JP5464334B2 - Operating device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an operating device suitable for use as a remote controller for a hot water supply device and other devices, and more particularly to an operating device having a structure in which a control board is accommodated in a housing.

  Conventional examples of this type of operating device include those described in Patent Documents 1 and 2. The operation devices described in these documents have a configuration in which a partition wall protrudes from an inner surface portion of a housing that houses a control board. The partition wall is inserted into a slit provided in the control board, and partitions the electrical components mounted on the control board. According to such a configuration, it is possible to prevent the electrical components from contacting each other by the partition wall, thereby preventing an electrical short circuit between the electrical components.

  However, the prior art has room for improvement as described below.

  In other words, the electrical component may hit the partition wall strongly due to some circumstances. In particular, the object to be partitioned by the partition wall is electrical wiring, and when this electrical wiring is attached to the control board, or when the electrical wiring is pulled out from the inside of the housing to be pulled in various directions. There is a high possibility that the electric wiring will hit the partition wall strongly. For this reason, about a partition wall, it is requested | required that it may not be easily damaged when an electrical component hits. On the other hand, the partition wall in the prior art is merely formed in, for example, a flat plate shape, and cannot accurately meet such a demand. As a means for preventing breakage of the partition wall, it is conceivable to increase the thickness of the partition wall and increase its mechanical strength. However, increasing the thickness of the partition wall in this way causes a disadvantage that the effective space in the housing or the component mounting space on the control board is reduced. Also, from the viewpoint of reducing the weight of the housing and saving raw materials, it is desired that the partition wall be formed as thin as possible, and there is room for improvement in this respect.

Japanese Patent No. 3517321 Japanese Patent No. 3906757

  The present invention has been conceived under the circumstances as described above, and even when the partition wall for partitioning between the pair of separation target parts is thinned, the partition wall is electrically connected. It is an object of the present invention to provide an operating device that can appropriately prevent damage due to contact with a component or the like.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

The operating device provided by the present invention has a housing having a resin-made front wall portion and a switch operation region provided on the outer surface portion of the front wall portion, and is housed in the housing. And a control substrate having a slit and a pair of separation target parts arranged across the slit, and resin-molded integrally with the front wall portion of the housing , and protruding from the inner surface portion of the front wall portion A partition wall that is inserted through the slit and partitions the pair of separation target parts, and is an operating device, and the inner surface of the front wall portion of the partition wall from the control board. The proximal end near the portion is provided with a notch for forming a local narrow portion at the proximal end, and the narrow portion separates the pair of separation walls from the distal end side of the partition wall. An elastically deformable part that can be displaced in the direction in which the target parts are arranged Is configured to function, the notch, the part of the base end portion of the partition wall is provided so as to separate from the inner surface of the front wall, the partition wall, the narrow portion It connects with the inner surface part of the said front wall part through only .

  According to such a configuration, due to some circumstances, when the electrical component present in the pair of separation target portions strongly contacts the front end side of the partition wall, the narrow portion is elastically deformed, and the partition wall The tip side of is displaced. By this displacement, the contact force of the electrical component with respect to the partition wall is alleviated. Therefore, unlike the prior art, even when the partition wall is made relatively thin, it is possible to prevent the partition wall from being easily damaged by contact with the electrical component. As a result, according to the present invention, the partition wall can be thinned, and the disadvantage that the effective space in the housing or the component mounting space on the control board is narrowed can be avoided. Further, by reducing the thickness of the partition wall, it is possible to favorably reduce the weight of the housing and save raw materials. Further, in the case where the partition wall is integrally molded with the housing, an effect of making it difficult to cause sink marks at the position on the opposite side of the partition wall from the outer surface portion of the housing is also obtained.

Furthermore, according to the said structure, the area of the part which the base end part of the partition wall and the inner surface part of the housing | casing are directly connected can be made small. Therefore, sink marks at the time of resin molding can be made more unlikely to occur at a position opposite to the partition wall in the outer surface portion of the housing. In addition, the narrower the portion that functions as an elastically deformable portion is located closer to the inner surface of the housing and the farther away from the tip of the partition wall, the greater the maximum displacement on the tip of the partition wall. However, according to the above configuration, it is possible to dispose the narrow portion far from the front end portion of the partition wall by placing the narrow portion closest to the inner surface of the housing. Yes, it is also preferable for increasing the amount of displacement on the front end side of the partition wall.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the notch is opened at a middle portion in the width direction of the partition wall, and both end portions in the width direction of the base end portion of the partition wall are It is a narrow part.

  According to such a configuration, the partition wall is supported at two points by the two narrow portions positioned at both ends in the width direction of the partition wall and spaced apart from each other by an appropriate distance. Therefore, it is preferable to make the support of the partition wall stable while making each narrow portion small and having an excellent elastic deformation function.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It is an external appearance perspective view which shows an example of the operating device which concerns on this invention. (A) is IIa-IIa principal part sectional drawing of FIG. 1, (b) is IIb-IIb principal part sectional drawing of FIG. It is III-III sectional drawing of Fig.2 (a). (A)-(c) is principal part sectional drawing which shows the other example of this invention.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  1 to 3 show an example of an operating device to which the present invention is applied. The operation device OP of the present embodiment is for remote operation of a hot water supply device (not shown), for example, and is used in a state where it is attached to a wall surface of a kitchen or the like and connected to the main controller of the hot water supply device.

