

A similar effect was also confirmed using a method of coloring the lamp itself.

As explained above, in the present invention, a semitransparent diffuse reflection layer, a light guide layer, and a reflective layer are arranged below a liquid crystal display device, a lamp is arranged on the side surface of the layer, and a lamp is arranged on the back surface of the light guide layer. Grooves parallel and intersecting the lamp light are provided, and the grooves are made coarser and denser as they get farther from the lamp, and part or all of the outer periphery of the lamp is colored or colored transparent or colored translucent material. Since the coating is coated with 30% opaque, uniform illumination can be achieved over the entire surface of the display area, improving brightness and providing a decorative effect with color.By making the color of the display device and the color of the light the same color, the displayed characters can be easily illuminated. It has remarkable effects, such as being able to read the time on a clock, which is the most important part of a clock, without fail, even at night or in a dark place.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a light transmission path of a reflector according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an example of a cross-sectional view showing a light exposure path of a reflector plate having a colored cap on the outer periphery of a lamp according to the present invention.
Oh Tuto 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A watch equipped with a liquid crystal display device sandwiched between glass substrates, in which a semitransparent diffuse reflection layer, a light guide layer, and a reflective layer are arranged below the liquid crystal display device, and a lamp is further arranged on the side of the layer. , grooves are provided on the back surface of the light guide layer, and the grooves are mainly parallel to the light irradiated from the lamp, and there are also grooves that intersect, and the density of the grooves is varied from near to the lamp to far away. A liquid crystal watch characterized in that the lamp has a coarse to dense structure, and a part or all of the outer periphery of the lamp is colored or coated with a colored transparent or colored translucent material.