JP2012022970A - Method for manufacturing movable contact spring, movable contact spring and switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an oval movable contact spring hardly causing cracks.SOLUTION: A method for manufacturing a movable contact spring 1 comprises: a step of stumping a plurality of oval contact plates from belt-shaped rolled material while making the direction of rolling coincide with the longitudinal direction of the contact plate, and stumping connecting parts which connects the contact plates with each other; a processing step of bending the contact plate into the shape of a dome so as to enable clicking operation; and a step of separating the contact plates from each other by cutting the connecting parts 3 from the contact plates to make the movable contact spring.

Description

  The present invention relates to a signal input switch used in electrical equipment and electronic equipment such as audio equipment, video equipment, communication equipment, and measuring equipment, and more particularly to improvement of a dome-shaped movable contact spring with a click action.

  Conventionally, as a switch used for a signal input unit of an electric device or an electronic device, a switch having a dome-shaped movable contact spring with a click action and a fixed contact portion facing the movable contact portion inside the movable contact spring is known. Are known.

  When a pressing force is applied to the top of the dome of the movable contact spring during the operation of the switch, the movable contact spring first elastically deforms, then buckles and suddenly deforms when reaching a certain pressing force, and the dome The direction of warping is reversed under the click action. At the time of this reversal, the movable contact portion and the fixed contact portion provided inside the top of the dome come into contact with each other and are electrically turned on to generate a signal corresponding to the application of the switch.

  Now, as the above-mentioned movable contact springs, circular dome-shaped ones are widely used. However, when the installation space for the circular dome-shaped movable contact springs is not available, for example, a switch is provided on the side of the mobile phone. In such a case, a movable contact spring of an oval (track-like) or elliptical dome is used.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the oval movable contact spring has different dimensions in the longitudinal direction and the short direction, and is deformed in the longitudinal direction rather than the short direction in shape. When pressure is applied, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the dome is inverted so that the oval movable contact spring is bent with a line parallel to the short direction as a bending line. For this reason, there is a problem that cracks along the short direction (bending line) are likely to occur. In particular, when the bending line and the rolling direction of the spring material (roll eyes) are in the same direction, this problem becomes significant.

JP 2005-26129 A

  Therefore, a problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an oval movable contact spring in which cracks parallel to the lateral direction are unlikely to occur.

  Based on the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is directed to a method of manufacturing a movable contact spring, wherein a plurality of oval contact plates are made of a strip-shaped rolled material so that the rolling direction coincides with the longitudinal direction of the contact plates. A punching process for punching and connecting parts connecting the contact plates, a machining process for bending the contact plates into a dome shape to enable a click operation, and cutting the connecting parts from the contact plates to contact plates It is comprised from the isolation | separation process which isolate | separates each other and makes it a movable contact spring.

  The invention of claim 2 provides a movable contact spring manufactured by the manufacturing method of claim 1.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the switch is brought into contact with the fixed contact on the substrate to be assembled with the movable contact spring at both ends in the longitudinal direction, and a gap is formed between both the longitudinal edges of the substrate and the contact plate. It is formed.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the method of manufacturing a movable contact spring according to the first aspect, the connecting portion extends from a side edge in the longitudinal direction of the contact plate in a direction intersecting the rolling direction. And

  Since the movable contact spring was manufactured so that the rolling direction and the longitudinal direction of the contact plate coincided, a pressing force was applied to the top of the dome of the movable contact spring, and the movable contact spring had a line parallel to the short direction as a bending line. Even if it bends so that it bends, since the bend line and the rolling direction cross each other, cracks parallel to the bend line (short direction) are unlikely to occur, and the life of the movable contact spring can be extended. , 2).

  The switch in which the movable contact spring is incorporated is brought into contact with the fixed contact on the substrate to be incorporated at the both end edges in the longitudinal direction, and a gap is formed between both longitudinal edges of the substrate and the contact plate. Thus, the switch stroke can be increased (claim 3).

(A) It is a top view of the movable contact spring of this invention. (B) It is sectional drawing which shows the use condition of the movable contact spring of this invention. It is AA sectional drawing in Fig.1 (a), (a) is the state in which the pressing force is not applied, (b) shows the state in which the pressing force was added. It is a BB sectional view in Drawing 1 (a), (a) shows the state where pressing force is not applied, and (b) shows the state where pressing force was applied. It is a top view which shows the example of the installation position of the connection part which connects contact plates, (a) is an example which a connection part extends in the direction which cross | intersects with a rolling direction, (b) is a connection part in a rolling direction. An example extending in a parallel direction will be shown.

