KR20000030234A - Urethane keypad for electronic device and fabricating method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An urethane key pad of electronic products and method for fabricating the same are provided to make the key pad smooth and sticky, lower the attachment of foreign material, make a user comfortable by improving the feeling of surface, thereby increasing the reliability of the electronic products. CONSTITUTION: The electronic products employ key buttons for user's operation and a keypad which is molded to be proper to the shape of the key buttons and thus covered upon them, wherein the key pad is made of the urethane. A printing process(100) prints operation symbols of the key buttons on urethane film(U). A key pad molding process(200) inserts the printed urethane film(U) between an upper metal mold(23) and a lower metal mold(22) to mold the key pad. The key pad molding process(200) includes a step(230) of press molding by the upper metal mold(23) coupled to an up/down cylinder(24) and a step(210) of adsorption molding by the lower metal mold(22) connected to a vacuum pumper(P). A completion process(300) pours silicon into the molded key pad.

Description

Urethane keypad for electronic products and its manufacturing method {URETHANE KEYPAD FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND FABRICATING METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a urethane keypad of an electronic product, and more particularly, to a urethane keypad of an electronic product and a method of manufacturing the same, since a urethane keypad is used for a telephone or a mobile phone, so that it is not soft and slippery and foreign matters are not easily attached. It is about.

In general, a remote control of a telephone, a mobile phone, or a home appliance is provided with a key button in which a numeric key, an alphanumeric key, or a function key is combined for a user's operation. These key buttons are generally used a lot of rubber keypads so as not to slip during the user's operation.

However, such a rubber keypad has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to distinguish the key buttons because the numbers or symbols printed on the upper surface of the keypad are often erased. In the case of a mobile phone that frequently uses key buttons, a polycarbonate is printed using a number or symbol printed on the back of the keypad to compensate for the above disadvantage.

A method of manufacturing a keypad using the polycarbonate is as follows. As shown in FIG. 1, a polycarbonate fabric film is inserted between a lower mold 2 having a key button-shaped recessed groove and an upper mold 3 corresponding to the lower mold 2. Then, by pressing the upper mold (3) using a cylinder (4) using hydraulic or pneumatic crimping the polycarbonate fabric film to form a keypad. In the drawing, reference numeral 9 denotes a main controller.

As described above, in the case of forming the keypad using the polycarbonate fabric film, as shown in FIG. 2, since the pressing is performed through a mold, the height portion of the key button, that is, both sides 13 in the vertical direction is stretched. However, the top surface 11 and the bottom surface 15 of the horizontal direction is not stretched, and thus the surface state of the top surface 11 and the bottom surface 15 of the keypad is different from each other, and the bent portion that is extended and bent There is a problem that damage to (14) occurs.

In addition, when the keypad is manufactured using the polycarbonate, the texture is hard and slippery, and foreign matter adhesion properties such as cosmetics are high, and the touch surface is poor.

In addition, there is a problem that a long finger nail user due to the slip of the keypad may cause a malfunction by pressing the wrong button.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, it is soft and not slippery, low adhesion properties of foreign substances such as cosmetics, good contact surface to give a sense of stability to the user as well as increase the reliability of the mobile phone The present invention provides a urethane keypad for a mobile phone and a method of manufacturing the same.

The object of the present invention is a mobile phone having a key button provided for a user's operation and a keypad shaped to fit the shape of the key button and covered on an upper surface of the key button, wherein the keypad is formed of urethane rubber material. It is achieved by manufacturing.

The method for manufacturing the urethane keypad includes a fabric printing process for printing an operation symbol of a key button on a urethane fabric film, a keypad molding process for inserting and molding the printed urethane fabric film between an upper mold and a lower mold, wherein The keypad forming process includes pressing molding through an upper mold connected to a lifting cylinder and adsorption molding through a lower mold connected to a vacuum pump, and injecting silicon into the molded keypad and then finishing This is achieved by including a treatment step.

1 is a schematic view showing a keypad manufacturing apparatus according to the prior art.

2 is a configuration diagram showing a stretched state of a keypad according to the prior art;

Figure 3 is a schematic view showing the urethane keypad manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

4 is an enlarged view of a portion 'A' of FIG. 3.

5 is a configuration diagram showing an extended state of a keypad according to the present invention;

Figure 6 is a process chart showing a manufacturing method of the urethane keypad according to the present invention.

(Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawing)

U; Urethane fabric film 22; Lower mold

23; Upper mold 24; cylinder

25; Tubular heaters 26; Compressor piping

27; Hot plate 28; Air compressor

29; Main controller 30; Adsorption Pump Piping

100; Fabric printing process 200; Keypad molding process

210; Adsorption molding step 230; Crimping Step

250; Quenching step 300; Post-treatment process

These objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description. In addition, this embodiment is only illustrative for the purpose of understanding and is not intended to limit the present invention.

Electronics using keypads can be seen around. For example, it can be found on a telephone, a mobile phone, or a remote control of a home appliance.

Among them, the present invention is generally widely used, and will be described as an example when applied to a mobile phone frequently encountered in life.

