JPS6023472B2 - Method for manufacturing electrical components having elastomer parts - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a new and improved method of manufacturing an electrical component having an elastomer portion, and more specifically to a sho-sa-nip type elastomer connector, a kami-kugi switch component,
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing electrical components such as circuit boards that are equipped with conductive paths, contacts, or connection terminals made of conductive rubber.

Conventionally, in order to manufacture an electrical component having an elastomer, particularly a conductive elastomer part, as described above, the elastomer part and the base member are made separately, and then they are joined together using a suitable adhesive. Alternatively, a preformed base member is filled with an uncured elastomeric material into a predetermined mold cavity, and the uncured elastomeric material is compression molded within the mold to integrate it into the base member. It was manufactured by. However, in the former method, not only is the manufacturing process complicated, but the smaller and more precise the elastomer parts to be integrated, the more troublesome the joining and integration process becomes, and high precision is required. The disadvantage and drawback of electrical components is that their manufacturing costs are inevitably high. In addition, the latter method does not have the disadvantages and disadvantages of the former method, but in this case, the smaller the elastomer part to be secondarily molded, the more precise the molding die becomes. In addition, especially when the base part and the elastomer part integrated therein are made of materials with good bonding properties, for example, both are made of silicone rubber material, There is a disadvantage in that it is difficult to remove unnecessary parts called "paris" after the molded product is taken out of the mold, and when using various molding agents to effectively remove this unnecessary parts, it is necessary to There is a disadvantage that the release agent tends to cause a significant decrease in the electrical insulation properties of the resulting electrical component, and for this reason, electrical components that can be manufactured by the latter manufacturing method have a disadvantage in that the structure of the elastomer part that is secondarily molded is There was a problem in that it was limited to relatively simple electrical parts. The present invention provides a new and improved method for manufacturing electrical components, which solves the problems in the latter method described above.
In this method, a mold member for molding an elastomer having at least one closed opening or slit is closely arranged on a base member made of an insulating or conductive material, and an uncured conductive, conductive or insulating elastomer is placed on the outside of the mold member. Place the
The elastomer is then placed in a cavity of a predetermined compression mold and compression molded to harden the elastomer and integrate it into the base member.

According to the method of the present invention, the hardened elastomer material placed on the outside of the mold member flows toward the base portion through the closure or slit provided in the mold member during compression molding, and the elastomer material flows toward the base portion through the closure or slit provided in the mold member. Since the base part is not covered with parts other than those necessary for integration, it is extremely easy to take out the electrical parts obtained after compression molding from the mold and remove unnecessary parts. It is.

Furthermore, according to the method of the present invention, it is possible to easily and inexpensively obtain an electrical component in which elastomer parts with extremely precise dimensional accuracy are joined and integrated, which was considered impossible with the conventional method. .

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First, FIG. 1 explains the basic technical idea of the present invention, which consists of a base member 1 that has been formed in advance and is in a semi-hardened or hardened state, and an elastomer mold having a spout 2a. This is an example of the state of the elastomer material 2 and the uncured elastomer material 3 before they are inserted into the compression molding mold, and FIG. This shows the state of twill molding.

41 and 42 in FIG. 2 are an upper mold and a lower mold, respectively, and the upper mold 41 has a cavity 41 for molding the elastomer.
a, and a knife edge-like protrusion 41b functioning as a so-called cutting edge is provided on the periphery thereof, and an overflow groove 41c for excess elastomer material 3b is provided. FIG. 3 shows an elastomer molded body 3a after compression molding using the mold shown in FIG.
This shows a product in which the base member 1 is hardened and integrated.

In addition, in this product, the elastomer molded body part 3a is made of a transparent rubber material, while the base member 1 is made of an opaque rubber material. A is applied, and this product is used, for example, as a key top part in a keyboard device.

However, in the present invention, the insulation and conductivity of the base member described above are not a concern, and the material thereof may be any of various metals, synthetic resins, and synthetic rubbers. can be freely selected and used depending on the intended use of the electrical component.

On the other hand, the dry properties of uncured elastomer materials are determined depending on the intended use of the electrical parts, and this material is made of synthetic rubber, etc., which is used in various conventionally known electrical parts. It is something. On the other hand, during compression molding, the elastomer molding mold member 2 molds the uncured elastomer material into a desired shape in cooperation with the compression molding mold cavity, and also forms a closure or slit 2a provided therein. It covers the base member 1 so that the hardened elastomer material 3 does not come into contact with the base member 1 in other parts. Any material may be used as long as it has appropriate rigidity to prevent the closure or slit 2a from being deformed, and appropriate flexibility if necessary, and the material is not particularly limited, and in general It is made of a synthetic resin molded product or metal that has good peelability from the hardened elastomer material.

