Antibacterial keyboard

Details Antibacterial keyboard Antibacterial keyboard

1997-06-16

2001-04-03

Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)

Music

Instruments

General features

C424S405000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06211450

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to antibacterial keys for musical instruments having a keyboard to which antibacterial treatment is performed for preventing the proliferation of bacteria thereon.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An antibacterial bacterial key is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application NO. 7-107373. An antibacterial function is added to a keyboard because a musical instrument having a keyboard is often used commonly by a large number of persons, particularly, in school, so that there is a fear that bacteria attached on fingers of a person be transferred to fingers of another person who next plays the musical instrument through the keyboard. An antibacterial key comprises a key stick and a key cover adhered to the upper surface of the key stick. The key cover is made of synthetic resin containing an antibacterial agent. Specifically, calcium phosphate including metal silver is used as the antibacterial agent. A predetermined amount of the antibacterial agent is added to a palette of acrylic resin, uniformly distributed therein, and molded by injection molding. According to this structure, the antibacterial effect of the antibacterial agent included in the key cover prevents bacteria from proliferating on the key, thus maintaining the cleanliness on the key as well as preventing discoloration of the key.
However, with the conventional antibacterial key, since the key cover is formed by injection molding acrylic resin containing an antibacterial agent, the antibacterial agent acts as an impurity during the injection molding, thus disadvantageously causing difficulties in producing a uniform key cover, for example, moire patterns may appear on the surface of a molded key cover. Therefore, the yield of the molds is reduced, and this causes the cost to increase.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an antibacterial key which is capable of readily adding an antibacterial function at a low cost irrespective of a material or a manufacturing method of a key cover.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided an antibacterial key which comprises a key stick and a key cover adhered to the upper surface of the key stick with an adhesive layer, wherein the adhesive layer includes an adhesive containing a volatile antibacterial agent.
According to this antibacterial key, the adhesive layer exposes on the side surfaces of the key between the key stick and the key cover, so that the antibacterial agent included in the adhesive layer always volatilizes from the side surfaces to the outside to surround the key. Thus, the action of the antibacterial agent prevents bacteria from proliferating on the key, resulting in maintaining the cleanliness of the key as well as preventing discoloration due to the proliferation of bacteria.
In this way, the antibacterial key of the present invention provides an antibacterial effect by the antibacterial agent volatilizing from the adhesive, so that an antibacterial function can be added irrespective of a material or a manufacturing method of the key cover. Particularly, when a key cover is molded by injection molding acrylic resin, the addition of an antibacterial agent to the acrylic resin is not required, so that defective molds due to the addition are eliminated, resulting in an increased yield and hence a reduced cost. Also, the antibacterial function can be readily added to any key only by adding the antibacterial agent to an adhesive generally used in the manufacture of keys.
Preferably, the key cover is made of a porous material. An artificial ivory often used generally in key covers falls under this porous material. With this construction, the antibacterial agent included in the adhesive layer volatilizes not only from the side surfaces of the key but also from the upper surface of the key cover after the antibacterial agent passes through the pores and permeates the key cover, thus making it possible to more effectively perform the antibacterial function.
Also preferably, the antibacterial agent comprises calcium phosphate containing one or more metals selected from a group including silver, copper, and zinc. According to this construction, the antibacterial activity possessed by these metals provides an effective antibacterial effect. In this case, metal silver is particularly preferable since it has been used as table services, coronas, and so on and exhibits high safety to human bodies. In addition, when calcium phosphate is used as a carrier for carrying a metal, the safety can be ensured.


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patent: 4-264003 (1992-09-01), None
patent: 5-97619 (1993-04-01), None
patent: 5-339509 (1993-12-01), None
patent: 7-44156 (1995-02-01), None

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