Electronic device having a waterproof structure |
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申请号 | US15199449 | 申请日 | 2016-06-30 | 公开(公告)号 | US09839151B2 | 公开(公告)日 | 2017-12-05 |
申请人 | KYOCERA Corporation; | 发明人 | Katsumi Arao; | ||||
摘要 | An electronic device according to the present invention comprises a main body including a pair of body chassis, a pair of cover panels disposed to cover the front face and the back face of the main body, a switch unit disposed on the side part of the main body, an operation button which is held between the pair of cover panels and has a pusher projecting therefrom, a housing recess which is formed on at least one of the body chassis and recessed on a joint surface with the other body chassis to form a housing chamber for the switch unit, a through hole penetrating the one body chassis from the side face toward the housing recess, and a bag-like waterproof packing member which is attached to the through hole and recessed toward the switch unit to house the pusher of the operation button. The pusher of the operation button passes through the through hole toward the switch unit, and the end of the waterproof packing member is pressed against the switch unit to fixedly hold the switch unit inside the housing recess. | ||||||
权利要求 | The invention claimed is: |
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说明书全文 | The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/651,981, filed on 12 Jun. 2015, which claims the benefit of PCT Application No. PCT/JP2013/083212 filed on 11 Dec. 2013, which claims the benefit of Japanese Application No. 2012-271862, filed on 13 Dec. 2012. The contents of the above applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. The present invention relates to an electronic device which has a waterproof structure and includes an operation button disposed on the side part of a main body. In this type of electronic device, a pair of cover panels is disposed to cover the front face and the back face of a main body having a waterproof structure. The main body comprises a pair of body chassis joined together. A switch unit on which a tact switch is mounted is disposed on the side part of the main body. An operation button for pressing the tact switch of the switch unit is held between the pair of cover panels. In such an electronic device, a through hole for allowing a pusher of the operation button to pass therethrough is formed on the side part of the main body. To avoid water to enter the inside of the main body through the through hole, a waterproof structure is required. In an assembling process of an electronic device in which an operation button is disposed on the side part of a main body, the main body is assembled in the following manner. A switch unit is first housed inside a housing recess formed on one body chassis. The switch unit is then fixed inside the housing recess with an adhesive tape. Thereafter, the other body chassis is joined to the above body chassis. In this state, a pair of cover panels is attached to cover the front face and the back face of the main body. Since the switch unit is required to be fixed inside the housing recess with an adhesive tape, not only the number of components is increased, but also the number of assembling steps may be increased. Therefore, a reduction in the number of components or the number of assembling steps has been required in an electronic device which has a waterproof structure and includes an operation button disposed on the side part of a main body. An electronic device having a waterproof structure according to the present invention comprises a main body having a waterproof structure, the main body including a built-in electronic component and a pair of body chassis joined together, a pair of cover panels disposed to cover a front face and a back face of the main body, a switch unit disposed on a side part of the main body, the switch unit including a contact, an operation button held between the pair of cover panels, the operation button having a pusher for pressing the contact of the switch unit, the pusher projecting from the operation button, a housing recess formed on at least one of the body chassis, the housing recess being recessed on a joint surface with the other body chassis to form a housing chamber for the switch unit, a through hole penetrating the one body chassis from a side face toward the housing recess, and a bag-like waterproof packing member attached to the through hole, the waterproof packing member being recessed toward the switch unit to house the pusher of the operation button. The pusher of the operation button passes through the through hole toward the contact of the switch unit, and an end of the waterproof packing member is pressed against the switch unit to fixedly hold the switch unit inside the housing recess. Hereinbelow, an embodiment in which the present invention is embodied as an information terminal device will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. As illustrated in As illustrated in The front cover panel 3 is attached to the front body chassis 2 by a hook mechanism. The back body chassis 4 is attached to the back cover panel 5 by a hook mechanism. A peripheral wall 40 which surrounds a battery housing chamber is formed on the back body chassis 4. The battery housing chamber is liquid-tightly closed by the cover body 6. As illustrated in As illustrated in Based on a posture with the display 10 of the main body 1 facing downward as illustrated in The second rib portion 72b, the third rib portion 72c, and the fourth rib portion 72d of the rib 72 are formed to have a projection amount sufficient to obtain a reliable holding power when held between the cover panels 3, 5 in the end. On the other hand, as