Figure 3 is a schematic view showing a urethane keypad manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, Figure 4 is an enlarged view of the 'A' part of Figure 3, as shown in the urethane keypad of the mobile phone according to the present invention is a urethane keypad manufacturing apparatus A urethane fabric film is inserted between the upper mold 23 and the lower mold 22 to form a key button shape.

Urethane rubber, which is a urethane fabric film, refers to a rubber-like elastic body formed by a reaction between polyester or polyether and isocyanate, and has excellent wear resistance, oil resistance and ozone resistance, and a tire and a rubber roll. It is widely used in packing, packing, sole, artificial leather, etc.

Looking at the method of manufacturing a keypad using such a urethane rubber material as follows with reference to FIG.

First, a fabric printing process 100 for printing an operation symbol of a key button on a urethane fabric film U is performed. Thereafter, the printed urethane fabric film U is inserted between the upper mold 23 and the lower mold 22 to perform a keypad molding process 200.

The keypad forming process 200 is divided into two stages, the press forming step 230 through the upper mold 23 connected to the lifting cylinder 24, and the lower mold 22 connected to the vacuum pump (P) It is divided into a step 210 of adsorption molding through).

The lifting cylinder 24 for operating the upper mold may use hydraulic pressure or pneumatic pressure.

The press forming step 230 further includes a step of compressing the compressor by installing a compressor pipe 26 connected to the air compressor 28 on one side of the upper mold 23 and sending compressed air through the compressor pipe. In step 210 of the adsorption molding, an adsorption pump pipe 30 connected to a vacuum pump P is installed at one side of the lower mold 22, and suctioned into the vacuum through the adsorption pump pipe 30. So do the step of adsorption.

That is, the upper surface of the urethane fabric film U, which is a vacuum forming material placed on the upper surface of the lower mold 22, is compressed with compressed air, and the lower mold 22 corresponding to the lower mold 22 has a recessed groove formed therein, A vacuum suction pipe is connected to the lower end of the concave groove to adsorb the urethane fabric film into the concave groove to shape the keypad.

In this case, the upper mold 23 serves to pressurize the film simply by flowing into the lower mold 22 when the urethane fabric film U is adsorbed, and to compress the film into the recesses by using compressed air. Done.

In addition, by installing a tube heater 25 around one side of the compressor pipe 26 to adjust the temperature of the compressed air sent out through the upper mold 23 to 60 ° ~ 180 °, and the heated compressed air To increase the moldability of the keypad.

After performing the compression molding step and the adsorption molding step, by quenching by sending a low-temperature air of 0 ℃ to the molded urethane fabric film for 2 to 3 seconds to quench the molding step so that the urethane fabric film is not restored to its original state ( 250).

On the other hand, by installing a hot plate 27 on one side of the upper mold 23 and the lower mold 22 to adjust the temperature of the upper and lower molds (23, 22), the temperature of the upper and lower molds 60 ° ~ 180 It is preferable to make it become °.

Then, after injecting silicon into the molded keypad to perform a post-treatment step 300 to finish and then cut to fit the size of the mobile phone to complete the process. In the drawing, reference numeral 29 denotes a main controller.

In the keypad manufactured as described above, as shown in FIG. 5, the height portion of the key button, that is, both sides 33 in the vertical direction and both the upper surface 31 and the lower surface 35 in the horizontal direction are stretched. As a result, all surface states of the keypad are the same, and it is possible to reduce damage to the stretched portion and the bent portion 34.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications and changes can be made by those skilled in the art, which are included in the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

As described above, the urethane keypad of the mobile phone and the manufacturing method thereof according to the present invention are soft and non-slip, have low adhesion properties of foreign substances such as cosmetics, and have a good contact surface, which not only give the user a sense of stability but also increase the reliability of the mobile phone. It has an effect.

Claims (8)

In the electronic product having a key button provided for the user's operation, and a keypad shaped to fit the shape of the key button and covered on the upper surface of the key button, Urethane keypad of an electronic product, characterized in that the keypad is manufactured by forming a urethane rubber material. The fabric printing process of printing the operation symbol of the key button on the urethane fabric film, A keypad molding process of inserting and molding the printed urethane fabric film between one mold and the other mold; Here, the keypad forming process includes the step of compression molding through one mold connected to the lifting cylinder, and the step of adsorption molding through the other mold connected to the vacuum pump, Method of manufacturing a urethane keypad of the electronic product, characterized in that it comprises a post-treatment process to finish after injecting silicon into the molded keypad. The urethane keypad manufacturing method of claim 2, wherein a compressor pipe connected to an air compressor is installed at one side of the mold, and the pressurized pipe is compressed with air during molding. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein a tubular heater is installed around the compressor pipe to adjust the temperature of the compressed air discharged through the one mold. The method of claim 4, wherein the compressed air has a temperature of 60 ° to 180 °. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, further comprising the step of quenching for several seconds with low temperature air so that the urethane fabric film is not restored to its original state after the pressing and adsorption molding step. Urethane keypad manufacturing method of electronic products. The method for manufacturing a urethane keypad of an electronic product according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein a hot plate is provided on the one mold and the other mold to adjust the temperature of the mold. The method of claim 7, wherein the temperature of the mold is 60 ° to 180 °.