JPH0650192U - Illuminated key - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] The purpose of this invention is an illuminated system in which the characters etc. displayed on the key top are always clear and there is no damage over time, and efficient and uniform illumination can be achieved. To provide a key. In the illuminated key according to the present invention, a non-actuating part and an actuating part connected to the non-acting part are integrally formed of a light-transmissive soft rubber, a light-transmissive elastomer or a light-transmissive soft resin. Along with this, the operating portion is provided with a button portion which forms an annular collar portion on the peripheral edge thereof and projects upward, and the indicator portion on the upper surface of the button portion or the remaining portion excluding the indicator portion and the peripheral portion thereof. The upper surface, the side surface of the button portion and the upper surface of the annular flange portion are formed with a coating layer of non-translucent synthetic resin.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a compact illuminated key which is convenient for use as various mobile communication keys such as mobile phones and car phones, and other various terminal keys when used at night or in dark places.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 As a conventional illuminated key of this type, since a character printing layer such as numbers and symbols is formed on the surface of the key top, there is a problem that characters and the like disappear with time. There were also problems such as the characters displayed on the keys were not clearly displayed at night or in dark places.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 An object of the present invention is to provide an illuminated key in which characters or the like displayed on the key top are always clear, are not damaged with time, and can be illuminated efficiently and uniformly. .

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In the illuminated key according to the present invention, the non-actuating part and the actuating part connected to the non-acting part are integrally formed of translucent soft rubber, translucent elastomer or translucent soft resin, and The actuating part has an annular collar part formed on the periphery thereof and is provided with a button part projecting upward, and a sign part such as a numeral or a sign on the upper surface of the button part or a remaining upper surface excluding the sign part and the peripheral part thereof. The side surface of the button portion and the upper surface of the annular collar portion are covered with a non-translucent synthetic resin. In addition, the marking portion such as numbers and symbols formed on the upper surface of the button portion is formed by a dot-shaped, partially cutout-shaped or continuous light-transmitting convex portion. Further, in the illuminated key according to the present invention, a key top portion made of a translucent material is installed on the upper surface of the button portion, and a letter printing such as a number or a symbol is printed on the back surface of the key top portion. Layer, and a colored or colorless translucent printing layer is formed on the back surface of the blank character printing layer, or a non-translucent character printing layer such as numbers and symbols is formed on the back surface of the key top portion. Then, a translucent printing layer is formed on the back surface including the character printing layer.

[0005]

【Example】

 FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view when dot characters are formed based on the structure of FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing notched characters and continuous characters based on the structure of FIG. Reference numeral 1 is a keypad in which the non-actuated portion 1a and the actuated portion 1b are integrally formed of a transparent material of a transparent elastomer such as silicone rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, nitrile rubber, polyester-based or polyimide-based thermoplastic elastomer. Is. As shown in FIG. 1, the actuating portion 1b has a structure in which the actuating portion 1b is supported by a thin skirt portion 1c which bulges upward from the upper part of the side surface of the non-actuating portion 1a. It is also possible to have a structure in which the operating portion 1b is supported by a thin skirt portion that bulges upward from an intermediate portion or a lower portion of the side surface of the non-operating portion 1a. The thin skirt portion 1c makes a click movement when the switch is turned on and off.

An annular flange 1d is formed at a position connected to the upper end of the skirt portion 1c and at a portion corresponding to the periphery of the operating portion 1b. The operating portion 1b is provided with a button portion 1e projecting upward from the inside of the annular collar portion 1d, and a sign portion 2 such as a number or a symbol is integrally formed on the upper surface of the button portion 1e by the same material as the operating portion 1b. Thus, the translucent convex portion 2e is obtained. When the marker portion 2 is formed to project by the translucent convex portion 2e, the dot character 2a is formed as shown in FIG. 2, the cutout character 2b is formed as shown in FIG. 3, or the left side of FIG. It may be any of the continuous characters 2c as shown in FIG. This is because the dot character 2a and the notch character 2b are for eliminating molding defects at the time of molding due to the formation of a closed space in the numeral portion such as the numeral "8" or "0".

An annular groove 3 is formed on the inner side of the upper surface of the annular collar 1d. The depth of the annular groove 3 is equivalent to the total thickness of the thickness of the coating layer 4 formed of a non-translucent synthetic resin described later and the thickness of the primer 5 for thermally bonding the coating layer 4 to the operating portion 1b. Form. In FIG. 1, a coating layer 4 is formed by coating the upper surface of the remaining button portion 1e excluding the marking portion 2 and the side surface of the button portion 1e and the upper surface of the annular collar portion 1d with a non-translucent synthetic resin. At least the annular groove 3 is treated with the primer 5 so that the coating layer 4 can be thermally adhered to the operating portion 1b. Thus, the upper surface of the remaining button portion 1e excluding the marking portion 2, the side surface of the button portion 1e, and the upper surface of the annular collar portion 1d are covered with a non-translucent synthetic resin, and the covering layer 4 is non-translucent. The reason why we decided to use synthetic resin is to prevent light leakage to the outside with as little coating as possible, to enable efficient coating, and to reduce the frictional resistance with the adjacent frame 6 to ensure smoothness. This is so that up and down operation can be performed.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this illuminated key, a key top portion 7 formed of a translucent material (any material may be used as long as it is translucent, such as glass) may be installed on the upper surface of the button portion 1e ( In this case, the printed character printing layer 8 for numbers, symbols, etc. is formed on the back surface of the key top portion 7, and the back surface of the printed character printing layer 8 is colored or not colored. The optical printing layer 9 is formed. Although not shown in this example, a non-translucent character printing layer such as numbers and symbols is formed on the back surface of the key top portion 7 so as to have an inverse relationship with the characters shown in FIG. A translucent printing layer may be formed on the back surface including the character printing layer.

