JPH0133918B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a new and improved method of manufacturing a connector.

Conventionally, a plurality of metal thin film rings were attached to the circumferential surface of a rod made of an insulating rubber elastic body, or a plurality of metal thin film rings were applied to the circumferential surface of a rod made of an insulating rubber elastic body, as a press-fit clamp type interconnector used for connecting, for example, a liquid crystal display device and its driving printed circuit board. Alternatively, a structure in which a plurality of conductive rubber rings are attached is known. Connectors with metal thin film rings are usually manufactured by leaving multiple thin film rings or C-width rings on the circumference of the rod using an etching method, while connectors with conductive rubber rings are manufactured separately in advance. It is manufactured by attaching and fixing a plurality of manufactured conductive O-rings or C-wise rings at predetermined pitches.

However, all of the conventionally known manufacturing methods described above require complicated work and time, resulting in low productivity and high costs.
There were flaws.

The present invention relates to a new and improved method of manufacturing a connector, proposed in view of the disadvantages and shortcomings of the conventional methods, which is a method for manufacturing a flexible connector by applying a striped layer of insulating material to the surface of the connector. After the insulating material layer is bonded to the surface of the core while a film and a core made of a flexible elastic material are inserted and passed through a hollow tube, the film is peeled off from the core, and then the This method is characterized in that a conductive material layer is filled and hardened in a ring-shaped groove between ring-shaped protrusions formed by the insulating material layer on the surface of the core body.

To explain this, the method of the present invention basically transfers and integrates a striped insulating material layer, which has been previously formed on the surface of a flexible film, onto the surface of a core body to form a ring-shaped layer on the surface of the core body. A conductive material layer is formed by forming protrusions, then filling and hardening a conductive material layer in the ring-shaped grooves formed between the ring-shaped protrusions, and according to this method, a plurality of A connector with a ring-shaped conductive material layer with the same function as a conventional product can be produced with much higher productivity than conventional methods that include an etching process or a rubber ring mounting process.
And it can be obtained at low cost.

Hereinafter, the method of the present invention will be explained in detail according to its manufacturing steps.

First, in carrying out the method of the present invention, a flexible film having a layer made of an insulating material formed on the surface thereof in the form of parallel stripes with an arbitrary pitch and an arbitrary width; A core body made of a flexible elastic material having insulation properties is prepared.

The above-mentioned flexible film has a good adhesion of the insulating material layer formed on its surface, and after transferring this insulating material layer to the core surface, it is easy to peel off the insulating material layer. The film is made of a material with good properties, such as polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride,
Polyethylene, ethylcellulose, cellulose diacetate, cellulose triacetate, polyester, polyimide, polyamide, polyimideamide, etc. are used, and among these, polyester is particularly suitable.

As for the thickness of this flexible film, since this film will be bent with a considerably small radius of curvature in the next step, a thickness of about 5 to 200 μm is appropriate in consideration of its rigidity and flexibility.

The insulating material layer applied to the surface of the flexible film may be made of, for example, urethane-based, unsaturated polyester-based, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer,
It is composed of a silicone-based or other synthetic rubber-based material that exhibits flexibility after curing or solidification, and a layer of this insulating material is coated on the film using various conventionally known painting and printing methods. A deposit is formed.

On the other hand, the insulating core used in the present invention is tube-shaped or rod-shaped, and includes, for example, soft vinyl chloride resin, soft olefin resin, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin, silicone rubber, etc. Although any material having flexibility and elasticity, such as synthetic rubber or other synthetic rubber, can be used, a rubber elastic body with low compression set, such as silicone rubber, is particularly preferred.

The above-described flexible film having an insulating material layer coated on its surface in a striped manner and the rod-shaped or tube-shaped core made of a flexible and elastic material having insulating properties are the first aspect of the present invention. In the step, the film is inserted into and passed through a hollow tube, so that the film is wound and integrated with the insulating material layer formed in stripes on the circumferential surface of the core inside. The hollow tube used in the present invention is for closely wrapping the film around the core, and is made of, for example, a glass tube, a metal tube, a plastic tube, etc., and has an inner diameter of shall be approximately equal to or slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the flexible film wrapped around the core, and its inner peripheral surface shall be as smooth and uniform as possible, and its end That is, the portion on the core insertion side has a funnel-shaped expanded structure, if necessary, in order to facilitate insertion of the core and film.

In the first step of the method of the present invention described above, the flexible film can be wrapped around the core in various ways, but the most typical method is to A flexible film of a fixed length and width that is equal to the length and has a striped pattern made of an insulating material layer extending in the width direction is wrapped vertically around the core. It produces independent ring-shaped striped patterns on the circumferential surface of the body.

Note that the shape of the flexible film in the present invention is not limited to one in which the width is equal to the circumference of the core as described above, and this may be larger or smaller than the circumference of the core. In such cases, the film may be wound into a roll, and in any such case, the insulating material layer applied to the surface of the film is formed into a pattern of parallel stripes inclined at a predetermined angle. It is necessary to spirally wind the material around the core so that independent ring-shaped protruding patterns appear on the surface of the core.

