JPS62226261A - Cover for electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce a cover for an electronic equipment in a simple and accurate way with low cost by setting the thickness of a leading wall at the value larger than a prescribed level and at the same time compressing a molding material in a half-gelled state to attain the prescribed thickness. CONSTITUTION:A cover 6 contains a display cover 2 an a key operating cover 8 and covers entirely an equipment case. The cover 8 holds a pressing part to key contacts with the leading wall. This leading wall has the thickness larger than the prescribed value and at the same time this wall is compressed through its inside surface to secure the prescribed thickness in a half-gelled state of a molding material at a temperature little lower than the molding temperature.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a cover for an electronic device of a small electronic meter.

[Technical background of 1!1 and its problems] Small 'I[j:
Rubber buttons for push button switches used in computers etc.
Traditionally, it has been manufactured by vulcanization. However, this rubber button is meant to be stored inside the device case, but in recent years,
In order to make the device case soft to the touch and to prevent damage due to impact, it is being considered to use the rubber button as a cover for the exterior of the device. However,
- Generally speaking, vulcanized rubber has a soft feel, but cannot provide the luxury feel of synthetic leather.
Attempts have been made to employ sexual elastomers. However, for such a cover with push button q1, the rising part of the push button part needs to be molded extremely thin, so the resin does not flow properly using conventional molding methods, making it difficult to mold. I had a problem.

``Purpose of the Invention'' This invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a key operation section with a very thin protrusion, but with a secure and accurate key operation section. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cover for electronic equipment that can be easily molded.

[Summary of the Invention 1] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is a cover for an electronic device having a key operation part in which a pressing part for pressing a key contact is held by a wall, and the present invention is provided with
- The wall is molded to a thickness greater than a predetermined thickness, and when the molding material is in a semi-gelled state at a temperature slightly lower than the molding temperature, the wall is compressed from the inner surface to a predetermined thickness. It was molded into a shape.

[Example] An example of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

Figures 1 to 3 show a small-sized puppy calculator.

(1 out of 4 is an equipment case. This equipment case 1 has a sowing box shape, and the bottom has parts storage recesses la, lb,
lc is formed, and there is a circuit inside]. (A board 2, a flexible sheet 3, a liquid crystal display panel 4, and a solar cell 5 are arranged, and a cover 6 is attached to the outer surface.

(Circuit), (The board 2 constitutes the necessary circuits on the computer, and is made of a film sheet and is placed on the bottom F of the device case 1. On the top surface there are fixed contacts 2a, a fist, and a liquid crystal display.゛Top electrode terminal 2b...φ, 1 as electrode terminal 2 for other use
c, 2c are formed, and LSI 2 is formed on the do side.
A component with an electric current f of dτ is provided. In this case, the circuit board 2 is placed on the bottom surface of the device case l except for the component storage recesses 1a and 1b, and the LSI 2d provided on the bottom surface is stored in the component storage opening 1c of the device case 1. At the same time, a part of the circuit board 2 (left side in FIG. 2) extends to the side of the component storage openings Fl&la, 1b, and a battery electrode end 'f-2C12C is formed in this extended part.

The flexible sheet 3 is connected to the nationally specified contact point 2a on the circuit board z.
It is made of a flexible film and has a movable contact 3B formed on its lower surface, and a spacer 3b formed by printing or the like. In this case, [if + J contacts 3a... are spaced apart and opposite to the fixed contacts 2a on the circuit board 2 through the openings 3C... formed in the spacer 3b, When the flexible sheet 3 is pushed from above, the flexible sheet 3 bends and comes into contact with the fixed contacts 3a*.

The liquid crystal display panel 4 displays information such as calculation data and calculation results, and is located in the four parts storage parts 1 of the equipment case l.
a, and the circuit board 2 is placed through the heat seal 4a.
It is electrically connected to the terminal 2b for liquid crystal display. In addition, the solar battery 5 is a power source for a small-sized calculator, and is placed in the parts storage part 4b of the instrument case 1.
2c.

