KR100957068B1 - Silicon mold and the method of manufacturing key pad rubber using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A silicon mold for manufacturing a key pad and manufacturing method for keypad rubber using the same is provided to prevent scratch of a film cloth by easily separating a film sheet from a mold and reduce costs of manufacturing a metal mold by using silicon instead of metal. CONSTITUTION: A silicon mold of manufacturing a key pad comprises upper and lower molds(100,200) which include a heater plate(140, 230) and a heat sensor(160,260). A silicon forming pad(280) is formed on the lower mold and a pattern for a keypad molding is formed on the silicon forming pad. A groove, which is formed corresponding to the pattern for the keypad molding of the silicon forming pad, is formed on the bottom surface of the upper mold. A keypad film is shaped through hot pressing using the silicon forming pad.

Description

Silicon mold and the method of manufacturing key pad rubber using the same}

The present invention relates to a silicone mold for manufacturing a keypad and a method for manufacturing a keypad rubber using the same, and more particularly, by forming a forming mold used for manufacturing a keypad rubber with silicon, forming deformation and surface generated due to thermal deviation of a conventional metal mold. The present invention relates to a silicone mold for manufacturing a keypad capable of reducing productivity of a keypad rubber and reducing a defect rate of a product by reducing wrinkles, and a method of manufacturing a keypad rubber using the same.

Recently, due to the rapid development of communication technology, various communication devices such as mobile phones and PDAs are being released, and these communication devices are becoming lighter and lighter according to various demands of consumers.

Such communication equipment includes a keypad as a switching device for signal generation, and the keypad is provided with a key protruding to the surface so that the user can easily touch and input a desired function. Characters or figures are displayed to identify and select operating functions.

The keypad used in mobile phones is formed by forming a film fabric made of polyurethane, which is transparent and has excellent touch feeling and elasticity resilience to have an iron part shape, and after filling the formed part with silicon, forming contact protrusions. The circuit board is configured to be selectively connected to terminals provided on the circuit board.

In order to manufacture such a keypad, a printing process for printing letters or numbers on a film fabric made of polyurethane, a forming process for forming the film fabric to have a key protrusion in the form of a convex portion, and a molding process for pressing silicon into the key protrusion of the film fabric It goes through the process and cutting process.

In this case, the forming process is a process made before the molding process of pressing silicon onto the film fabric, and is a process of making the iron shape by heat-compressing the film fabric to form a space filled with silicon on the keypad during the silicon molding operation. Therefore, even if a slight temperature deviation or position shift occurs, the position of the silicon filling becomes distorted, causing the text of the keypad to be distorted.

However, the conventional forming process is performed by a metal mold manufactured by cutting a metal material, so that the temperature variation in the metal mold is severe as the process proceeds. Due to such thermal deviation, the frequency of shape position distortion and foaming wrinkle defects was high when the keypad was manufactured, as shown in FIG. 1 (a). Also, a film fabric adhered to the metal mold surface, which was not easily separated, resulting in a large amount of defective products. There was a problem that occurred.

The present invention is to solve the above problems according to the prior art. That is, an object of the present invention is to form a forming mold used in the manufacture of keypad rubber with silicon to reduce the forming deformation and surface wrinkles caused by the thermal deviation of the conventional metal mold to increase the productivity of the keypad rubber and reduce the defective rate of the product The present invention provides a silicone mold for manufacturing a keypad and a method of manufacturing a keypad rubber using the same.

As a technical idea for achieving the above object, the present invention comprises a top mold portion comprising a heat heater plate and a thermal sensor, and a bottom mold portion comprising a heat heater plate and a thermal sensor, the bottom mold The upper surface of the part is made of silicon, the silicon forming pad is formed on the upper surface is formed with a pattern for forming the keypad, the lower surface of the upper mold portion of the shape corresponding to the keypad forming pattern formed on the silicon forming pad mounted on the lower mold portion The groove is formed to provide a silicone mold for keypad production, characterized in that the film fabric for the keypad is formed by hot pressing using a silicon forming pad.