illustrated in As illustrated in Waterproof packing members 8 for sealing the through holes 20, the waterproof packing members 8 being made of silicone rubber, are attached to the respective through holes 20. As illustrated in In the information terminal device, as illustrated in The tip face of the bottom wall 83 of the waterproof packing member 8 is pressed against the surface of the tact switch 92 of the switch unit 9 inside the housing chamber. In this state, the switch unit 9 is fixedly held inside the housing recess 21 by an elastic repulsive force of the waterproof packing member 8. When the bottom wall 83 of the waterproof packing member 8 is pressed against the surface of the tact switch 92 of the switch unit 9 in an assembled state in which the waterproof packing member 8 is inserted into the through hole 20 of the front body chassis 2 as illustrated in A small clearance is set between the outer peripheral face of the pusher 73 of the operation button 7 and the inner peripheral face of the waterproof packing member 8. Further, an extremely small clearance of 0 or more is set between the tip face of the pusher 73 of the operation button 7 and the bottom wall 83 of the waterproof packing member 8. The front cover panel 3 is attached to the front body chassis 2. The back cover panel 5 is attached to the back body chassis 4. Accordingly, in a facing part in which the front body chassis 2 and the front cover panel 3 face the back body chassis 4 and the back cover panel 5, a first groove 13 which extends across the front body chassis 2 and the front cover panel 3 and a second groove 14 which extends across the back body chassis 4 and the back cover panel 5 are formed. The first rib portion 72a of the operation button 7 is inserted into the first groove 13 and the second rib portion 72b of the operation button 7 is inserted into the second groove 14 so that the operation button 7 is held between the cover panels 3, 5. In this state, the second rib portion 72b of the operation button 7 is deeply inserted into the second groove 14 with a sufficient projection amount. As a result, there is almost no likelihood that the operation button 7 comes off the first groove 13 and the second groove 14. In the information terminal device, waterproofing for the main body 1 is achieved by the O-ring 11 interposed between the front body chassis 2 and the back body chassis 4 and the waterproof packing members 8 attached to the through holes 20 of the front body chassis 2. When the operation button 7 is depressed, the waterproof packing 8 is elastically deformed. Accordingly, the pusher 73 of the operation button 7 presses the tact switch 92 of the switch unit 9 to turn on the tact switch 92, thereby generating various operation signals. A plurality of hardware buttons 100 and a speaker hole 110 are located on the front face of the information terminal device. The speaker hole 110 is disposed on the front cover panel 3. A plurality of button holes 101 are disposed on the front cover panel 3. The plurality of hardware buttons 100 are exposed from the respective button holes 101. A plurality of speakers 120 are disposed on the back face of the front body chassis 2. The sound from the plurality of speakers 120 is output outside of the information terminal device through the speaker hole 110. As illustrated in Further, as illustrated in When the switch unit 9 is housed in the housing chamber, the switch unit 9 is first inserted into the housing recess 21 with the front body chassis 2 maintained in a posture with the housing recess 21 facing upward. Accordingly, the switch unit 9 is held inside the housing recess 21 of the front body chassis 2. Thus, it is not necessary to fix the switch unit 9 with, for example, an adhesive tape. Then, the back body chassis 4 is joined to the front body chassis 2 to assemble the main body 1 to thereby house the end of the switch unit 9 in the housing recess 41 of the back body chassis 4. As illustrated in Accordingly, as illustrated in As illustrated in Specifically, as illustrated in As illustrated in In this state, each of the operation buttons 7 is held by the front body chassis 2 and the front cover panel 3. Thus, the operation button 7 will not drop off even if the hand is released from the operation button 7. As illustrated in Accordingly, as illustrated in In the assembling process of the information terminal device, each of the operation buttons 7 can be inserted into and attached to the first groove 13 with only the front cover panel 3 attached to the main body 1 in the third step of the assembling process illustrated in On the other hand, a conventional method employs an operation in which all the water proof packing members 8 are held by, for example, the hand or a jig with the pushers 73 of the operation buttons 7 inserted into the respective waterproof packing members 8 of the main body 1, and, in this state, the front cover panel 3 and the back cover panel 5 are attached to the main body 1. Therefore, an operation of mounting the operation buttons 7 is difficult. The information terminal device according to the present invention makes it possible to reduce the number of components and the number of assembling steps and also facilitate the assembling process with a simple structure of merely slightly changing the positional relationship between the switch unit 9 and the waterproof packing 8 and slightly changing the projection amount of the rib 72 of the operation button 7. The configurations of the respective members of the present invention are not limited to the above embodiment. A person skilled in the art may make various modifications without departing from the spirit of the invention described in the claims.
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