On the other hand, the cover 6 covers the entire device case 1,
It is divided into two parts after moeing, one is a display cover 7 and the other is a key operation cover 8, each of which has a device case 1.
By wearing them and touching each other from the morning after the first
As shown in the figure, the entire device case 1 is covered. Also,
The cover 6 is made of a 9.1ifJpj elastomer. Unlike vulcanized rubber, this thermoplastic elastomer is a material that physically cross-links hard and soft segments, so that only the soft segment deforms under tension, and the hard segment hardly deforms.Moreover, it is a material that can be injection molded. For example, in addition to polyester elastomer, there are polyimide, urethane, olefin, styrene, and the like. Incidentally, each molecule of vulcanized rubber is chemically bonded, and all molecules deform uniformly when subjected to tensile stress, making injection molding difficult.

Among the covers 6 made of such a flexible/W-type elastomer, the display cover 7 covers the device case l of the liquid crystal display panel 4 and the solar cell 5, and is attached from the back left side of the device case l. , opening windows 7a and 7b are formed in portions corresponding to the liquid crystal display panel 4 and the sun's heavy oil 5. In addition, the key operation cover 8 covers the case l on the side of the flexible sheet 3, and covers the right f of the case l on the side of the flexible sheet 3.
It is blue-plated from the front side, and a key operation part Bae-φ is formed bulging on the top surface. As shown in No. 314, in this key operation part 8a, the entire circumference of the button head 8a2 is elastically held by the thin curved part 8al, and the button head 8a2 protrudes above the key operation cover 8. At the same time, there is a suppression part 8a3 on the inner upper surface of the button head 8a2! has been coded. This pressing portion 8a3 is in contact with the upper surface of the flexible sheet 3 and corresponds to the movable contact 3a of the flexible sheet 3, and has a “cross”-shaped vertical groove 8aa formed in its center. . This "cross" shaped vertical groove 8&
Numeral 4 is for preventing the upper surface of the button head 8a2 from sinking and becoming depressed when the key operation portion 8a is molded. Therefore, the key operation unit 8a is pressed from the l: direction. When the flexible sheet 3 is bent, the bent portion 8a1 having a thickness of fV around the flexible sheet 3 is elastically deformed and the suppressing portion 8a3 is lowered, and the lowered surface of the suppressing portion 8a3 pushes the flexible sheet 3 away. This results in
When the flexible sheet 3 is bent, the rrf movable contact 3a on the lower surface contacts the fixed contact 2a, and the fixed contact 3a becomes conductive.

Next, FIGS. 4(A) to 4(F) show the case where the key operation cover 8 of the cover 6 as described above is injection molded.
Explain with reference to.

As shown in FIG. 4(A), the injection mold consists of a mold 10, a lower mold 11, and a slide core 12, and by combining these, a cavity (cavity fffi) is formed inside the mold. are doing. This cavity includes 1-key operation cover 8 having the key operation section 8a mentioned above;
has the same shape. In addition, the L mold 10 is provided with a gate LOa for injecting elastomer resin (raw material for mature l'if plastic elastomer) into the cavity. Further, the slide core 12 is disposed between the mold 10 and the lower mold 11 to form the inner surface of the key operation force/f-8, and at a predetermined location thereof, A compression core 13 is arranged so as to be compressible. This compression core 13 forms the bending part 8al and the pressing part 8ax of the key operation part 8a, and the slide core 1
It is pushed up by the pressure of the oil injected from the flow path 12a inside 2.

