JP4365703B2 - Flexible substrate, assembling method thereof, and vehicle instrument using the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a flexible board, an assembling method thereof, and a vehicular instrument using the same, and more particularly, to a flexible board effective for reducing work man-hours, an assembling method thereof, and a vehicular instrument using the same.

  In recent years, flexible boards (also called FPCs) are frequently used for vehicle meters and the like from the viewpoints of size reduction and weight reduction. Conventionally, a flexible substrate is assembled | attached to the instrument housing | casing side by the method as shown by the following patent document 1, for example. Hereinafter, a conventional method of assembling a flexible substrate will be described with reference to FIG. 6A is an enlarged view of a main part showing a state before the assembly of the conventional flexible substrate, and FIG. 6B is an enlarged view of a main part showing a state after the assembly of the conventional flexible substrate.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, conical bosses 901a and 901b are erected on the base plate 901 to which the flexible substrate 904 is assembled. The flexible substrate 904 has tenon holes 904a and 904b corresponding to the positions of the bosses 901a and 901b, respectively. The mortise holes 904a and 904b are smaller in diameter than the outer diameters of the bosses 901a and 901b in the initial state. A wiring pattern 904 c is formed on the flexible substrate 904.

  In such a configuration, when the flexible substrate 904 is assembled to the base plate 901, the tenon holes 904a and 904b on the flexible substrate 904 side are aligned with the bosses 901a and 901b, and then the tenon holes 904a and 904b are aligned with the bosses 901a and 901b. Insert. Then, using the dedicated substrate pressing jig 903, the periphery of the mortise holes 904a and 904b is pressed downward in the figure. Then, the diameters of the mortise holes 904a and 904b are slightly widened, and the flexible substrate 904 is assembled so as to be in close contact with the base plate 901. At this time, the expanded mortise holes 904a and 904b are pressure-bonded to the side surfaces of the bosses 901a and 901b, whereby the flexible substrate 904 is fixed to the base plate 901.

Note that prior art document information relating to the invention of this application includes the following.
JP 2000-91769 A

  However, the above-described flexible substrate structure and assembly method have the following problems. That is, in reality, since there are many bosses and mortises as shown in FIG. 6, it takes a very long time to align all of them. Since the flexible substrate is fixed only by the pressing force of the boss and the mortise, it is difficult to reduce the number of the boss and the mortise. Further, a dedicated jig for pressing the flexible substrate is also required. In short, in the conventional structure and method, a dedicated jig is required and a great number of man-hours are required for assembling the flexible substrate.

Thus, the present invention is, in view of the situation described above, while eliminating the need for special tool, is effective in reducing man-hours during assembly work of the flexible board to be assembled to the instrument housing, further, attaching the flexible substrate to the instrument housing It is an object of the present invention to provide a flexible substrate, an assembling method thereof, and a vehicle instrument using the flexible substrate, which are effective in reducing the number of man-hours for fixing a member required for fixing to the flexible substrate.

The flexible substrate according to claim 1, wherein has been made to solve the above described problems is the flexible board to be assembled to the instrument housing, a positioning hole in which the lock piece the erected on the meter housing is inserted, the positioning hole And a frame member that is engaged with the lock piece, and a tab that protrudes from a side surface of the frame member, and the frame member is provided on a soldering surface of the electronic component on the flexible substrate. The frame member is fixed on the flexible substrate by being disposed and soldered to the soldering surface of the flexible substrate .

According to the first aspect of the present invention, after inserting the locking piece erected on the instrument housing into the positioning hole, the flexible substrate is fixed to the instrument housing simply by engaging the lock piece with the frame member. It becomes possible. Further, the flexible substrate is firmly fixed to the instrument housing side by the engagement between the frame member and the lock piece. Then, the frame member can be fixed on the flexible substrate by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible substrate. Therefore, the frame member can be fixed on the flexible substrate in the same process as the soldering operation of other electronic components.

