JPS6282607A - Wiring member - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a wiring member, and more specifically, it is composed of a plurality of signal wires for transmitting electrical signals and an insulating support supporting the wires, and the present invention relates to a wiring member as a whole. The present invention relates to a wiring member configured in the shape of a flat band having flexibility.

[Prior Art] A so-called flexible flat cable is known as an example of this type of wiring member, and has been widely used as a wiring means in various electronic devices. A flexible flat cable has a structure in which multiple signal wires formed into thin strips from a conductor such as copper foil are sandwiched between flexible thin insulating films made of plastic or other materials. It is possible to twist the wiring. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for wiring inside small electronic devices such as cameras and small cassette recorders, and for wiring to moving parts, such as wiring to the recording head of a serial printer.

A flexible flat cable (hereinafter abbreviated as cable) used for wiring to a recording head of a printer will be explained below as an example.

As described above, this cable is made up of a plurality of signal lines sandwiched between insulating films, and has an overall external shape as shown in FIG. That is, the cable l is formed into a belt shape and approximately I-shape, the middle part 1b is linear, one end part 1a is circular, the other end part 1c is trapezoidal, and both ends la and lc are formed in a trapezoidal shape. Both ends of a signal line (not shown) are exposed.

Then, during mounting, the cable 1 is bent in opposite directions along folding lines that form approximately 45 degrees with respect to the longitudinal direction at two locations, at both ends 1a and at an intermediate section 1b near lc, as shown by broken lines in FIG. By this, as shown in FIG. 9, both ends 1a, lc
each of which is oriented at an angle of approximately 90' to the longitudinal direction. Then, the cable l is mounted on the printer as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11(a) and (b).

One end 1c of the cable 1 is connected to the main body of the printer via a connector 7, and the other end 1a is connected to the carriage 5.
Connected to RAD 4 for recording mounted on top.

During recording, the carriage 5 is driven by a drive means (not shown).
travels on the guide shaft 6 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. The recording head is driven by the signal to perform recording.

At this time, according to the movement of RAD 4 to the record, cable L is the 11th
As shown in Figure (b), it bends and follows the recording direction 4.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Recently, electronic devices have become smaller and printers have also become smaller, but the amount of information to be processed has also tended to increase. For example, in the case of wire dot printers, the number of bins (number of wires) in the recording head used to be mainstream, but there is a trend to increase the number of bins to 18 or 24 in order to improve the recording quality. 24-pin printers are the mainstream for Kanji printers that have recently become popular.

However, this increase in the amount of processing information means that the number of signal lines in the above-mentioned cable increases. As the number of signal lines increases, the width of the cable becomes wider.This is because it is technically difficult to reduce the pitch between signal lines and provide a large number of signal lines within a narrow cable width, and there are limits to this. This is also because the cost becomes high. Naturally, as the width of the cable increases, the cable occupies a larger area within the device, making it difficult to downsize the device.

This problem is not limited to flexible flat cables, but is common to the types of wiring members mentioned in the first field of application.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention consists of a plurality of signal lines for transmitting electrical signals and an insulating support body that supports them, and In a wiring member configured in a flat strip shape having flexibility, a slit is provided along the longitudinal direction in the middle part of the wiring member, and the wiring member is bent at a plurality of locations in the portion separated by the slit. By doing so, the separated portions were made to overlap with each other.

[Function] If such a configuration is adopted, as described above, the wiring member is bent at multiple locations of the separated portion by the slit and the separated portions of the wiring member are overlapped, thereby effectively reducing the wiring member. The area of the overlapping portion can be significantly reduced, and the area occupied by the wiring member within the equipment can be significantly reduced.

[Examples] Hereinafter, details of examples of the present invention will be described. Here, a flexible flat cable (hereinafter also abbreviated as cable) for wiring to the recording head of the printer described above is used as an example.

1.113 FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the structure of a cable according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

This cable 1 is made up of a plurality of signal lines (not shown) sandwiched between insulating films in the same manner as the conventional example described above, and the cable 1 is band-shaped and has an almost engineering shape as a whole, with the middle part 1b having a linear shape. , both ends 1a.

The ICs are formed into a circle and a trapezoid, respectively.

This embodiment differs from the conventional example in that a linear slit indicated by reference numeral 1d is formed in parallel to the longitudinal direction over almost the entire area of the intermediate portion 1b. Further, the slit) ld is formed through the center of the intermediate portion tb, and the separating portions 1b', 1 are divided into two by the slit ld of the intermediate portion 1b.
The width of the slit 1d is equal to the width a of the intermediate portion. Holes 1e and If are formed at both ends of the slit 1d to prevent cracking from both ends of the slit 1d.

When mounted under such a structure, the cable 1 has both ends 1a and a separated portion 1 near the LC, as shown by broken lines in FIG.
b', 1b'' are bent in opposite directions at both ends at the same position in the longitudinal direction along folding lines that form approximately 45° with respect to the longitudinal direction. That is, the ends 1a The side is bent from the paper surface to the back side, and the end portion 1c side is bent toward the front side of the paper surface.