When winding a flexible film around a core, whether vertically or spirally, the tip of the film is temporarily attached to the tip of the core, and then the flexible film is wrapped around the circumference of the core. In addition, when winding in a spiral shape, winding can be easily done by rotating the core and film relative to each other while inserting the core and film into the hollow tube. Furthermore, this winding may be performed when the core body and film are inserted into the hollow tube, or may be performed in advance at a stage before that.

When winding a flexible film around a core, the insulating material layer on the film and/or the core is, for example, uncured or semi-cured rubber material with an adhesive surface. Although it is possible to join and integrate them simply by winding them, if there is insufficient adhesiveness between the two, it is necessary to join and integrate them via a suitable adhesive layer. The adhesive used here may be any type of adhesive that hardens or hardens at room temperature or under heat, including urethane-based, epoxy-based, unsaturated polyester-based, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer-based adhesives. , silicone-based, and other synthetic rubber-based materials that exhibit flexibility after curing or solidification can be used. In addition, in order to apply the above adhesive, for example, when inserting and wrapping the core and film into the hollow tube, the adhesive may be supplied to the surface of the core through a nozzle, or the film may be wound around the core. This is done by introducing the core into a tank filled with adhesive and adhering the adhesive to the surface of the core before attaching the core. Adhesive should be applied to fill the concave grooves between material layers, and to prevent excess adhesive from spilling out from the film seams and staining the inner circumferential surface of the hollow tube when the core and film are inserted into the hollow tube. Careful attention must be paid to the amount.

Next, in the method of the present invention, as described above, adhesive is applied to the core body as necessary and a flexible film is wound around the core body, and these are inserted into the hollow tube, and the striped insulating film is The material layers, the core, or the adhesive are cured or solidified to be integrated, but this can be done by leaving the core etc. inserted in the hollow tube at room temperature, or by heating as necessary. Furthermore, when a heating tube is provided around the outer periphery of the hollow tube, curing or solidification is promoted and continuous bonding and integration can be achieved.

Once the joining and integration process is completed in this way,
Next, the core is taken out of the hollow tube, and if necessary, after a post-heat treatment, the film is peeled off from the surface of the core, and the outer peripheral surface of the core is covered with an insulating material layer protruding in the form of a ring. It is possible to obtain a molded product.

In the core body having ring-shaped protrusions thus obtained, a conductive material layer is then filled and hardened in the grooves formed between the ring-shaped protrusions.

The conductive material layer used here contains powder or granules of carbon black, carbon fiber, graphite, aluminum, nickel, tungsten carbide, copper, silver, gold, or a mixture thereof as a conductivity imparting agent. It is composed of a conductive paint made by uniformly dispersing other necessary additives such as antioxidants and lubricants, but this paint should exhibit flexibility after curing or solidification. be.

In addition, in the method of the present invention, filling and curing of the conductive paint into the ring-shaped groove on the core can be carried out, for example, by applying the conductive paint in a fluid state to the surface of the core, and then applying the conductive paint to the surface of the core. It is inserted into a short tubular jig whose diameter is slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the insulating material layer protruding in a ring shape and has an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the core, and the conductive paint is squeezed out of the jig. Just pull it out. In this way, the conductive paint is filled only in the ring-shaped groove portion of the circumferential surface of the core that has passed through the short tubular jig, and the conductive paint is solidified or hardened to form a predetermined shape. By cutting to size, the desired connector can be obtained. When the connector thus obtained is pulled out from the short tubular jig described above, a tensile force is applied to the core body and it is slightly elongated, and at that time, the width of the ring-shaped groove is also slightly expanded. When the above-mentioned tensile force is removed, the conductive paint filled in the groove is solidified or hardened so as to rise slightly, and as a result, the conductive material layer protrudes from the circumferential surface. The raised height of the conductive material layer can be freely changed by adjusting the above-mentioned tensile force.

In addition, when filling the ring-shaped groove with conductive paint, when the core is passed through the short tubular jig, some of the conductive paint remains on the circumferential surface of the ring-shaped protrusion made of insulating material. However, the conductive paint left on the circumferential surface of the ring-shaped protrusion in this way is very small and has a high resistance value, so there is no risk of harming the function of the connector. In order to avoid such a situation, it is desirable that the peripheral surface of the ring-shaped protrusion be subjected to an appropriate mold release treatment or an appropriate strippable coating treatment in advance.

As explained above, the method for manufacturing the connector of the present invention is to provide an insulating material layer protruding in a ring shape on the surface of a tube-shaped or rod-shaped core made of a flexible elastic material by a transfer method, and then A conductive material layer is filled and hardened in a ring-shaped groove formed between the strips, and the method of the present invention applies a ring-shaped protrusion made of an insulating material to the continuously progressing core. The forming of the strip and the forming of the conductive material layer can be carried out sequentially and continuously.
Compared to the method of attaching each connector one by one, the desired connector can be obtained with much higher productivity and at a lower cost, and therefore its practical value is great.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. While inserting and passing a flexible film having an insulating material layer on its surface in a striped manner and a core made of a flexible elastic material into a hollow tube, the insulating material layer is attached to the core. After being bonded to the surface, the film is peeled off from the core, and a conductive film is placed in the ring-shaped groove between the ring-shaped protrusions formed by the insulating material layer on the surface of the core. A method for manufacturing a connector, characterized by filling and curing a material layer.