JPS6353516B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a movement structure of a small hand display type electronic wristwatch equipped with a step motor as an electromechanical converter.

The recent spread of high-precision analog crystal watches has led to the pursuit of better exterior designs, leading to rapid progress in making watch movements smaller and thinner. Particularly in products such as women's bracelet watches, where the size of the watch movement has a large effect on the aesthetics of the exterior design, there was an urgent need to create an ultra-compact, thin analog crystal wristwatch.

The only drawback of quartz watches is that the battery must be replaced when it runs out, so it is important for the product to have as long a battery life as possible to eliminate the hassle of battery replacement. This is a great point.

A factor that hinders the miniaturization and thinning of watch movements is that the battery size inevitably becomes smaller, which shortens battery life. Therefore, it is extremely important to maximize the space occupied by the battery in terms of the overall layout of the timepiece movement. FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the arrangement of the main elements of a conventional analog quartz wristwatch used as a women's bracelet watch.

The watch board 1 includes a step motor 4, a wheel train mechanism 5, a display time corrector, a step motor 4, and a wheel train mechanism 5, which are made up of elements that make up the watch movement, that is, a battery 2, an electronic circuit block 3, a coil 4a, and a stator 4b, which are arranged offset from each other in a plane. The members 6 and the like are accommodated in an arrangement that is substantially offset from each other in a plane. It would be good if the ultra-miniaturization and thinning of the timepiece movement as intended by the present invention could be achieved by uniformly reducing all the elements, but the following impeding factors arise. That is, the battery capacity is extremely reduced due to the miniaturization of the battery accompanying the miniaturization of the movement, and the current consumption of the step motor increases significantly due to the miniaturization of the coil of the step motor. Therefore, in order to guarantee a minimum battery life, it is necessary to reduce the size of the battery and step motor by keeping the size reduction rate lower than that of other elements. It is impossible to achieve ultra-miniaturization and thinning.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a movement structure for a small pointer display type electronic wristwatch that is most effective for eliminating the drawbacks of the conventional configuration and achieving ultra-miniaturization and thinning of the timepiece movement.

Specifically, the present invention provides a step motor in which the plane space is reduced by stacking coils and stators in a plane, an electronic circuit block,
The arrangement of each element such that the planar size of the timepiece movement is determined by the size of the adjacent batteries and coils, with the batteries arranged so as to substantially cover the wheel train mechanism and the display time adjustment member in a two-dimensional manner. It is characterized by its structure.

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

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the arrangement structure of the small hand display type electronic wristwatch of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are sectional views of the main parts of FIG. 2. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the battery block, with A being a plan view and B and C being sectional views. Furthermore, Fig. 7 is a diagram showing the coil block.
A is a plan view, B is a side view, and C is a sectional view. The watch board has a non-circular planar shape with a major axis and a minor axis, has a gear train mechanism 11 disposed approximately in the center thereof, and surrounds the gear train mechanism 11 in a substantially U-shape. The electronic circuit block 12 and the display time adjustment member 13 are arranged as shown in FIG.
A step motor 1 is arranged in an area adjacent to the battery block 14 and the gear train mechanism, that is, on the outer peripheral side of the main plate 10.
5 is placed.