The flexible substrate according to claim 2, which is made to solve the above problem, is characterized in that in the flexible substrate according to claim 1 , the tabs are provided so as to be positioned on both sides of the positioning hole.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the tab is provided so as to be positioned on both sides of the positioning hole, the frame member and the positioning hole are not separated by the tab.

The assembly method of the flexible substrate according to claim 3, which has been made to solve the above-described problem, is the assembly method of the flexible substrate according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the tab is soldered to the flexible substrate, A frame member fixing step of fixing the frame member on the flexible substrate; a positioning step of inserting the lock piece into the positioning hole and moving the flexible substrate along a predetermined portion of the housing; and the lock An engaging step for engaging the piece with the frame member.

According to the invention described in claim 3 , the tab is fixed to the flexible board by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible board, and then the flexible board is inserted while the lock piece is inserted into the positioning hole. Is positioned at a predetermined portion of the housing, and the lock piece is engaged with the frame member. In particular, since the frame member is fixed on the flexible substrate by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible substrate, the frame member is mounted on the flexible substrate in the same process as the soldering operation of other electronic components. It can be fixed.

Vehicle meter according to claim 4, wherein has been made to solve the above problems, and accommodates the flexible substrate according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the electrical component according to the instrument the vehicle, the so as to cover the electrical component to the back cover a flexible substrate is mounted, a case is Kutsugae設on the flexible substrate, and the dial, a dial and front glass, comprising a.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, electrical components related to the vehicle instrument are accommodated in the back cover, and a flexible substrate is attached so as to cover the electrical components, on which the case, dial, dial and front glass are mounted. Is overlaid.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, after inserting the locking piece erected on the instrument housing into the positioning hole, the flexible substrate is fixed to the instrument housing simply by engaging the lock piece with the frame member. It becomes possible. Further, the flexible substrate is firmly fixed to the instrument housing side by the engagement between the frame member and the lock piece. Therefore, it is not necessary to use a dedicated jig as in the prior art, and the alignment between a large number of bosses and holes and the pressing operation thereof are not required, and the number of assembling operations can be reduced. Also, the frame member can be fixed onto the flexible substrate by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible substrate. Therefore, since the frame member can be fixed on the flexible substrate in the same process as the soldering operation of other electronic components, there is an effect of reducing the number of steps for fixing the frame member to the flexible substrate.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the tab is provided so as to be positioned on both sides of the positioning hole, the frame member and the positioning hole are not separated by the tab. Therefore, the space efficiency on the flexible substrate is improved.

According to the invention described in claim 3 , the tab is fixed to the flexible board by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible board, and then the flexible board is inserted while the lock piece is inserted into the positioning hole. Is positioned at a predetermined portion of the casing, and the lock piece and the frame member are engaged with each other. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, the flexible substrate can be fixed easily and firmly without using a dedicated jig. In particular, since the frame member is fixed on the flexible substrate by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible substrate, the frame member is mounted on the flexible substrate in the same process as the soldering operation of other electronic components. It becomes possible to fix, and there is also an effect of reducing the number of steps for fixing the frame member.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, electrical components related to the vehicle instrument are accommodated in the back cover, and a flexible substrate is attached so as to cover the electrical components, on which the case, dial, dial and front glass are mounted. Therefore, a vehicular instrument that can be assembled from only one direction can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a vehicle instrument according to an embodiment of the present invention. This vehicle instrument is a so-called combination meter in which a plurality of instruction units are integrated, and includes a back cover 1, a movement 2, a control board 3, a flexible board 4, a case 5, an LCD 6, a dial 7, a pointer 8, The front glass 9 is included.

  In FIG. 1, the back cover 1 is made of resin and has a horizontally long shallow dish shape. On the inner surface side of the back cover 1, there are provided a movement accommodating portion 11 for accommodating the movement 2, a control substrate accommodating portion 12 for accommodating the control substrate 3, a plurality of lock pieces 13 for fixing the flexible substrate 4, etc. A connector portion 14 and the like are provided on the outer surface side. The movement accommodating portion 11 is provided with a lock piece 111 for fixing the movement 2.