  As clearly shown in FIG. 3, the operating device OP includes a housing 1, a control board 2 accommodated in the housing 1, a pair of separation target portions D provided on the control board 2, and a pair of these The partition wall 3 which partitions between the separation object parts D is provided. In the present embodiment, the pair of separation target portions D are portions where the pair of terminal portions 20 are provided, and the end portions 80 of the electric wiring 8 shown in FIG. Connected. The electrical wiring 8 is used for connection with the main controller of the hot water supply device described above, and is drawn out of the housing 1 through, for example, an opening 11 a provided in the back plate portion 11 of the housing 1. . However, the case 1 may be configured not to have the back plate portion 11, and the electric wiring 8 may be pulled out as it is from the connection portion with the terminal portion 20 to the back side of the case 1.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the housing 1 has a flat and substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and includes a housing body 10 having a front wall portion 12. The housing body 10 is made of ABS resin or other synthetic resin. The front wall portion 12 is provided with a switch operation area 6 and a screen display area 7. The switch operation area 6 has a plurality of electrostatic switch units SW. As shown in FIG. 2A, a capacitance sensor 60 connected to the control board 2 is provided in contact with or close to the inner surface portion 12 a of the front wall portion 12 in the housing 1. . When a finger is brought close to the electrostatic switch unit SW, a current flows through a corresponding portion of the capacitance sensor 60, and this is detected by a predetermined circuit of the control board 2. Although a detailed description is omitted, the capacitance sensor 60 is formed by patterning a plurality of copper coils on a resin film, for example, and its thickness is small. As a result, the casing 1 and, consequently, the entire operation device OP are reduced in thickness. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is a matter of course that the switch operation area 6 can be configured as an area provided with, for example, a contact type press switch. The screen display area 7 is an area for displaying various data. A display device 71 such as a 7-segment or liquid crystal display is faced to the opening window 72 provided in the front wall portion 12 and is covered by the cover body 70. It is a covered configuration.

  The control board 2 is mounted with various electrical / electronic component groups (not shown) constituting a predetermined circuit on a board body made of, for example, epoxy resin, and the inner surface of the front wall 12 of the housing 1. Abutting on the boss 13 protruding from 12 a, the screw body 90 is used to fix the boss 13. As described above, the control board 2 has a pair of separation target portions D provided with the terminal portions 20, and a slit for inserting the partition wall 3 between the pair of separation target portions D. 22 is provided.

  The partition wall 3 is a portion for preventing the end portions 80 of the electrical wiring 8 from coming into contact with each other and short-circuiting. The partition wall 3 is integrally resin-molded with the front wall portion 12 of the housing 1 and the front wall portion 12. It protrudes toward the control board 2 from the inner surface portion 12a. The partition wall 3 passes through the slit 22 of the control board 2, and the tip portion 3 a is located between the pair of terminal portions 20 and between the end portions 80 of the pair of electric wires 8. As clearly shown in FIG. 3, the partition wall 3 has an appropriate play between the edge of the slit 22 and the partition wall 3 in the short direction of the slit 22 (left and right direction in FIG. 3). It is set as the thickness which the allowance s1 produces.

  As shown well in FIG. 2B, the partition wall 3 has a substantially rectangular shape in a side view, but is notched in the base end portion 3b closer to the inner surface portion 12a than the control board 2. It is the form in which the part 30 was opened. The notch 30 is located in an intermediate portion of the partition wall 3 in the width direction (left-right direction in FIG. 2). At the location where the notch 30 is formed, the base end 3b of the partition wall 3 and the inner surface 12a of the front wall 12 are separated from each other. Of the base end portion 3b, two portions at both ends in the width direction of the partition wall 3 are narrow portions 31 having a locally narrowed width W1. The partition wall 3 is connected to the inner surface portion 12 a of the front wall portion 12 only through the two narrow portions 31. Each narrow portion 31 functions as an elastically deformable portion that allows the distal end 3a side of the partition wall 3 to be displaced in the direction of arrow N1 in FIG. 3 because the width W1 is narrow.

  Next, the operation of the operation device OP will be described.

  When the operation of connecting the electrical wiring 8 to each terminal portion 20 on the control board 2 is performed, or when the electrical wiring 8 is pulled in various directions after the connection is finished, the electrical wiring 8 There is a possibility that the partition wall 3 may come into strong contact with the tip 3a side. When such contact occurs, the narrow portion 31 is elastically deformed by the contact force, and the tip portion 3 a side is displaced in a direction pressed by the electric wiring 8. Therefore, due to this displacement, the contact force of the electric wiring 8 with respect to the partition wall 3 is absorbed and relaxed. For this reason, even when the partition wall 3 is relatively thin, the partition wall 3 can be prevented from being easily damaged by contact with the electric wiring 8. If the thickness of the partition wall 3 is reduced, the effective space in the housing 1 or the component mounting space on the control board 2 can be increased accordingly. In addition, the molding material for the housing 1 can be saved.