The gear train mechanism 11 has a gear train transmission structure in the order of the fourth wheel & pinion 17 -> the third wheel & pinion 18 -> the second wheel & pinion 19 -> the hour wheel & pinion 20 -> the hour wheel 21, and is pivotally supported by the main plate 10 and the train wheel bridge 16. The gear train bridge 16 is screwed to the base plate 10 by two receiving screws 22 and 23 at fastening portions 16a and 16b. The fastening portions 16a and 16b are connected to the receiving screw 2.
It has recesses for accommodating the heads 2 and 23, respectively. The electronic circuit block 12 is formed by mounting an IC chip 25, a crystal resonator 26, a switch terminal 27, etc. on a circuit board 24 having a conductive pattern formed on its surface. In this case, the IC chip 25 is disposed on one short diameter side of the wheel train mechanism 11 opposite to the step motor 15, and is made of a synthetic resin member 28 molded with a mold. sealed and protected. Further, the crystal resonator 26 is adhesively fixed to the base plate 10 with its length direction parallel to one major diameter direction of the base plate 10 . After positioning and setting the circuit board 24 on which the IC chip 25 and switch terminals 27 are mounted using the screw tube 10a and pin 10b implanted in the base plate 10, the terminals of the crystal resonator 26 are connected to the circuit board 2.
By soldering to the wiring pattern 4,
Electrical continuity between the two can be obtained. Further, the circuit board 24 is connected to the base plate 1 by soldering to the pin 10b.
It is electrically connected to 0. The rate of the clock is adjusted by cutting several patterns 24b provided in the window 24a of the circuit board 24. The display time adjustment member 13 is composed of a switch member 29, which is positioned by the aforementioned screw tube 10a and fixed to the other major diameter side of the main plate 10 by a switch member retainer 30.

On the other hand, in the battery block 14, an anode lead plate 31 and a cathode lead plate 32 are integrally welded to the anode part 33a and the cathode part 33b of the battery 33, respectively. Further, the battery 33 is positioned in the diametrical direction by a battery support member 34 made of synthetic resin, and 35 is a battery insulating sheet. The battery support member 34 has two protrusions 34a and 34b downward.
one has an outer peripheral notch 10c of the main plate 10,
The other one is engaged with and positioned in a notch 16c of the train wheel bridge 16. FIG. 6 is a detailed view of the battery block 14, in which an anode lead plate 31 and a cathode lead plate 32 are integrally welded to an anode part 33a and a cathode part 33b of a battery 33, respectively. On the lower surface 31a of the anode lead plate 31, battery specifications such as a plus sign and battery size are written, and an insulating plate 31b is adhered to the upper surface of the tip. (In this embodiment, the ground plate 10 serves as a cathode). The cathode lead plate 32 is formed in a shape that covers almost the entire surface of the battery 33 in a plan view, and various marks necessary for the clock movement are displayed on the upper surface portion 32a. In addition, the cathode lead plate 32 is bent upward and comes into contact with the watch case, and the battery liquid leaks out to the center of the spring protrusion 32b that connects the watch case to the cathode, the gasket part 33c of the battery 33, and the cathode part 33b. Protrusions 32c and 32d are provided to enable stable welding with the cathode lead plate 32 suspended relative to the battery 33 so that it can be coated with the protective resin agent 33d. The step motor 15 consists of a coil block 36, a stator 37, and a rotor 38.
The coil 36a has a rod-like shape and is arranged in a stacked manner on a pair of stators 37 facing each other so as to surround the rotor 38, so as to substantially overlap each other in a plane.However, the longitudinal direction of the coil 36a is Main plate 10