  The movement 2 is a motor device that rotates the pointer 8 inserted through the pointer shaft 21 in response to a predetermined control signal, and a plurality of the movements 2 are mounted corresponding to each indication unit such as a speedometer and a tachometer. . On both side surfaces of the movement 2, there are provided mounting pieces 22 used at the time of assembly. The control board 3 is equipped with a microcomputer chip 31 that controls the main control of the instrument, and has a connector portion 32 exposed to the outside of the instrument on the back surface.

  The flexible substrate 4 has a horizontally long sheet shape equivalent to that of the back cover 1. The frame member 41 to which the lock piece 13 is engaged, the positioning hole 42 into which the lock piece 13 is inserted, and the pointer shaft 21 are inserted. Electronic parts such as a chip part 44 and a buzzer 45 are mounted. The flexible substrate 4 is bent in a step shape in accordance with the inner surface shape of the back cover 1. The flexible substrate 4 will be described again with reference to another drawing.

  The case 5 is made of resin and has a horizontally long shape equivalent to that of the back cover 1. The case 5 has a shallow dish-like recess 53 corresponding to each indication portion, and a central hole 51 corresponding to each pointer 8 is formed in the center portion thereof. The case 5 is provided with a rectangular window 52 corresponding to the shape of the LCD 6. The LCD 6 is a liquid crystal display device that digitally displays an accumulated distance and the like, and has a plurality of terminals 61.

  The dial plate 7 has a horizontally long sheet shape equivalent to that of the back cover 1, and in particular, a portion corresponding to a speedometer and a tachometer has a shallow dish-like depression 73. The dial 7 is also provided with a central hole 71 corresponding to each pointer 8. Although not shown, the dial 7 is also formed with a design relating to a speedometer, a tachometer, and a design such as a warning. The pointer 8 is rotationally controlled by the corresponding movement 2 and indicates a predetermined design on the dial 7.

  The turn-back / front glass 9 is made of a horizontally long resin equivalent to the back cover 1 and is covered on the forefront of the instrument. In detail, the front glass 91 is a smoke-based transparent resin, and the facing 92 is a member that basically conceals other than the indication portion of the dial 7 and is illustrated for engaging the back cover 1 at the edge thereof. It also has a non-locking piece.

  The vehicle instrument having such a configuration can be basically assembled only from the direction indicated by the arrow in the drawing. That is, after assembling the movement 2, the control board 3 and the like on the back cover 1 from the direction indicated by the arrow, the flexible board 4 on which the frame member 41a and the electronic components are assembled is fixed to the back cover 1, and subsequently, with the arrow Assembling work is performed by assembling the case 5, LCD 6, dial 7, pointer 8, turn-back / front glass 9 and the like from the direction shown. The flexible substrate 4 greatly contributes to enable this series of one-way operations.

  Subsequently, a configuration of the flexible substrate and an assembling method thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2A shows a flexible substrate before the frame member is fixed, and FIG. 2B is a main part perspective view showing the flexible substrate after the frame member is fixed. FIG. 3A shows a state before the flexible substrate is assembled, and FIG. 3B is a perspective view of a main part showing a state after the flexible substrate is assembled.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, the flexible substrate 4 has a plurality of rectangular positioning holes 42 (42a, 42b, 42c, etc.). The positioning holes 42a, 42b, and 42c are provided at positions corresponding to the lock pieces 13a, 13b, and 13c that are erected on the back cover 1 side (see FIG. 3A). Here, a rectangular positioning hole is illustrated, but other shapes may be used. The flexible substrate 4 has a hole 43 corresponding to the pointer shaft 21 of the movement 2, a hole 46 corresponding to the lock piece 111 for fixing the movement 2, and the mounting piece 22 used when the movement 2 is assembled. Corresponding holes 47 and the like are also drilled.