In addition, the present invention provides a film printing process for forming a print layer on the surface and the back of the film fabric, a forming process for forming a key projection by heating and pressing using a mold on the printed film fabric, and a liquid silicone on the bottom of the printed film After filling, the molding process of forming pressing protrusions, connecting ribs and contact protrusions on the bottom of the key protrusion through heating and pressing, the coating process of forming a coating layer on the film surface, and the cutting process of cutting the edges according to the shape of the product It is configured to include, wherein the forming process is a method of manufacturing a keypad rubber, characterized in that the forming of the key protrusion by using a silicon forming pad formed with a keypad forming pattern on the upper surface as a mold to prevent the deformation of the keypad and the occurrence of surface wrinkles To provide.

According to the present invention, a method for manufacturing a silicon mold for a keypad and a keypad rubber using the same can reduce the forming deformation and the surface wrinkles caused by the heat deviation of the metal mold, and the film fabric is easily separated from the mold, and thus the metal mold and Scratch of the film fabric caused by the friction of the does not occur, it is possible to increase the productivity of the keypad rubber and reduce the defective rate of the product.

In addition, compared to the metal mold produced by cutting the metal material, the silicon is not only inexpensive, but also easy to cut, thereby reducing the time and cost required to manufacture the mold.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a silicone mold for manufacturing a keypad according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is an illustration of a forming process using a silicone mold for manufacturing a keypad according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the silicone mold for manufacturing a keypad of the present invention is largely composed of an upper mold part 100 and a lower mold part 200.

The upper mold part 100 has a sink 110 connected to and fixed to a forming machine (not shown) for controlling temperature deviation management and forming of the silicon mold for keypad manufacturing from the upper side, the upper holder 120, and the upper insulation plate 130. ), The upper thermal heater plate 140, the upper thermal sensor 160, the upper die 150 is mounted in order, and comprises a top guide pin 170 for fixing and coupling the mounted devices.

The lower mold part 200 is mounted from the lower side to the lower holder 210, the lower heat insulation plate 220, the lower heat heater plate 230, the lower heat sensor 260, the lower fixing plate 240, and the forming mold plate 250. And a lower guide pin 270 that fixes and couples the mounted devices. In addition, a silicon forming pad 280 formed by cutting silicon is mounted at the center of the upper surface of the forming die plate 250, and the upper die part 150 has a lower end portion 100 on the upper die 150 to heat-compress the film fabric. When seated on the mold unit 200, a silicon forming pad groove 180 is formed to allow the silicon forming pad 280 mounted on the lower portion to enter the upper die 150.

The silicon forming pad 280 is made of silicon, and the upper surface is formed with a keypad-formed convex portion configured to form a convex-shaped key protrusion in the film fabric according to a desired arrangement of the keypad. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 3A, the film fabric 300 is shown in FIG. 3B between the silicon forming pad 280 mounted on the upper surface of the lower mold and the upper die 150 of the upper mold. As described above, the iron protrusion-shaped key protrusion is formed on the film fabric 300 by being hot pressed.

The upper and lower thermal sensors 160 and 260 sense the temperature of the upper mold part 100 and the lower mold part 200, respectively, and transmit the detected temperature to the forming machine, and the forming machine heats the upper and lower parts according to the received temperature. By controlling the temperature of the plate (140, 230) to maintain the temperature of the silicon mold for keypad manufacturing.

In addition, at four corners of the forming die plate 250 mounted on the silicon mold for manufacturing a keypad, a setting pin 290 fitted into the pin hole 190 formed in the upper die 150 is distributed in a rectangular shape. The setting pin 290 may be seated in the correct position when the upper mold portion 100 is seated on the lower mold portion 200 to heat-compress the film fabric.

As described above, in the conventional keypad molding, by forming the forming pad with a metal material, the thermal deviation in the metal mold constituting the forming pad is very large, and the thermal deviation is transferred to the film fabric as it is, and thus, FIG. Forming deformation and distortion occurred as shown in (a). On the other hand, when the forming process is performed using a forming pad made of silicon as in the present invention, heat is uniformly distributed on the forming pad and the thermal deviation is small, thus forming as shown in FIG. Deformation and surface wrinkles can be minimized.

In addition, the silicon itself has very low compatibility with other materials, and due to its little bonding force, the film fabric is easily separated from the silicon forming pad, and the film fabric generated by friction with the existing metal mold. Scratch occurrence of the can also be significantly reduced.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of manufacturing a keypad rubber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, first, a film printing process of printing a release layer, a hard coating layer, a color layer, a writing layer, and an adhesive layer in order to form a release agent layer, a hard coating layer, a letter, a number, or a pattern on a thin film form is performed (S310). ). Film fabrics generally use PET (polyester) or PC (poly carbonate) film in the keypad manufacturing industry, but nylon resin, polyamide resin, polyester resin, EVOH (ethylene vinylalcohol copolymer) resin, polyurethane, polyethylene resin or Polypropylene resin and the like can be selected. In the embodiment of the present invention, urethane was used as the film fabric, and film printing was performed by a silk screen method.