When bent in this way, it becomes as shown in FIG. 2, with both end portions 1a and lc facing oppositely at an angle of approximately 90' with respect to the longitudinal direction of intermediate portion 1b, and separating portion 1
b′ overlaps the separated part 1 b″, i.e. end 1
When the c side is bent, there is a +
Due to the difference in length α , the separated portion 1 b ″ is bent by the length of α , and the separated portions 1 b ′ and 1 b ″ do not overlap. Therefore, when the end 1a side is folded to the back side opposite to the end 1c side, there is a difference in the length of α between the separation i minutes lb' and lb', and this difference is due to the bending of the end 1c side. This will absorb the deflection caused by the separation part 1 b ′
, l b ” will overlap.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the cable 1 is provided with a slit, and one end of the cable 1 is bent in the direction opposite to the direction in which the other end is bent, and furthermore, is bent to the back side, thereby forming the separated portion 1b'.

1b'' can be overlapped with each other. As a result, the width of the intermediate portion 1b is substantially halved at the overlapping portion, and the area of the same portion is halved.

In this state, the cable l is mounted in the printer as shown in FIG. 3, with the end 1c connected to the connector 7 and the end 1a connected to the recording head 4.

In this case, most of the cable 1 routed through the printer is separated from the overlapped intermediate section 1b mentioned above.
', 1b'', and its actual width is half the width a of the intermediate part, and the area is half, so as is clear from the comparison between Fig. 3 and Fig. 10 of the conventional example, the printer The area occupied by the cable 1 within the cable 1 is significantly reduced compared to the conventional case.

In addition, in the structure of the cable 1 described above, if marks indicating the bending positions of the separated portions 1 b '' and 1 b '' are provided by printing or the like as shown by the symbol M in FIG. 4, it will be convenient for the bending work. be.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the structure of a cable according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, in this embodiment, two slits 1d are provided in horizontal parallel to the intermediate portion 1b so as to divide the width into three equal parts.

With this structure, the separation part t is shown by the broken line in the same figure.
b', tb'', ib~ are connected to the first
If it is bent in the same manner as in the embodiment, it will be in the state shown in FIG. 6, where the separated parts 1b', lb", and lb" overlap and the width of the intermediate part 1b becomes a square at the overlapped part. The area of the overlapping part will be the same.

In this way, the number of slits ld is not limited to one, but may be greater than one, thereby making it possible to further reduce the area of the overlapping portion and further reducing the area occupied by the cable 1.

Further, depending on the shape of the path on which the cable l is mounted, the intermediate portion 1b can be further bent from the state shown in FIG. 6 to the state shown in FIG. 7 to make the intermediate portion 1b into various shapes. .

Note that the structure in which slits are provided to reduce the occupied area as described above can be applied not only to the cables of the embodiment, but also to all the types of wiring members first described in the industrial application field, and similar effects can be expected. .

Further, the overall shape of the wiring member is not limited to a substantially linear shape as in the embodiment, but may be other shapes such as an arcuate shape, and the shape of the slit is not limited to a linear shape accordingly.

[Effects] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a flat structure that is flexible as a whole is made up of a plurality of signal lines that transmit electrical signals and an insulating support that supports them. In a wiring member configured in a band shape, a slit is provided along the longitudinal direction in the intermediate portion of the wiring member, and the separated portions are bent at a plurality of locations in the portion separated by the slit. I made it overlap, so
The substantial area of the wiring member can be significantly reduced at the overlapping portion, and the area occupied within the device in which the wiring member is mounted can be significantly reduced, making a significant contribution to miniaturization of the device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a flexible flat cable according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the cable in a bent state, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of the same cable mounted in a printer. Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of marks indicating the bending position of the cable, Fig. 5 is a plan view of the cable according to the second embodiment, Fig. 6 is a plan view of the cable in the bent state, and Fig. 7 is Plan view of the same cable in a further bent state, No. 8
The figure is a plan view of a conventional cable, Fig. 9 is a plan view of the same cable in a bent state, Fig. 10 is a plan view showing the cable installed in a printer, and Figs. 11 (a) and (b). 2A and 2B are perspective views illustrating the mounting state and follow-up operation of the same cable, respectively. 1... Cable la, lc... End part 1b.
...Middle part lb', lb", lb"...Separation part 1d...Slit 2...Platen 3...! ·Recording paper
4... Recording head 5... Carriage 6...
Guide shaft 7...Connector 1w=::, Figure 1 Figure 2 - Δ and so

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A wiring member configured in a flat band shape having flexibility as a whole, consisting of a plurality of signal lines for transmitting electrical signals and an insulating support for supporting the signal lines, wherein the A wiring characterized in that a slit is provided along the longitudinal direction in an intermediate portion of the wiring member, and the wiring member is bent at a plurality of locations in the portion separated by the slit so that the separated portions overlap each other. Element. 2) The wiring member according to claim 1, wherein a mark is provided at a bending position of the wiring member. 3) One end of the wiring member is bent in one direction, and the other end of the wiring member is bent in a direction opposite to the one direction to the back side opposite to the bending of the one end. The wiring member according to item 1 or 2.