6 and 7 show another embodiment. The basic structure is as described above, but the major difference is that the skirt portion 1c is not formed, but the thin portion 1f is formed in the lateral direction from the proper position of the non-operating portion 1a, and the back surface of the operating portion 1b is formed. Is that the structure corresponds to the snap switch 10 or the like.

Light emitted from a light source for illumination (not shown) is transmitted through the operating portion 1b and the non-operating portion 1a formed of a translucent material, but the surface coating layer 4 and the frame. It is blocked by 6 and a part of it is reflected inward. The light transmitted through the operating portion 1b is uniformly and clearly illuminated as dot characters 2a as shown in FIG. 2 formed by the translucent convex portion 2e, or as notched characters 2b and continuous characters 2c as shown in FIG. It Also, when characters are printed, only the characters will stand out from the surrounding area.

[0011]

[Effect of device]

 According to the present invention, as can be seen from the above description, the non-actuating portion and the actuating portion connected to the non-acting portion are integrally formed of translucent soft rubber, translucent elastomer or translucent soft resin. , The operating portion is provided with a button portion projecting upward on the periphery thereof with an annular collar portion, and the upper portion of the button portion has a marking portion such as a numeral or a symbol, or the remaining portion excluding the marking portion and the peripheral portion thereof. Since the coating layer is formed on the upper surface of the and the side surface of the button portion and the upper surface of the annular collar portion with the non-translucent synthetic resin, the light emitted from the light source for illumination is blocked by the coating layer and the frame, It does not leak light to the outside, efficiently prevents light leakage with a small amount of coating, and displays dot characters, cutout characters, continuous characters, etc. that are always sharp and evenly illuminated. You can Further, since the coating layer is made of the non-translucent synthetic resin, the frictional resistance with the frame is small and the vertical movement can be smoothly performed.

Further, a key top portion formed of a translucent material is installed on the upper surface of the button portion, and a blank character printing layer such as numbers and symbols is formed on the back surface of the key top portion, A colored or colorless translucent printing layer is formed on the back surface of the blank character printing layer, or a non-translucent character printing layer such as numbers or symbols is formed on the back surface of the key top portion, and the character is printed. Since the translucent printing layer is formed on the back side including the printing layer, the character part does not appear on the surface of the key top part and it can always maintain a clear state, making the material of the key top part hard, Alternatively, it can be made softer or softer, and the sign can be made various colors in contrast with the surroundings.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view when dot characters are formed based on the structure of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing notched characters and characters formed in a continuous shape based on the structure of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a blank character made based on the structure of FIG. 4. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment having no skirt portion.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing another embodiment having no skirt portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Keypad 1a Non-operating part 1b Operating part 1c Skirt part 1d Annular collar part 1e Button part 2 Marking part 2a Dot character 2b Cutout character 2c Continuous character 2e Translucent convex part 4 Covering layer 6 Frame 7 key top part 8 blank printing layer 9 translucent printing layer

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A non-actuating part and an actuating part connected to the non-acting part are integrally formed of a light-transmissive soft rubber, a light-transmissive elastomer or a light-transmissive soft resin, and the actuating part has a peripheral edge. An annular collar portion is formed on the button portion, and a button portion that protrudes upward is provided, and a sign portion such as a numeral or a symbol on the upper surface of the button portion, or the remaining upper surface excluding the sign portion and its peripheral portion and the side surface of the button portion and An illuminated key characterized in that a coating layer is formed on the upper surface of the annular collar portion with a non-translucent synthetic resin. 2. The mark, such as a number or a symbol, formed on the upper surface of the button portion is formed by a dot-shaped, partially cutout-shaped, or continuous light-transmitting convex portion. Illuminated key. 3. A key top portion formed of a translucent material is set on the upper surface of the button portion, and a number,
A non-transparent number or symbol is formed on the back surface of the key-top portion by forming a blank character printing layer such as a symbol and forming a colored or colorless translucent printing layer on the back surface of the blank character printing layer. 2. The illuminated key according to claim 1, wherein a character printing layer such as the above is formed, and a translucent printing layer is formed on the back surface including the character printing layer.