Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-31
2001-02-20
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S423001, C084S438000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06191351
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite part for an electronic musical instrument which is composed of a plurality of members joined together by a rivet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A composite part directed by the present invention may be used, for example, as a hammer in a keyboard-based musical instrument such as an electronic piano. The hammer is adapted to pivot in association with a corresponding key depressed on a keyboard to provide a touch feeling similar to that of an acoustic piano. The hammer is typically composed of a hammer body made of synthetic resin or the like, a weight attached to the hammer body for controlling key touch, and so on. Conventionally, the weight is formed of a lead-made cylinder having a predetermined weight, which is inserted into an attaching hole formed at a predetermined position of the hammer body, caulked, and laterally swelled to be attached to the hammer body. Since such a hammer is composed of the hammer body and the weight made of different materials from each other, i.e., synthetic resin and lead, the two components are preferably disassembled, when the keyboard musical instrument is disposed, from a view point of reusing resources. However, since the hammer has the weight fully embedded in the attaching hole of the hammer body, the disassembly of the hammer body and the weight presents extreme difficulties. In addition, the lead itself comprising the weight is deleterious to the environment.
For this reason, as a recent hammer for replacement with the conventional lead-based weight, there is known a hammer which uses a weight made of an iron plate or the like and formed with a rivet inserting hole, and a hammer body also formed with a rivet inserting hole, such that a rivet is inserted through the two rivet inserting holes and the leading end portion of the rivet is caulked to attach the weight to the hammer body. With this hammer, since the head of the rivet and the caulked leading end portion protrude from the hammer body, the hammer can be readily disassembled by cutting the head or the leading end portion of the rivet with an electric drill.
The foregoing hammer, however, has the head and the leading end portion, the surfaces of which are planar or curved, so that, a drill, when in contact with the head or the leading end portion for disassembling the hammer, is susceptible to slippage, and therefore is difficult in positioning the center thereof, resulting in inefficient disassembling works.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the problem mentioned above, and its object is to provide a composite part for an electronic musical instrument which allows the center of a drill to be immediately and reliably positioned on a rivet to significantly improve the efficiency of disassembling works and to promote reuse of resources.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a composite part for an electronic musical instrument which comprises first and second members each having a rivet inserting hole, and a rivet having a head and a shaft. The rivet is inserted through the rivet inserting holes of the first and second members, and a leading end portion of the shaft is caulked to join the first and second members together. The rivet includes a guiding recess formed on a surface of at least one of the head of the rivet and the caulked leading end portion of the shaft of the rivet for guiding a drill for cutting the rivet when the first and second members are disassembled. The guiding recess is formed simultaneously with the caulking of the rivet.
According to this composite part, when the rivet is cut with an electric drill for disassembling the composite part, the center of the drill can be guided by the guiding recess formed on the surface of the head and/or the leading end portion of the rivet to immediately and reliably position the drill without slippage on the rivet. This results in an improved efficiency of works for disassembling the composite part and accordingly promotion of reuse of resources. Also, since the guiding recess is formed simultaneously with the caulking of the rivet, a separate machining step for forming the guiding recesses is not required either before or after the caulking of the rivet, thereby making it possible to reduce the number of assembling steps and accordingly the assembling cost.
Preferably, the first and second members may be made of materials different from each other.
When the composite part is composed of members made of different materials, it is highly demanded to disassemble such composite parts, when the electronic piano is disposed, from a view point of reuse of resources. The structure described above allows for highly efficient disassembly even when the first and second members are made of different materials, and particularly contributes to the reuse of resources.
Also preferably, the composite part is a hammer provided for each key of an electronic piano, the first member comprises a hammer body made of synthetic resin, and the second member comprises a weight made of iron for adding a weight to the hammer body.
In this structure, a large number of hammers, provided one per key in the electronic musical instrument, can be efficiently disassembled into synthetic resin and iron, both of which are highly reusable as resources, thereby maximizing the advantage of the present invention. In addition, since the weight is made of iron, it is not deleterious to the environment, unlike conventionally used lead.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5249497 (1993-10-01), Niitsuma
patent: 5894099 (1999-04-01), Niitsuma
patent: 5932820 (1999-08-01), Kihara
patent: 5986202 (1999-11-01), Seiler
patent: 7-38720 (1995-07-01), None
Donels Jeffrey
Evenson, McKeown, Edwards & Lenahan P.L.L.C.
Kabushiki Kaisha Kawai Gakki Seisakusho
LandOfFree
Composite part for electronic musical instrument does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Composite part for electronic musical instrument, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Composite part for electronic musical instrument will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2595900