JPS61193216A - Operating unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the mixture of foreign matters into an operating unit regardless of the forms of the foreign matters with higher accuracy than conventional, by providing a collector of foreign matters to an operating member. CONSTITUTION:A collector 6 for foreign matters provided to a lever 4 serves as a cover of a hole 8 and contains a recessed part 7 on its upper side surface. The collector 6 is set close to and inside a top cover 1 and has such a size that can cover the hole 8 at all times even when the lever 4 is turned to its right or left end position. This prevents the mixture of foreign matters into a printer through the hole 8. Furthermore, the foreign matters dropped to the collector 6 are received by the part 7. Thus it is possible to prevent even the small and thin foreign matters from slipping on the upper surface of the collector 6 and dropping into the printer through a gap between the collector 6 and the cover 1.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Girantachi i The present invention relates to an operating device having an operating member.

2. Description of the Related Art It is common practice to provide various devices such as printers, copying machines, electrical equipment, machine tools, etc. with operating devices having operating members, and to control the devices by operating the operating devices. FIG. 6 shows an example of this, in which an operating member consisting of a lever 4a, for example, is projected outside from a hole 8a formed in a cover 1a of the device, and a knob 5a attached to the tip of the lever 4a is grasped. Manufacture and control the device by operating in the direction of the arrow. In this case, if the hole 8a of the cover 1a remains open, foreign objects such as clips may enter the device through the hole around the lever 4a, which may cause malfunction of the device. If a foreign object were to enter the power supply compartment of the device, it could cause a short circuit, and this cannot be ignored. A slit 19a through which the lever 4a passes is formed in the slit 19a so as not to interfere with the operation of the lever 4a. However, in this way of closing the hole, especially when the lever 4a is thick, there is a risk that the lever will enlarge the slit 19a and foreign matter will enter there.A brush is provided in place of the flexible sheet 9a. Although this configuration is also known, there is a problem exactly similar to that of the sheet 9a.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, there is also a known configuration in which a cover Job for closing the hole in the cover of the device is fixed to the operating lever 4b having the knob portion 5b. According to this, there is no slit. Although there is no fear that the needles will spread, small needles or
Foreign objects such as thin plates may enter or fall, and a reliable effect of preventing the intrusion of foreign objects cannot be expected.

(2) An object of the present invention is to provide an operating device that eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks.

I power The present invention proposes a configuration in which the operating member is provided with a foreign object receiver.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a printer as an example of a device employing an operating device according to the present invention, in which 1 is a top cover of the printer, 2 is a top cover of the printer;
is the base cover. For example, cover 1゜2 is metamorphosed P
It is made of synthetic resin such as PO resin, metal, etc. Various elements of the printer are housed inside these covers 1.degree. 2, as shown in FIG. In order to be able to control these elements manually, the printer is provided with a suitable number of operating devices 3, four in the illustrated example. Each operating device 3 has a lever 4 that can be rotated in the direction of the arrow as shown in FIGS. ing. Therefore, the operator can grasp this knob 5 and freely operate the operating device 3. The lever 4 is made of a synthetic resin such as ABS resin or glass fiber-filled nylon, or metal, as is known per se.

According to the present invention, the lever 4 is provided with a foreign object receiver 6 that also functions as a cover for covering the hole 8, and a dish-shaped recess 7 is formed on the upper side of the lever 4. The foreign object receiver 6 is located close to and inside the top cover 1, and even when the lever 4 is rotated to the left end position shown in FIG.
It is formed in such a size that it always covers the hole 8 even when it is brought to the right end position shown in b). Therefore, it is possible to prevent foreign matter from entering the inside of the printer through the hole 8.

In addition, foreign matter that falls into the foreign matter receiver 6 is stopped by the recess 7. Therefore, even if the foreign matter is small or thin, it can be prevented from sliding on the upper surface of the foreign matter receiver 6 and falling into the printer through the gap between the receiver 6 and the top cover 1.

The foreign object receiver 6 can also be made of synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride, metal, or the like as appropriate.

The foreign object receiver 6 can be fixed to the lever 4 with screws or adhesive, or the receiver 6 and the lever 4 can be integrally molded in advance. However, in the illustrated embodiment, the lever 4 has a step as shown in FIG. A portion 14 is formed, and the knob portion 5 is fitted into a through hole drilled in the foreign object receiver 6 to fit the receiver 6 to the lever 4, and the receiver 6 is supported by the stepped portion 14. In this way, the foreign object receiver 6 can be connected to the stepped portion 14 and the top cover 1.
Since the foreign object receiver 6 is disposed between the lever 4 and the lever 4, there is no fear that the receiver 6 will come off even if the receiver 6 is not fixed to the lever 4 with screws or the like, and the foreign object receiver 6 can be installed very easily and at low cost. Actually, as shown in FIG. 2, the main components of the printer are placed on the base cover 2, the foreign object receivers 6 are fitted onto the levers of each operating device 3 as described above, and then the top cover 1 is placed on the base cover 2. If it is installed as shown in Figure 1, the receiver 6 can be assembled without any problem. In addition, it is advantageous to form the knob 5 into a tapered shape toward its tip so that it is easy to fit the foreign object receiver 6 into the knob 5 of the lever 4, and the receiver 6 does not move after fitting. (Figure 3)
. Since the foreign object receiver 6 is attached to the lever in this way,
The positional relationship between the receiver 6 and the top cover 1 will not be disturbed.

In the embodiment shown in FIG.
A relief 1a along the movement locus of the receiver 6 is formed on the side facing the. This reliably prevents the receiver 6 from coming off, and also ensures smooth operation of the receiver 6.

In the above embodiment, the foreign object receiver 6 is formed into a dish shape with a concave part so that even small foreign objects can be caught there. This may catch magnetic foreign matter, or a combination of a magnet and a concave structure may be adopted.

The present invention can be widely applied to operating devices provided in various devices other than printers. It is also obvious that the present invention can be applied to an operating device in which the operating member is not a lever but a reciprocating slide or the like.

According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent foreign matter from entering the apparatus more reliably than before, regardless of the form of the foreign matter.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printer as an example of a device having an operating device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the printer shown in FIG. 1 with the top cover removed, and FIG.
The figure is a perspective view showing details of the operating device, Figures 4(a) and 4(b)
) is a partially sectional side view showing the lever in an actuated state, FIG. 5 is a partially sectional side view showing another embodiment, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are perspective views showing the conventional operating device. 3...Operating device 6...Foreign object receiver is shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4 (a) (b), Fig. 5, and Fig. 7.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An operating device characterized in that an operating member is provided with a foreign object receptacle.