  On the other hand, the frame member 41 (41a, 41b, 41c, etc.) is made of heat-resistant resin and has a quadrangular prism shape. A metal tab 41a1 for soldering to the flexible substrate 4 projects from the side surface of the frame member 41a. The tabs 41a1 are provided in pairs so as to be positioned on both sides of the positioning hole 42a when the frame member 41a is fixed to the flexible substrate 4. At least one tab 41a1 may be provided, but it is preferable that the tabs 41a1 are provided in pairs from the viewpoint of fixing force and fixing man-hour. In the drawing, the flexible substrate 4 is bent, but this corresponds to the inner surface shape of the back cover 1. This bending may be performed in advance before the frame member 41 is fixed to the flexible substrate 4, or may be performed simultaneously when the flexible substrate 4 is assembled.

  As shown in FIG. 2B, when the frame member 41 is fixed to the flexible substrate 4, first, the frame member 41a is arranged so as not to overlap the positioning hole 42a. At this time, the tab 41a1 is arranged so as to coincide with a land (not shown) to be soldered on the flexible substrate 4. Then, the tab 41a1 is soldered 41h to the land on the flexible substrate 4. In this manner, the frame member 41 is fixed to the flexible substrate 4 in the same manner for other tabs and other frame members. In the figure, only one soldering 41h is shown, but the same applies to the other tabs. Such an operation corresponds to the frame member fixing step in the claims.

  Since the pair of tabs are provided so as to be positioned on both sides of the positioning hole, the frame member and the positioning hole are not separated by the tab. Therefore, the space efficiency on the flexible substrate is improved.

  The soldering operation of the frame member 41 is preferably performed simultaneously in the process of soldering the other chip component 44 to the flexible substrate 4. By doing so, it is not necessary to provide a separate process for the fixing work of the frame member, and there is an effect of reducing the number of steps. The frame member 41 may be fixed by a method other than soldering, for example, an adhesive.

  Thus, the flexible substrate 4 to which all the frame members are fixed is assembled to the inner surface of the back cover 1 as shown in FIG. It is assumed that the movement 2 is already accommodated in the movement accommodating portion 11 in this part. The movement 2 has a pointer shaft 21, a mounting piece 22, and a plurality of pins 23, 24 that protrude forward. The movement 2 is fixed by being engaged with a pair of lock pieces 111 provided in the movement housing portion 11. As described above, a plurality of lock pieces 13a, 13b, and 13c are erected on the inner surface of the back cover 1. Each lock piece 13a, 13b, 13c has elasticity in a direction perpendicular to the standing direction, and a lock claw as shown by 13a1 is formed.

  A flexible substrate 4 as shown in FIG. 2B is assembled to the inner surface of the back cover 1. At the time of this assembly, the flexible substrate 4 is positioned at a predetermined position while the lock pieces 13a, 13b, 13c are inserted into the corresponding positioning holes 42a, 42b, 42c (corresponding to the positioning step in the claims). The forward protruding portions other than the lock pieces 13a, 13b, 13c, that is, the pointer shaft 21, the mounting piece 22, the plurality of pins 23, 24, etc. are simply inserted into the corresponding holes 43, 47, 48, 49, etc. It is only done. Then, each lock claw of each lock piece 13a, 13b, 13c is engaged with each frame member 41a, 41b, 41c using the elasticity of the lock piece (in the engagement step in the claims) Corresponding). This operation is similar to the operation of sequentially applying a plurality of buttons. Of course, it is also possible to engage a plurality of locations simultaneously. Then, as shown in FIG. 3B, the assembly of the flexible substrate 4 to the back cover 1 is completed.

  4A is a main part front view showing a state when the flexible substrate is completely assembled to the back cover, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 4A. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state when the entire flexible substrate is assembled to the back cover. 4 and 5, the same reference numerals are given to portions common to FIGS. 1 to 3, and duplicate descriptions are omitted.