Subsequently, the printed film fabric is heat-compressed with a silicon mold through a forming process, so that a key protrusion having a convex shape according to an arrangement of a desired keypad is formed on the film fabric (S320). In the forming process, as shown in FIG. 3A, the film fabric 300 is placed between the silicon forming pad 280 mounted on the upper surface of the lower mold part and the upper die 150 of the upper mold part. As shown in the figure, the iron protrusion-shaped key protrusions are formed on the film fabric 300 by heat pressing. At this time, the temperature of the upper mold portion is about 70 ℃ ~ 120 ℃, the temperature of the lower mold portion is maintained for about 5 ~ 10 seconds while maintaining the temperature of about 60 ℃ ~ 110 ℃.

Subsequently, in the molding process, a predetermined amount of liquid silicone is added to the bottom surface of the printed film fabric, followed by heating and pressing to form a plurality of pressing protrusions, connecting ribs, and contact protrusions at positions corresponding to the key protrusions formed on the film fabric (S330). .

Subsequently, a coating layer having abrasion resistance and heat resistance is formed on the surface of the film through the coating process (S340), and the edge of the keypad rubber molded through the cutting process is cut according to the shape of the product (S350).

In the manufacturing method of the keypad rubber according to the present invention configured as described above by performing a forming process using a silicon forming pad, the heat dissipation and thermal deviation in the mold is small, forming deformation and surface wrinkles do not easily occur, the film fabric is easily in the mold It is separated, it is possible to reduce the scratch (scratch) of the film fabric generated by the friction with the existing metal mold. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the defects that can occur in the existing silicon molding process.

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes are possible in the art without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be clear to those of ordinary knowledge.

1 shows a comparison of a poorly formed keypad with a forming deformation and surface wrinkles and a well formed keypad.

Figure 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a silicon mold for keypad production according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is an illustration of a forming process using a silicon mold for keypad production according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing a method of manufacturing a keypad rubber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: upper mold 110: sink

120: upper holder 130: upper insulation plate

140: upper heat heater plate 150: upper die

160: upper thermal sensor 170: upper guide pin

180: groove 190: pin hole

200: lower mold portion 210: lower holder

220: lower heat insulating plate 230: lower heat heater plate

240: lower fixing plate 250: forming mold plate

260: lower thermal sensor 270: lower guide pin

280: silicon forming pad 280: setting pin

Claims (4)

In the mold for keypad production, An upper mold part including a heat heater plate and a heat sensor; A lower mold part including a heat heater plate and a heat sensor; Consists of including The upper surface of the lower mold portion is made of silicon, the upper surface is equipped with a silicon forming pad formed with a pattern for forming a keypad, By forming a groove having a shape corresponding to the pattern for forming the keypad formed on the silicon forming pad attached to the lower mold portion on the lower surface of the upper mold portion, A silicone mold for keypad manufacturing, characterized in that the film fabric for keypad is formed by heat pressing using a silicon forming pad. delete In the manufacturing method of the keypad rubber, A film printing step of forming a printing layer on the film fabric surface and back surface; A forming process of forming a key protrusion through heat pressing using a mold on the printed film fabric; Forming a pressurized protrusion, a connecting rib, and a contact protrusion on the bottom of the key protrusion by heating and compressing the liquid silicon on the bottom of the printed film; A coating step of forming a coating layer on the film surface; Cutting process for cutting the edge according to the shape of the product; Consists of including The forming process, A method of manufacturing a keypad rubber, comprising: forming a key protrusion using a silicon forming pad having a keypad forming pattern formed on the upper surface thereof as a mold to prevent forming deformation and surface wrinkles of the keypad; The method of claim 3, wherein The forming process, It is performed using a silicon forming pad mounted on the upper mold, the lower mold and the upper surface of the lower mold, The temperature of the upper mold portion is 70 ℃ ~ 120 ℃, the temperature of the lower mold portion of the keypad rubber manufacturing method, characterized in that performed for 5 to 10 seconds in a state maintained at 60 ℃ ~ 110 ℃.

Images