The length is parallel to the short axis of the main plate 10, and its length is substantially equal to the short axis length of the main plate 10, like the battery 33. Furthermore, by configuring the sum of the width of the coil 36a and the diameter of the battery 33 to be approximately equal to the length of the major axis of the main plate 10, a small timepiece movement whose planar size is determined by the coil 36a and the battery 33 is constructed. can. The rotor 38 has a permanent magnet 38a and is pivotally supported by a support plate 37a integrated with the stator 37 by welding and a base plate 10. FIG. 7 is a detailed view of the coil block 36, and there are at least one coil core 36b (three in the embodiment) at both ends thereof.
The coil core 36b is integrated with spacers 36c and 36d made of a magnetic material having high magnetic permeability by welding or the like, and magnetic coupling between the coil magnetic core 36b and the stator 37 is performed via the spacers 36c and 36d. The terminal processing board 39 has two arm parts 39a, 3
9b, and is adhesively fixed to the winding part 36e on the lower surface side of the coil 36a at the middle part 39c, and the two winding ends 36f of the coil 36a connect the end treatment plate 39 to establish electrical continuity. being processed.
The arm portion 39b of the terminal treatment plate 39 passes through the gap between the coil 36a and the battery 33, and passes under the part 34c of the battery support member 3 that positions the battery 33 within this gap. Winding part 3 on the bottom side
6e and is guided and adhesively fixed to the upper surface of one end 36g of the coil magnetic core 36b. The other arm 39a connects the switch member 29 and the circuit board 2 by means of a screw tube 10a implanted in the base plate 10.
4 and fixed with screws 40. At this time, the corresponding patterns of the terminal processing board 39 and the circuit board 24 (coil winding terminal 3
6f and 1 connected to the anode plate 31 of the battery 33 by the method described below.
A total of 3 patterns (consisting of book patterns) are:
They are pressed together and electrically coupled. Arm part 39
A is provided with a hole 39d that engages with the switch member retainer 30, and serves as a rotation stopper when the connection screw 40 is tightened. The stator 37 and the coil magnetic core 36b are stacked so as to be in contact with each other at both ends thereof, and are positioned by two screw tubes 10d and 10e implanted in the base plate 10, and are connected to the base plate 10. A pair of coil set screws 41 and 42, which are step motor fastening members, are configured to press against each other and perform magnetic coupling. At this time, screw tube 10d
On the side is an anode lead plate 31 and a screw tube 1.
On the 0e side, the cathode lead plate 32 is simultaneously screwed together with coil set screws 41 and 42, respectively. As a result, the anode lead plate 31, which is insulated from the coil fixing screw 41 by the insulating plate 31b, is pressed against the terminal treatment plate 39, thereby establishing an electrical connection therebetween. Further, by press-contacting the cathode lead plate 32 to the coil magnetic core 36b, the ground plate 10 is also polarized to a negative value at the same time. The battery support member 34 has two L-shaped notches 34d and 34e that are connected to the coil magnetic core 36, respectively.
It is disposed with a small gap between it and a part of both ends 36h and 36i of b. Gear train bridge 16
A part of the fastening part 16a to the base plate 10 by the screw 22 is arranged in a position where it overlaps a part of the coil 36a in a plane, but the recess 16a for accommodating the head of the screw 22 is Further coil 3 is added around the periphery.
It has a stepped portion 16d for accommodating a part of the end processing plate 39 of 6a. a central portion 39c for bonding the terminal treatment plate 39 to the coil winding portion 36d;
The support plate 37a welded to the stator 37 is
On the lower side of the winding part 36e on the lower surface side of the coil 36a,
They are arranged so that they do not overlap each other in a plane and are located at approximately the same height level in a cross section. The coil 36a and the battery 33 have approximately the same thickness and are arranged at approximately the same height position, so that the remaining elements, the gear train mechanism 11,
Display time adjustment member 13, electronic circuit block 12
The stator 37 is connected to the main plate 10 and the gear train bridge 16.
It has an arrangement structure in which it is approximately accommodated within a cross-sectional space consisting of.

