JPS602323A - Apparatus for producing operation displaying body - 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 The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing operation display bodies, such as switch boards, keyboards, and input devices.

The invention relates to manufacturing devices for various operation displays where operation positions or input information are displayed, such as tablet input devices.

In a key that is used in the keyboard of a small electronic calculator, etc., which has a row of operation displays, a contact member is attached to the center of the back of a push button switch formed in a dome shape from a rubber elastic body. , A blank number indicating the role of the key is placed on the top of the key top of the push button switch.
Generally, symbols such as performance symbols are printed on them. This code is printed by applying ink to the key tongue surface of the push button switch. However, with conventional printing as described above, it is difficult to print if the key tongue surface of the pushbutton switch is not flat, and the printed symbol is printed in an embossed state on the key top surface. It has drawbacks such as being easy to peel off and spoiling the appearance of the push button switch. Silicone is also used as a material for rubber pushbutton switches because it has excellent durability, heat resistance, multiplier properties, good colorability, and no changes in properties such as hardness and elasticity due to changes in vorticity. Rubber is often used.

When the rubber push button switch is made of silicone rubber, in addition to the above-mentioned drawbacks, the non-adhesive nature of the silicone/rubber makes it difficult for printing ink to get on, printing requires rotation, and vulcanization method 7 silicone rubber. Because of printing, undried ink tends to bleed into the surrounding area immediately after printing.
It has the disadvantage that it is difficult to hold extremely fine wires, and a solution to this problem has been desired.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the applicant of the present application proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 56-85565 that a silicone elastomer and a silicone elastomer were added to a predetermined part of the mold for forming an operation display body using 7 silicone elastomer as a class G. A transfer plate with a predetermined code attached using a printing ink containing a similar vulcanization mechanism is placed, and the mold is pressurized and heated to heat the silicone elastomer in the mold and the printing ink on the transfer plate. We have proposed a method for manufacturing an operation display body in which the aforementioned symbols and the like are integrally attached to the display surface of the operation display body formed by a mold by sulfurization.

The present invention proposes an improvement in the manufacturing apparatus used to carry out the method for manufacturing the operation display body described above.

The purpose of this is to use a material with excellent heat resistance, pressure resistance, smoothness, and peelability for the transfer plate to improve the durability of the transfer plate against heating and pressure of the mold, and to improve the durability of the transfer plate against the heating and pressure of the mold. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for manufacturing an operation display body that improves the printing accuracy of printing ink and the transferability of printing ink from a transfer plate.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing an operation display body, which prevents misalignment during transfer of printing ink and enables accurate transfer of codes, etc. by forming irregularities of several microns on the surface of a transfer plate. I'm going to do it.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention can be applied to an operation display body that is manually operated by an operator or a user, and has various uses, but the following explanation will be given by taking as an example the case where the present invention is applied to a push button switch.

In FIG. 1, which is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a mold for manufacturing a push button switch, reference number 1 is a die formed in the mold, upper mold 2. Medium size 3. It consists of a lower die 4, a transfer plate 5 inserted between an upper die 2 and a middle die 3. 2′.

3', 4', and 5' are the upper mold 2. Medium size 3. These are guide holes provided on both sides of the lower mold 4° transfer plate 5, and are provided in a row so as to overlap each other. 6 is a guide bin, which is attached to the upper die 2. Medium size 3, bottom size 4. The transfer plate 5 has guide holes 2' and 3' in the guide hinge 6.
, 4', and 5' are overlapped as shown in the figure. Also, as can be seen from Figure 5, the middle mold 3 and the lower mold 4 have holes 7 for forming molds with each other. A convex portion 8 is provided, and the convex portion 8 faces the hole 7 when the medium mold 3 and the square mold 4 are stacked.

Further, while the transfer plate 5 is being held between the upper die 2 and the middle mold 3, a part of the transfer plate 5 always protrudes from the upper part of the hole 7 of the middle die 3.

Next, the transfer plate 5 will be explained. The material of the transfer plate 5 has a certain heat resistance (in the case of non-example, a heat resistance of 1800~
・200C) and pressure resistance (200-250 Kg/J
), the surface of which has high releasability so that the printed ink can be transferred reliably and easily, and which has highly accurate printing that clearly shows the outline of codes, etc. A very smooth @ corner is used to allow this.

The structure of the mold 1 is as described above, and next, a method for manufacturing a rubber push button according to the present invention using the mold 1 will be explained.

First, a predetermined code or character 9 (hereinafter simply referred to as 9) to be printed on the push button switch is printed on the surface 5A of the transfer plate 5 protruding from the hole 7 of the medium 3 as shown in FIG.
is attached by screen printing with printing ink. Therefore, the reference numeral 9 is attached to the transfer plate 5 in a state that it stands out from the surface 5A. Also, as a printing ink in this case.

The ink is made by mixing a polysiloxane polymer and a colored pigment. As mentioned above, the transfer plate 5 has a flat surface that is removable, so the reference numeral 9 is attached to the transfer plate 5 with a weak force that facilitates transfer without strongly adhering to the transfer plate 5, and due to its smoothness. Good printing accuracy is obtained and the outline of symbol 9 appears extremely clearly. Third
In the figure, the upper mold 2 and the middle mold 3 are superimposed and clamped on the transfer plate 5 to which the reference numeral 9 is attached as described above, and this state is further fixed by appropriate means. Next, silicone rubber 10 of a predetermined size, which will be the raw material for the push button switch, is placed on the convex portion 8 of the lower mold 4, and the upper mold 2, transfer plate 5, and middle mold 3 are stacked and fixed on top of it. Pass the guide bin 6 all the way through and overlap it. Further, the stacked molds 1 are heated and pressurized by a press machine as shown below.