In addition, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, this mold member 2 for molding is used in such a manner that it is peeled off from the base member 1 together with the surplus portion 3b of the elastomer material after compression molding. However, this does not necessarily have to be done, and the mold part 2 is integrally bonded to the base member 1 after compression molding to form the desired electrical component 1.
It may also be a component, in which case only the excess elastomeric material 3b is peeled off after compression molding.
In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a sheet-like mold member 2 is arranged on one side of a plate-like or sheet-like base member 1, but the base member 1 and the mold The shape of the member 2 is not limited to a sheet-like one, and it goes without saying that it may be a block-shaped molded body. It should be understood that the elastomeric molded body 3a can be integrally molded on both sides of the base member 1.

Next, some representative embodiments of the present invention will be described based on FIG. 4 and subsequent figures, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

First, referring to FIG. 4, this is an example of a push-pin switch component for a keyboard device obtained by a method similar to the embodiment described in FIGS. 1 to 3. This is made by integrally molding a large number of key top parts 31a made of insulating rubber on the surface of a base member 1 made of insulating rubber, and a movable contact part 32a made of conductive rubber on the back side. Both the key top portion 31a and the movable base point portion 32a are molded from both sides of the base member 1 with the help of a sheet-shaped mold member (not shown) and a molding surface of a compression mold. At the same time, it is molded and integrated.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the push anchor switch component obtained by the method of the present invention, in which an insulating The key top part 31a made of rubber and the movable contact part 32a made of conductive rubber are integrally molded, and this push-pin switch part is made of pre-molded semi-hardened or semi-hardened material, as shown in FIG. Mold members 21 and 22 made of plastic moldings are placed on the upper and lower sides of the dome-shaped base member 1 which is in a hard Q state, respectively, and an uncured insulating rubber material 31 is placed above the mold member 21. At the same time, an uncured conductive rubber material 32 is also placed on the lower side of the mold member 22, and is housed between compression molding molds 41 and 42 which form a desired molding surface, and is compressed. It is made by molding.

In FIG. 6, 31b and 32b are surplus portions that are extremely easily peeled off and removed from the base member 1 together with the mold sections 21 and 22 after compression molding. 7 to 9 all illustrate switch components for a keyboard device obtained in substantially the same manner as the embodiments shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, which have a large number of push buttons. They are arranged regularly on a plane.

That is, the switch component shown in FIG. 7 includes a sheet-like base part 1 made of insulating rubber with a number of dome-shaped protrusions, a key top part 31a made of insulating rubber, and a case-conducting rubber part. The movable contact portions 32a are each integrally molded, and the switch component shown in FIG. 8 is provided with a large number of dome-shaped protrusions and a spout or slit la between adjacent protrusions. A key top portion 31a made of insulating rubber is integrally molded on a base member 1 made of conductive rubber, and the opening □ or slit la is filled with insulating rubber 33a. Furthermore, FIG. 9 shows a movable contact portion 32a with an uncured conductive rubber material in the closed portion provided at the center of a large number of dome-shaped portions of the sheet-like base member 1 made of insulating rubber.
It is made by integrally molding. FIG. 10 shows an example of a circuit board obtained by the method of the present invention,
This is made by using, for example, an insulating substrate 1 made of synthetic resin as a base portion, and integrally molding a conductive rubber portion 3a serving as a conductive path in a slit provided in advance. Next, FIG. 11 shows an example of a pressure bush clamp type rod-shaped connector obtained by the method of the present invention, in which insulating rubber portions 1 and conductive rubber portions 3a are alternately laminated. As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, this and A sheet-like mold member 2 having a plurality of parallel slits 2a having the same planar shape is arranged,
Furthermore, a terminally hard conductive rubber material is placed on the sheet-like mold member 2, and is compressed by an upper mold 41 having a groove-like cavity 41a and a lower mold 42 having a flat molding surface. After being accommodated in the molding die 4 and compression molded,
This is taken out from the mold 4, and then the excess portion 3 of the conductive rubber is removed from the integrated molding together with the sheet-like mold member 2.
b is peeled off to obtain a sheet-like molded product in which the dew-conducting rubber portion 3a is integrally molded into the slit la of the base member 1 made of insulating rubber, as shown in FIG. This sheet-like molded product was manufactured by cutting along a plane perpendicular to the orientation direction of the tortoise-guiding rubber portion 3a. 15 to 20 illustrate different embodiments of rod-shaped connectors obtained by methods very similar to the embodiments described in FIGS. 11 to 14, and each In the figure, 1 is an insulating rubber part, and 3a is a conductive rubber part.