  As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the lock claws of the lock pieces 13a, 13b, and 13c are engaged with the frame members 41a, 41b, and 41c. It can be seen that it is assembled to the inner surface of the back cover 1. Since each movement 2 is housed and fixed in its own movement housing portion 11, the strength of fixing the flexible substrate 4 to the back cover 1 is not affected.

  As shown in FIG. 5, all the frame members 41a, 41b, 41c, 41d, 41e, 41f, etc. fixed to the flexible substrate 4 are engaged with the lock pieces 13a, 13b, 13c, 13d, 13e, 13f, respectively. Then, the entire flexible substrate 4 is in a state of being assembled on the inner surface of the back cover 1.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is not necessary to use a dedicated jig as in the prior art, and the alignment of a large number of bosses and holes and the pressing operation thereof are unnecessary, and the number of assembling operations is reduced. There is a reduction effect.

  Also, since the frame member is fixed on the flexible substrate by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible substrate, the frame member is mounted on the flexible substrate in the same process as the soldering operation of other electronic components. It becomes possible to fix, and there is also an effect of reducing the number of steps for fixing the frame member. Since the frame member can be mounted by an automatic machine in the same manner as other electronic components, the man-hour can be further reduced.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1, electrical components related to the vehicle instrument such as the movement 2 and the control board 3 are accommodated in the back cover 1, and a flexible substrate 4 is attached so as to cover these electrical components. Since the case 5, the dial plate 7 and the turn-back / front glass 9 are covered, it is possible to assemble the vehicle instrument from only one direction.

  In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which the flexible substrate is assembled to the back cover, but the flexible substrate may be assembled to another part. Moreover, the housing | casing in which a flexible substrate is assembled | attached does not necessarily need to be a vehicle instrument. The present invention includes those slightly modified within the spirit thereof.

It is a disassembled perspective view which shows the vehicle meter which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2A shows a flexible substrate before the frame member is fixed, and FIG. 2B is a main part perspective view showing the flexible substrate after the frame member is fixed. FIG. 3 (A) shows a state before the flexible substrate is assembled, and FIG. 3 (B) is a main part perspective view showing a state after the flexible substrate is assembled. FIG. 4A is a main part front view showing a state when the flexible substrate is assembled to the back cover, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows a state when the assembly | attachment with respect to the back cover has completed the whole flexible substrate. 6A is an enlarged view of a main part showing a state before the assembly of the conventional flexible substrate, and FIG. 6B is an enlarged view of a main part showing a state after the assembly of the conventional flexible substrate.

Explanation of symbols

1 Back cover 2 Movement 3 Control board 4 Flexible board (FPC)
5 Case 6 LCD
7 Dial 8 Pointer 9 Mirror / Front glass 41a Frame member 41a1 Tab 41h Soldering

Claims (4)

In flexible boards that can be assembled into instrument housings,
A positioning hole into which a locking piece erected on the instrument housing is inserted;
A frame member adjacent to the positioning hole and engaged with the lock piece;
A tab protruding from a side surface of the frame member;
Is provided,
The frame member is disposed on a soldering surface of an electronic component on the flexible substrate;
The flexible board, wherein the frame member is fixed onto the flexible board by soldering the tab to the soldering surface of the flexible board. The flexible board according to claim 1 , wherein the tab is provided on both sides of the positioning hole. A method for assembling a flexible substrate according to claim 1 or 2 ,
A frame member fixing step of fixing the frame member on the flexible substrate by soldering the tab to the flexible substrate;
A positioning step of causing the flexible board to follow a predetermined part of the housing while inserting the lock piece into the positioning hole;
An engagement step of engaging the lock piece with the frame member;
A method of assembling a flexible substrate, comprising: In vehicle meters,
The flexible substrate according to claim 1 or 2 ,
Accommodating the electric component according to instrument the vehicle, and back cover that the flexible substrate is attached so as to cover the electrical component,
A case that is Kutsugae設on the flexible substrate, and the dial, a dial and front glass,
Vehicle meter which comprises a.

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