In FIG. 4 showing an example of a press machine, 11 is a press machine, 12 is a guide post, 13 is a heating plate fixed to the upper part of the guide post 12, and 14 is a guide post 12.
The heating plate 15 is movably attached to the bottom of the heating plate 1.
4 is a pressurizing machine that moves up and down. If the mold 1 is mounted on the hot platen 14 of the press machine 11 as shown in the figure, and the hot platen 14 is raised by the pressure machine 15, the mold 1 is pressurized by the hot platen 13 and the mature platen 14. Heating takes place.

By pressurizing and heating the mold 1 as described above, the silicone rubber 10 is compressed in the middle mold 3 and the lower mold 4 to form a rubber compression switch as shown in FIG. The code 9 attached to the 7 silicone rubber 10 is vulcanized while in pressure contact with the silicone rubber 10, and is integrated with the silicone rubber 10, thereby being transferred from the transfer plate 5 to the silicone rubber 10 side.

This is because code 9 is made from a polysiloxane polymer that has a similar vulcanization mechanism to silicone rubber 10.
As described above, this method takes advantage of the property that if two materials having similar vulcanization mechanisms are vulcanized while being pressed against each other, they will be integrated. Therefore, when the mold 1 is removed thereafter, the push button switch 16 is formed, and the reference numeral 9 is integrally attached to the key top surface thereof (FIG. 6). It goes without saying that the transfer to the silicone rubber 10 side using the integration by vulcanization of one or more of the reference numerals 9 can be carried out extremely well and reliably since the surface of the transfer plate 5 has excellent releasability.

Now, in 1 and above, the device including the transfer plate 5 whose surface 5A is smooth and removable has been described, but the transfer plate 5
If the smoothness of the surface 5A is too good.

It is undesirable that the printed code 9 may shift on the 79 cone rubber 10 during transfer due to the pressure and heat of the press machine 11, and the shape of the transferred code 9 may become blurred. The above drawbacks can be completely solved by making the transfer plate 5 have the following structure. That is, the surface 5 of the transfer plate 50
Irregularities of several micrometers are formed on the entire surface of A or on a portion where numeral 9 is to be attached. Ink and transfer plate 5 caused by this unevenness
Due to the frictional force between the two parts, the displacement during pressing (9) is well controlled, and stable and accurate transfer is achieved. Therefore, the code 9 after transfer appears clearly without fraying. The above-mentioned irregularities on the transfer plate 5 are formed by, for example, sandblasting. Further, since the above-mentioned irregularities are formed to have a size of several microns, the releasability and smoothness of the transfer plate 5 are hardly impaired. Therefore, the transferability and printing accuracy of the transfer plate 5 described above are maintained well.

In addition, in one or more of the explanations, as a raw material for the push button switch 16 /
Although an example using silicone rubber has been shown, if you are not satisfied with this, you may also use a mixture of silicone rubber and signal rubber or a silicone-based elastomer.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the transfer plate is made of a material that has a certain heat resistance and pressure resistance and has a surface that is highly removable and smooth, the transfer plate can withstand pressure and heat applied to the mold. In addition to improving the durability of the plate, good printing accuracy with ink can be obtained and is reliable, and misalignment during transfer of codes, etc. is well prevented and accurate transfer is performed. Then, a clear code display without any blurred binding can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a mold for forming a push button switch (rubber push button part) according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of a transfer plate placed in the mold, and FIG. Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the operation of the mold, Figure 4 is an overview diagram showing an example of a press machine, Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view showing silicone rubber pressed in the mold, and Figure 6 is a push button switch. A side sectional view showing an example. Here, 1...mold, 2...upper mold, 3...middle mold,
4... Lower mold, 5... Transfer plate, 6... Guide bin, 9
... code, 10 ... 7 silicone rubber, 11 ... press i machine, 12 ... guide boss, 13.14 ... heating plate,
15...pressure machine, 16...push button switch. Patent applicant: Toho Polymer Co., Ltd. Figure 1 To 1 Figure 3 Figure 2 4th cause 50 6th cause

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A mold that forms the operation display body using silicone elastomer as a raw material, and a predetermined part within the mold (installed) that has a certain heat resistance and pressure resistance, and has a surface that is removable and smooth. A transfer plate made of a material on which predetermined codes, characters, etc. are printed using printing ink containing a vulcanization mechanism similar to that of the 7 silicone elastomer, and pressurization and heating of the mold. by applying pressure and heating to the mold by the pressurizing means and the heating means.
The 7 silicone elastomer and the code/characters, etc. are vulcanized and integrated, and the code/characters, etc. are transferred to the display surface of the operation display formed in the mold. Manufacturing equipment for operation display bodies. (2) The apparatus for manufacturing an operation display body according to claim 1, wherein the material of the transfer plate is a stainless steel plate. (3) The apparatus for manufacturing an operation display body according to claim 1, wherein the material of the transfer plate is a synthetic plastic plate. (4) A mold for forming an operation display using silicone elastomer as a raw material, and a mold that has a certain heat resistance and pressure resistance, and is installed at a predetermined location within the mold, and has a surface that is removable and smooth. A transfer plate on which predetermined codes, characters, etc. are printed using a printing ink containing a vulcanization mechanism similar to that of the silicone-based elastomer, and at least the portion printed by the printing ink on the surface is di/ The silicone elastomer is provided with the transfer plate on which the irregularities of I\ are formed and means for applying pressure and heat to the mold, and the silicone-based elastomer is and the code/characters, etc. are vulcanized and integrated, and the code/character format is transferred onto the display surface of the operation display body formed in the mold. .