Control button

Details Control button Control button

2000-09-14

2002-09-24

Knight, Anthony (Department: 3676)

Miscellaneous hardware (e.g., bushing, carpet fastener, caster,

Insulated handle

Knob-type handle

C368S184000, C368S288000, C368S306000, C368S308000, C368S319000, C968S031000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06453512

ABSTRACT:

The present invention relates to rotating control buttons, of the type used for example in watches and commonly called time-setting crowns. It concerns more particularly a button including a metal body, of generally cylindrical shape, and provided with a blind hole intended to accommodate a control stem.
Such buttons, made of metal, are well known to those skilled in the art. They are fitted to most watches provided with hands. They allow time-setting, and winding for mechanical watches. The user must thus be able to pull out the button to select a function and rotate it in order to modify a value.
In order to facilitate the rotation of the button, the latter may most often include grooves on the cylindrical portion of its external surface. Unfortunately such grooves are abrasive, tend to wear out clothes, and do not always allow a good grip in particular as regards traction.
It is well known that organic materials, such as rubber, allow greater adherence than metal, without however causing wear. These materials are, however, too lacking in rigidity to be able to be the only constituent material of a control button.
In order to have a control button having, during use, the advantages of metal and rubber, it seems natural to coat the grooves with a synthetic material. This solution has numerous drawbacks. The metal surface has to be pre-treated to allow a synthetic material to adhere thereto, said treatment having to be adapted to each type of material; it is very difficult to delimit very precisely the covered zones so that it is very often necessary to do a finishing machining operation such as polishing; since the thickness of synthetic material deposited is very small the coating is liable to wear and accidental tearing.
The present invention mainly concerns a button made of two metal/synthetic materials so that it does not have the drawbacks of the aforecited prior art.
The invention thus concerns a control button having a metal body
10
,
52
provided along its axis A—A with a blind hole
16
,
58
closed by a cap
18
extended by a wall
14
of revolution, said button including on all or part of the exterior of its wall
14
a gripping zone made of synthetic material, characterised in that body
10
,
52
of the button includes an annular groove
20
,
62
made in the outer surface of its wall
14
,
56
in proximity to the opening of blind hole
16
,
58
and channels
26
connecting said outer surface of wall
14
and the bottom of blind hole
16
,
58
, and in that a fitting
12
made of synthetic material
12
is made in situ to form a ring
22
,
64
housed in groove
20
,
62
and whose raised portions
34
extend along axis A—A over the outer surface of wall
14
,
56
at least as far as the openings of channels
26
, a radial structure with several branches
30
closing said channels
26
and a core
32
connecting said branches
30
to secure between them the different parts of fitting
12
.
Consequently, the fitting forms on the exterior of the body portions in relief which facilitate gripping, and on the interior loops, each of them gripping the metal body, which allows the best possible fastening conditions.
In order to facilitate the driving in rotation of the control button, the portions of the synthetic fitting in relief define raised portions connecting the ring to the branches, or an annular ring provided with grooves.
In certain applications, for example when the button according to the invention is used as the time-setting crown of a watch, it is subjected to traction efforts. If this effort is exerted frequently on the synthetic material, this may result in premature wear, able to cause it to be torn off. This is why it is advantageous for the necessary effort to be applied to the metal body. For this purpose, the latter has a ring defining the side of the groove in proximity to the opening of the blind hole.
For the aforementioned application, the crown is often required to participate in the water-resistant sealing of the watch. Generally, the interior of the cylindrical wall is provided with an O-ring gasket co-operating with a part of the case to close, in a water-resistant manner, the opening through which the control means of the watch pass. This O-ring gasket slides into a housing in the crown.
Another object of the present invention is to make a control button wherein the gripping fitting made of synthetic material also forms a sealing gasket. Therefore, and in another particular embodiment, the button according to the invention is characterised in that its fitting extending through additional channels inside the blind hole has an O-ring structure attached to the inner wall of the blind hole to form a sealing gasket.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3866409 (1975-02-01), Tanaka
patent: 3887963 (1975-06-01), Harmon et al.
patent: 5383166 (1995-01-01), Gallay
patent: 5469758 (1995-11-01), Howie, Jr.
patent: 5631881 (1997-05-01), Pessey et al.
patent: 6310835 (2001-10-01), Mantoan et al.
patent: 0 149 970 (1985-07-01), None

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