When molding the key operation cover 8 with such an injection mold, first, the upper and lower molds io and ii are overlapped, and then the compression core is molded as shown in FIG. 4(A). The slide core 12 with the slide core 13 pulled down 5 inside is inserted and arranged into the vertically stacked molds 1O1ll. Thereafter, oil is injected from the flow path 12a of the slide core 12 to push the compression core 13 to a predetermined height as shown in FIG. 4 CB). This forms a cavity inside. In this state flfi, as shown in FIG. 4(C), the J-mold 10
The elastomer resin is injected from the gate lO&. Before the injected resin solidifies, that is, when it cools down a little and becomes a semi-gelled state, the channel 1 of the slide core 12
Inject oil 12 from a and push down the compression core 13 as shown in FIG. 4(D). Then, key operation ff18a
The bent portion 8a1 is compressed and formed into a thin wall of about 0.2 to 0.3 m, and the suppression F118a3 is also formed at the same time. After the elastomer resin has solidified in this state, the compression core 13 is pulled into the slide core 12 as shown in Fig. 4(E), and the upper and lower When the slide core 12 is pulled out from inside the molds to and ii, and the upper and lower molds 10 and 11 are released to take out the molded product, a key operation cover 8 as shown in FIG. 2 is formed.
is obtained.

Note that the display cover 7 can also be formed by the method described above.

However, according to the device of the small type configured as described above, since the device case l was covered with a cover 6 made of a flexible elastomer, it was not possible to replace the conventional synthetic leather! It has the same flexibility, feels good to the touch, has less risk of being damaged by impact, and has a luxurious feel. Moreover, unlike vulcanized rubber, the strength of this plastic elastomer is
Since it can be injection molded, it can be easily manufactured in a cylinder and can be installed at low cost. In particular, the /B+i curved portion 8a+ of the operation cover 8 is filled with a molding material that is thicker than a predetermined thickness during molding, and when the molding material is slightly cooled and becomes a gelled state T5, Since the compressed core 13 compresses the inner surface of the hj: curved portion 8a+ and molds it to a predetermined thickness, it can be manufactured extremely accurately and well, and has good Y deformation and a click feeling. I can do it.

In addition, in the embodiments related to the above, the cover 6 is divided into a display cover 7 and a key operation cover 8, but the invention is not limited to this, and both may be formed integrally. If one movable concubine point is placed on the five sides of the pressing part 8a3 of the part 8a,
I am concerned about the full/xypul sheet 3 as described above.

Furthermore, although the above-mentioned embodiment has been described with reference to a case where it is applied to a small-sized electronic calculator, this IJI is not limited to this, and can be widely applied to other small-sized r-devices such as a flat-screen radio.

11 Effects of L-Radiation As explained in more detail below, the effects of L-radiation 11 are as follows:
According to the power/heichi of -a'jA, it is a cover of 'Jiko a Z+ which has a key operation part that holds the suppression part that presses the key contact point with a wall, and at least +iii.☆2. The molding process is performed with the wall thicker than a predetermined thickness, and when the molding material is in a gelatinized state slightly higher than the molding temperature, the wall is compressed from the inside l+f+i with an increase of 1ljl+Uk. Since it is molded to a predetermined thickness, it can be manufactured easily and at low cost with a certainty of 1'L.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figure shows one embodiment of this invention, and FIG. 1 is a small 4Q "++
= Complete r set, 1. Outside @L perspective view of Satsuki, Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of it, Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view of its main parts, Figure 4 (A)
-(F) are diagrams showing the process of forming the key operation cover. 1...A device case, 2a...Fixed contact, 3a...Movable contact, 6...Cover,
7...Display cover 18...Key operation cover, 8a...Key operation section, 8a+...
...Hi music section, 8a2...Button head, 8a3.
...Press section. Patent Applicant: Casio Computer Co., Ltd. 4-Tsu ■] Agent: Patent Attorney: 111 Town, Masa Toshi...)
T Bamboo DTL Ninja "Enmon 4 Figure 8"

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A cover for an electronic device having a key operation section consisting of a pressing part that presses a key contact and a rising wall that holds the pressing part, the covering having at least the rising wall thicker than a predetermined thickness. 1. A cover for an electronic device, characterized in that after molding, the rising wall is compressed from the inner surface while the molding material is in a semi-gelled state at a temperature slightly lower than the molding temperature to be molded to a predetermined thickness.