In addition, in the connectors shown in FIGS. 15 to 7, the concave portion 5 of the cage-conducting rubber portion 3a is designed to function, for example, to stably hold the connecting pin of the connected object, The hole 6 (which may be a through hole or a non-through hole) in FIG. 18 is also for holding a connecting pin, and the conductive rubber portion 3a in FIGS. 19 and 20 is for holding a connecting pin.
The protrusion 7 functions to relieve the clamping pressure between the connected objects. FIG. 21 shows yet another embodiment obtained by the method of the present invention, in which a large number of through holes are provided in the sheet-like base member 1 made of insulating rubber. It is formed by integrally molding a conductive rubber portion 3a embedded therein, and it can be used as a circuit board by providing a suitable conductive path on the surface.

Figure 22 shows a rod-shaped connector obtained by cutting the molded product shown in Figure 21 to predetermined dimensions, and Figure 23 shows a modification of the connector shown in Figure 22. ``It is optional to provide through holes or non-through holes 6 in the conductive portions 3a of these connectors.

Finally, FIG. 24 also shows an example of a ring-shaped pressure-fitting type connector obtained according to the present invention, and in the figure, 3a is an insulating rubber portion, and 3a is a conductive rubber portion.

As shown in FIGS. 11, 15 to 20, and 24, elastic connectors in which conductive rubber portions 3a and insulating rubber portions 1 are alternately It was common practice to produce a flocked body by alternately laminating molded conductive rubber sheets and insulating sheets, and then cutting it into the desired shape. According to the present invention, this type of laminated type molded product can be manufactured much more easily with high dimensional accuracy than the conventional method.

As explained above, the method of the present invention is suitable for manufacturing electrical parts such as push-button switch parts or circuit boards, etc., using a pre-formed base member. An elastomeric mold member having at least one entrance or slit is illuminated, uncured elastomer material is placed on the outside of the mold member, and the uncured elastomeric material is then placed in the cavity of a predetermined compression mold. After compression molding, the elastomer is cured and integrated into the base member, and after compression molding, the excess elastomer part and the By peeling off and removing the mold part, a desired electrical component can be manufactured easily and efficiently.

Further, according to the present invention, by using a mold part for elastomer molding during compression molding, the positioning of the elastomer part to be integrally molded with respect to the base part can be ensured and easily. However, it is extremely easy to peel off and remove the excess portion of the uncured elastomer material, making it extremely easy to manufacture even if the elastomer part to be secondary molded is complex and requires high dimensional accuracy. ``The practical effects are extremely large.Brief explanation of the drawings Figure 1 illustrates the basic arrangement of the parts to be placed in a compression mold when carrying out the method of the present invention. Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the above-mentioned parts placed in a compression mold, and Figure 3 is a perspective view of a molded product obtained using the mold shown in Figure 2. .

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a switch component obtained by the method of the present invention in a cutaway section, FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the push-down switch component, and FIG. 6 is the push-down switch of FIG. 5. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a component is compression molded. Figures 7 to 9
The figures are all cross-sectional views illustrating different aspects of switch parts for keyboard devices obtained by the method of the present invention, and Figure 10 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an example of a circuit board. 11 is a perspective view showing an example of a pressure bush clamp type rod-shaped connector obtained by the method of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the molded product obtained after the above-mentioned compression molding. FIGS. 17 to 20 are a cross-sectional view of the compression molding type rod-shaped connector obtained by the method of the present invention. 21 is a perspective view illustrating a plate-shaped molded product that can be used as a circuit board obtained by the method of the present invention, and FIGS. 22 to 24 are perspective views illustrating different aspects of the invention. It is a perspective view illustrating rod-shaped and ring-shaped molded products that can be used as connectors. 1... Base member, la... Closing or slit, 2, 21, 22... Mold member for elastomer molding,
2a... Open □ or slit, 3... Uncured elastomer material, 3a, 31a, 32a, 33a... Molded elastomer portion, 3b, 31b, 32b... Excess elastomer portion, 4, 41, 42 ... Compression molding mold, 14a... Molding surface, 41b... Projection portion, 41c
...overflow groove.

Figure l Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 6 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure l1 Figure l2 Figure l3 Figure l4 Figure 24 Figure l5 Figure-6 Figure 17 Figure l8 No.! Figure 9 Figure 20 Figure 21 Figure 22 Figure 23

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A base member made of insulating or conductive material,
An elastomeric mold member having at least one aperture or slit is closely spaced, an uncured conductive or insulating elastomer material is placed on the outside of the mold member, and these are then placed in a given compression mold. 1. A method of manufacturing an electrical component having an elastomer portion, the method comprising housing the elastomer in a cavity, compression molding the elastomer, curing the elastomer, and integrating the elastomer into the base member.