  FIG. 1 (a) shows an oval movable contact spring 1 of the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) shows a switch 10 as its usage mode. The movable contact spring 1 is composed of a single contact plate obtained by punching a spring material such as stainless steel, phosphor bronze, or beryllium copper rolled to a thickness of about 0.04 to 0.1 mm into an oval shape with a major axis of 3 to 6 mm. Has been.

  The movable contact spring 1 is manufactured by the following process. First, in the punching process, an oval contact plate is punched from a strip-shaped rolled material so that the rolling direction coincides with the longitudinal direction of the contact plate. At this time, the connecting portion 3 for connecting the contact plates as shown in FIG. 4A or FIG. 4B is formed at the same time, and the plurality of contact plates are connected by the connecting portion 3 in the next processing step. Sent to.

  In the processing step, the contact plate is processed into a dome shape by bending, for example, press processing, and then the connecting portions 3 are cut and separated one by one in the separation step, whereby the movable contact spring 1 is completed.

  An example of how the movable contact spring 1 is used will be described with reference to FIG. 1B. The movable contact spring 1 is placed on the upper surface of the substrate 2 in a positioned state, and is fixed on the substrate 2. A gap is formed between the substrate 2 and both longitudinal edges 1b of the movable contact spring 1 in contact with the contact 4 at both longitudinal edges 1a. The movable contact spring 1 is positioned with respect to the substrate 2 by, for example, covering a plastic adhesive sheet (not shown) from above the movable contact spring 1 and attaching it to the substrate 2.

  When the operator applies a pressing force to the top of the movable contact spring 1, the movable contact spring 1 is first elastically deformed, then buckles and suddenly deforms when reaching a certain pressing force, and the dome warps. Is reversed under a click action, the central portion 5 of the movable contact spring 1 and the fixed contact 6 come into contact with each other, and is electrically turned on to generate a signal corresponding to the application of the switch. The central portion 5 of the movable contact spring 1 may be provided with a single or multi-point contact that is convex or concave as required.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, when a pressing force is applied to the movable contact spring 1, the degree of deformation is greater in the longitudinal direction than the short direction of the movable contact spring 1, and there are many deformation portions. The movable contact spring is bent so as to bend and form a bend line parallel to the short direction, and the dome is inverted. Therefore, cracks along the bending line (short direction) are likely to occur. On the other hand, the strength of the rolling material used as the material of the movable contact spring 1 is generally stronger in the direction perpendicular to the rolling direction than in the direction parallel to the rolling direction. Therefore, in the present invention, the rolling direction and the longitudinal direction of the movable contact spring 1 are made to coincide with each other so that the bending line (short direction) and the rolling direction intersect so that cracks parallel to the bending line do not easily occur. I have to.

  The connecting portion 3 may be formed so as to extend in a direction crossing the rolling direction as shown in FIG. 4A, or extended in a direction parallel to the rolling direction as shown in FIG. You may form so that it may exist.

  In addition, when the shift | offset | difference arises in cutting of the connection part 3, the stress which generate | occur | produces in a cutting part will generate | occur | produce and the said part may be damaged early, but in the case of FIG. Since the connecting part 3 is in a different place, there is no effect of the excision deviation on the life.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Movable contact spring 1a End edge 1b Side edge 2 Board | substrate 3 Connection part 4 Fixed contact 5 Center part 6 Fixed contact 10 Switch

Claims (3)

Punching a plurality of oval contact plates from a strip-shaped rolled material with the rolling direction and the longitudinal direction of the contact plates coinciding with each other, and punching a connecting portion that connects the contact plates;
A processing step that allows the click operation by bending the contact plate into a dome shape;
A method of manufacturing a movable contact spring, comprising: a separation step of cutting the connecting portion from the contact plate to separate the contact plates to form a movable contact spring.   A movable contact spring manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1.   A switch characterized in that the movable contact spring is brought into contact with a fixed contact on a substrate to be incorporated at both end edges in the longitudinal direction, and a gap is formed between both edges in the longitudinal direction of the substrate and the contact plate.

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