Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Solid contact – Membrane type
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-29
2004-07-27
Luebke, Renee (Department: 2833)
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Solid contact
Membrane type
C200S516000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06768074
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet having contact plates used as a key switch for operating digital communication equipment such as portable phones, and the structure of a switch employing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The structure of a conventional switch sheet is shown in
FIGS. 6
to
8
.
FIG. 6
is an exploded perspective view showing the switch sheet.
FIG. 7
is a plan view showing details of penetration holes.
FIG. 8
is a side view of FIG.
7
.
A conventional switch sheet comprises: a peel sheet
11
formed into a strip shape and having feed guide holes
11
a
provided at a fixed interval at both sides of a longitudinal direction X (feed direction); a rectangular spacer sheet
13
stuck to a separate face of the peel sheet
11
via an adhesive layer; and a rectangular upper face sheet
14
stuck to an upper face of the spacer sheet
13
via an adhesive layer.
On the peel sheet
11
and the spacer sheet
13
, plural penetration holes
13
a
are formed which penetrate contact plates formed by expanding thin metal plates in a dome shape and make it possible to stick the dome tops of the contact plates to a lower face of the upper face sheet
14
via an adhesive layer. Coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
are provided to couple adjacent penetration holes
13
a
of the plural penetration holes
13
a.
The coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
are provided at about the center of the penetration holes
13
a
. By providing the coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
, when the dome-shaped contact plates are pushed, air within the domes can be expelled to other penetration holes
13
a
through the coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
, providing stable operability.
The coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
are formed from vertical coupling grooves
13
c
formed along the longitudinal direction X (feed direction) of the peel sheet
11
and the spacer sheet
13
, and horizontal coupling grooves
13
b
formed along a direction Y crossing the longitudinal direction (feed direction).
However, in the structure of the above-described conventional switch sheet, the switch sheet is mounted on a circuit board in such a way that, while pulling out the stripe-shaped peel sheet
11
in the feed direction X, the peel sheet
11
is peeled off with the spacer sheet
13
and the upper face sheet
14
being overlaid, and the separated spacer sheet
13
and upper face sheet
14
are stuck onto the circuit board.
In this case, as shown in
FIGS. 7 and 8
, in the conventional switch sheet, since the coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
are formed at about the center of the penetration holes
13
a
, at both sides of the coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
, protrusions
13
d
exist toward a coupling part from an inner circumferential end of the penetration holes
13
a
. In the case where the coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
are formed in the direction Y crossing the longitudinal direction X (feed direction) of the peel sheet
11
, since the protrusions
13
d
on a peel face between the spacer sheet
13
and the peel sheet
11
protrude from an inner circumferential end of the penetration holes
13
a
, the protrusions
13
d
remain unpeeled, so that it is difficult to peel the peel sheet
11
from the spacer sheet
13
in the vicinity of the protrusions
13
. This has been a problem of the conventional switch sheet.
In the case where all the coupling grooves
13
b
and
13
c
are formed along the longitudinal direction X (feed direction) of the peel sheet
11
, the position of the penetration holes
13
a
, that is, the layout of contact plates is limited. This has been another problem of the conventional switch sheet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a sheet having contact plates that allows a peel sheet thereof to be smoothly peeled from a spacer sheet and provides greater freedom in the layout of the contact plates, and a switch device employing the same.
To solve the above-described problems, a first embodiment of a sheet according to the present invention includes a strip-shaped peel sheet; a spacer sheet stuck onto the peel sheet via an adhesive layer; an upper face sheet stuck onto an upper face of the spacer sheet via an adhesive layer; and contact plates stuck to the upper face sheet. On the peel sheet and the spacer sheet, penetration holes through which the contact plates can penetrate, and coupling grooves by which the adjacent penetration holes are coupled are formed. The peel sheet is peeled off from a downstream end toward an upstream end of the peel sheet. Each of the coupling grooves has an upstream edge and a downstream edge where the upstream edge is positioned upstream with respect to the downstream edge. The coupling grooves are displaced toward the upstream end in the feed direction with respect to a center of each of the adjacent penetration holes so that there are no upstream edges within a plane of the spacer sheet, protruding toward the downstream end in the feed direction.
In a second embodiment of the invention, one side of the coupling grooves continues linearly or curvedly.
In a third embodiment of the invention, a coupling part at another side of the coupling grooves coupling the penetration holes is formed in an arc shape.
In a fourth embodiment of the invention, the spacer sheet and the upper face sheet are formed rectangularly and are mounted so that short sides of the rectangles are in the feed direction of the strip-shaped peel sheet, and wherein the penetration holes disposed at a side of a long side of the spacer sheet are coupled by the coupling grooves.
In a fifth embodiment of the invention, the coupling grooves are formed from first coupling grooves coupling the penetration holes disposed at the side of the long side of the spacer sheet and second coupling grooves coupling the penetration holes disposed at a side of the short side of the spacer sheet.
In a sixth embodiment of the invention, a sheet having contact plates including one of the first to fifth embodiments of the invention and a circuit board on which plural fixed contacts are disposed are provided. A peel sheet of the sheet having contact plates is peeled, and the sheet having the contact plates from which the peel sheet has been peeled is stuck onto the circuit board on which plural fixed contacts are disposed, by an adhesive layer of the spacer sheet so that the contact plates are opposite to the fixed contacts.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4046975 (1977-09-01), Seeger, Jr.
patent: 4931601 (1990-06-01), Lavender
patent: 5845766 (1998-12-01), Sako et al.
patent: 11-53084 (1999-02-01), None
ALPS Electric Co. Ltd.
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
Luebke Renee
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