The drive method of the step motor 15 is the same as the conventional one, and the magnetic flux excited in the coil 36a by the pulse current generated by the electronic circuit block 12 is guided from the coil magnetic core 36b to the stator 37 through spacers 36c and 36d, and then is guided to the stator 37 by the rotor 38. The rotor 38 is rotated by acting magnetically on a permanent magnet piece 38a fixed to the permanent magnet piece 38a.

The display time is corrected as follows. When the push button 42, which is an external operation member provided as if housed in the watch case 41, is pressed, a force is applied to the spring portion 29a of the switch member 29, causing the switch spring 29 to sag and its tip 29b to release. It contacts the switch terminal 27 of the electronic circuit block 12 and sends an input signal for display correction to the electronic circuit block 12. In response to this, a display correction pulse signal outputted from the electronic block 12 is guided to the coil 36a to drive the step motor, that is, rotate the rotor 38, thereby correcting the display.

As described above, according to the movement structure of the present invention, the planar size of the watch movement is
The dimension in the short axis direction is set to be approximately the same as the diameter of the battery, and the dimension in the major axis direction is approximately equal to the sum of the battery diameter and the width of the coil placed adjacent to the battery. will be set. Therefore, the major axis of the clock movement is a,
When the short axis is b, the width of the coil is c, and the diameter of the battery is d, a≦1.5 (c+d) and b≦
It has a shape that satisfies the 1.3d relationship. Furthermore, the battery and the coil are at the same height level in cross-section, and among other main elements, are electronic circuit blocks and rings that are made up of crystal resonators, IC chips, etc. that can be made relatively thin. The column mechanism and the display time adjustment member, etc. are connected to the above-mentioned battery, and the rotor and stator are connected to the coil block.
Since they are arranged in layers, it is possible to obtain a very space-efficient arrangement structure for making watch movements smaller and thinner. In other words, according to the present invention, the size of the watch movement can be dramatically reduced, and it is possible to create a full-fledged ultra-compact women's bracelet watch or an ultra-compact pointer display type watch that requires an ultra-small movement. A crystal wristwatch can be easily realized.
Furthermore, the ratio of the major diameter direction to the minor diameter direction of the timepiece movement according to the structure of the present invention is even higher than that of the so-called barrel-shaped timepiece movement used in conventional small mechanical watches such as women's bracelet watches. Since the ratio can be set to almost the same ratio and the size can be made smaller correspondingly, the degree of freedom given to the exterior design is further expanded, and even when combining the exterior case and band, the body width of the exterior case can be adjusted to match the width of the band. It is also possible to make it smaller,
It is possible to realize a thin bracelet watch for women with an extremely excellent design. Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the timepiece movement has a planar shape with two sides of a circular shape cut out, but it is clear that the present invention can also be applied to a circular or rectangular timepiece movement. In that case as well, a very space-efficient arrangement structure can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the structure of a conventional analog crystal wristwatch. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a small hand display type electronic wristwatch according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are sectional views of essential parts thereof. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the battery block, where A is a plan view;
B and C are cross-sectional views. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the coil block, in which A is a plan view, B is a side view, and C is a sectional view. 10... Base plate, 11... Gear train mechanism, 12... Electronic circuit block, 13... Display time adjustment member,
14... Battery block, 15... Step motor, 16... Gear train bridge, 24... Circuit board, 25...
...IC chip, 26...Crystal resonator, 27...Switch terminal, 29...Switch member, 33...Battery, 34...Battery support member, 36...Coil block, 37...Stator, 38...Rotor ,
39...Terminal processing board.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A watch substrate such as a base plate constituting a watch movement having a major axis and a minor axis, an oscillating circuit, and a frequency dividing circuit for dividing a high frequency time reference signal formed by the oscillating circuit into a low frequency signal; and a motor drive circuit for receiving the low frequency signal from the frequency dividing circuit and forming a drive signal, etc.
and an electronic circuit block equipped with a time reference oscillator such as a crystal oscillator; a step motor comprising a rotor, a stator, and a rod-shaped coil and driven in response to the drive signal; and a mechanical operation of the step motor. A small pointer display type electronic device comprising a wheel train mechanism for transmitting the time to the pointer, a display time adjustment member for correcting the time displayed by the pointer, and a battery for supplying power to the electronic circuit block. In the movement structure of a wristwatch, the train wheel mechanism is disposed approximately in the center of the watch board, and the time reference is provided on one major axis side so as to surround the train wheel mechanism in a substantially U-shape. The vibrator, the display time adjustment member on the other major axis side, and the IC on one minor axis side.
chips are respectively disposed, and the batteries are stacked and arranged on these so as to cover most of the gear train mechanism, the time reference oscillator, the IC chip, and the display time adjustment member, and The rod-shaped coil is stacked on the rotor and the stator in the other shorter diameter side region adjacent to the battery and the gear train mechanism on the watch board,
The step motor is arranged such that the longitudinal direction of the coil is parallel to the short axis of the base plate, and the length of the coil and the diameter of the battery are approximately equal to the short axis length of the watch base plate. 1. A movement structure for a small pointer display type wristwatch, wherein the sum of the width of the coil and the diameter of the battery is substantially equal to the length of the major axis of the watch base plate.