  Since the partition wall 3 is integrally molded with the front wall portion 12 of the housing 1 as described above, when the partition wall 3 is formed to have a large volume, Sinking is likely to occur on the outer surface side of the front wall portion 12. On the other hand, in the operating device OP of the present embodiment, as described above, the partition wall 3 can be thinned and the volume thereof can be reduced, so that the above-described sink can be made difficult to occur. In particular, the base end portion 3 b of the partition wall 3 is not configured so that the entire length region in the width direction is connected to the front wall portion 12, but only the two narrow portions 31 are connected to the front wall portion 12. In addition, the above-described sink marks are less likely to occur.

  The displacement of the partition wall 3 when the distal end portion 3a side is pressed by the electric wiring 8 is performed by tilting (rotating) the distal end portion 3a side about the narrow portion 31. For this reason, as the narrow portion 31 approaches the front wall portion 12 and the distance from the narrow portion 31 to the distal end portion 3a is longer, the distal end portion 3a is largely displaced by the slight elastic deformation amount of the narrow portion 31. It becomes possible to make it. On the other hand, in this embodiment, the narrow part 31 is in direct contact with the front wall part 12, and the distance from the narrow part 31 to the front-end | tip part 3a can be taken long. Therefore, it is preferable to increase the amount of displacement on the distal end portion 3a side without causing a large burden on the narrow portion 31. In addition, since the partition wall 3 is supported at two points by two narrow portions 31 spaced in the width direction of the partition wall 3, each narrow portion 31 has a small width and is excellent in elastic deformation function. In addition, the partition wall 3 can be supported stably.

  FIG. 4 shows another example of the present invention. In the figure, the same or similar elements as those in the above embodiment are given the same reference numerals as in the above embodiment.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 4 (a), a plurality of small hole-like notches 30A are provided at the base end portion 3b of the partition wall 3, and portions between the plurality of notches 30A are also provided. A narrow portion 31 is formed. In the configuration shown in FIG. 4B, notches 30 </ b> B are provided at both end portions in the width direction of the partition wall 3, and one narrow portion 31 is formed in the middle portion in the width direction. In any of these configurations, the distal end portion 3 a side of the partition wall 3 can be displaced in the thickness direction of the partition wall 3 by the elastic deformation function of the narrow portion 31.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 4C, a notch 30 </ b> C serving as an opening hole is provided at a location separated from the inner surface 12 a of the front wall 12 by an appropriate dimension L <b> 1 in the base end 3 b of the partition wall 3. The side portions on both sides of the notch 30C are narrow portions 31. According to such a structure, although the advantage by providing the thickness part of the dimension L1 in the base end part 3b is not necessarily acquired, by providing the narrow part 31, it is still the present invention. Can achieve the intended effect.

  The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the operating device according to the present invention can be modified in various ways.

For example, a configuration in which the control board 2 is attached to the back plate portion 11 of the housing 1 can be adopted. As understood from the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C, the shape and arrangement of the notch portion and the narrow portion in the present invention can be variously configured. . The narrow portion referred to in the present invention is formed so that the width is locally narrowed by providing a notch portion at the base end portion of the partition wall, and in the direction in which the pair of separation target portions are arranged. What is necessary is just to be elastically deformable so that the front-end | tip part side of a partition wall can be displaced. The pair of separation target portions referred to in the present invention may not be a portion provided with a terminal portion for connecting electrical wiring, and other portions can be used as separation target portions. The operation device according to the present invention is for remote operation of various devices and devices (for example, water treatment devices such as cogeneration systems, heat pumps, air conditioners, water softeners, etc.) as well as for hot water supply devices. It can comprise as an operating device other than.

Claims (2)

A housing having a resin-made front wall and a switch operation area provided on the outer surface of the front wall ;
A control board that is housed in the housing and has a pair of separation target parts arranged side by side with the slit, and
A partition wall that is integrally molded with the front wall portion of the housing and projects from the inner surface portion of the front wall portion to partition between the pair of separation target portions by being inserted into the slit ;
An operating device comprising:
Of the partition wall, a proximal end portion closer to the inner surface portion of the front wall portion than the control board is provided with a notch portion that forms a local narrow portion at the proximal end portion,
The narrow portion is configured to function as an elastically deformable portion capable of displacing the distal end side of the partition wall in a direction in which the pair of separation target portions are arranged ,
The notch portion is provided so as to separate a part of a base end portion of the partition wall from an inner surface portion of the front wall portion, and the partition wall is formed on the front wall portion only through the narrow portion. An operating device connected to the inner surface . The notch portion is opened at an intermediate portion in the width direction of the partition wall, and each of both end portions in the width direction of the base end portion of the partition wall is the narrow portion. The operating device according to 1 .

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