Patent Application
20220078935
The present disclosure relates to a field of electronic devices, and more particularly to a housing assembly and a fabrication method thereof, and an electronic device.
With the development of electronic device fabrication technology, various materials are used for housings of the electronic devices. As the material of glass has a good light transmittance, corrosion resistance and heat resistance, and is easy to be fabricated, and the decorative membrane is easy to be fabricated, and has a low cost and various appearances, the housing of electronic device made of a transparent base and a decorative membrane is widely used. For example, a diversified appearance of a battery back housing of a mobile phone may be achieved by attaching a membrane to a glass housing.
Nevertheless, the existing housing assembly and the fabrication method thereof, and the electronic device still need to be improved.
In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a housing assembly is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the housing assembly includes: a housing base having a bottom surface and a sidewall connected to the bottom surface, and an appearance membrane located on a side of the housing base. A bending angle between the sidewall and the bottom surface is greater than 70 degrees. The appearance membrane includes a soft substrate, and a glossy silver layer located on a side of the soft substrate. The soft substrate has an elastic modulus in a range of 800 Mpa to 2000 Mpa.
In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method for fabricating a housing assembly is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the method includes: providing a housing base having a bottom surface and a sidewall connected to the bottom surface; and forming an appearance membrane, and bonding the appearance membrane on a side of the housing base. A bending angle between the sidewall and the bottom surface is greater than 70 degrees. Forming the appearance membrane includes: providing a soft substrate, and forming a glossy silver layer on a side of the soft substrate. The soft substrate has an elastic modulus in a range of 800 Mpa to 2000 Mpa.
In a third aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device includes: the above-mentioned housing assembly in the first aspect or the housing assembly fabricated by the above-mentioned method in the second aspect, a mainboard and a memory, and a screen. An accommodating space is defined by the housing assembly, and the appearance membrane of the housing assembly faces toward an interior of the electronic device. The mainboard and the memory are located inside the accommodating space. The screen is located on a top of the housing assembly and connected to the mainboard.
100: housing base; 110: bottom surface; 120: sidewall; 200: appearance membrane; 210: soft substrate; 220: color layer; 240: textured layer; 230: glossy silver layer; 250: covering layer; 1000: housing assembly; 1100: electronic device.
The embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below. Examples of the embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments described with reference to the drawings are illustrative and only used to explain the present disclosure, but may not be interpreted as the restrictions of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure is based on the findings and the recognitions of the following facts and problems.
It is found that when a transparent base with a relatively large bending angle is used for fabricating a housing of an electronic device, it is difficult to bond/attach an appearance membrane to the transparent base. Currently, when an electronic device housing is fabricated by a combination of the transparent base and the appearance membrane, polyethylene terephthalate membrane (PET membrane) is generally used as a substrate material for the appearance membrane due to its high hardness and scratch resistance. Further, on the PET membrane a textured layer may be transfer printed, a metal layer may be electroplated, and an ink layer may be printed, to make the appearance membrane have a diversified appearance. Then the appearance membrane is bonded to the transparent base. However, in the above-mentioned method for fabricating the electronic device housing, the transparent base usually has a small bending angle. For example, a common 3D glass cover plate has a relatively limited bending angle. When the appearance membrane is bonded/attached to the transparent base, the PET membrane and the laminated materials (such as, the above-mentioned textured layer, the metal layer, the ink layer, etc.) on the PET membrane will not be significantly stretched, and therefore the above-mentioned appearance membrane with the PET membrane as the substrate material may be well bonded to the transparent base to achieve a good appearance. However, it is difficult for the PET membrane to be bonded to a transparent base with a relatively large bending angle, for example a glass back housing having a radian angle of more than 30° with respect to all four sides, since the PET membrane has an elastic modulus of more than 4000 Mpa, a high hardness, and a poor flexibility. During the bonding process, bubbles and cracks of laminated materials may occur, which affects the appearance expressiveness of the housing. Thereby, disclosure of the transparent base (for example of a glass material) having a relatively large bending angle are limited in the electronic device housings. On this basis, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the art, a new housing assembly having a good appearance, in which the appearance membrane may be firmly bonded to the housing base bent with a large angle, is needed.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are at least meant to solve at least one of the problems existing in the related art to some extent.
In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a housing assembly is provided. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
It should be noted that the term “bending angle” in the present disclosure refers to an angle (angle a shown in
For better understanding, the reasons that the housing assembly according to embodiments of the present disclosure is capable of achieving the above-mentioned technical effects are described as follows.
As mentioned above, when the transparent glass base and the appearance membrane with color and pattern are bonded to fabricate the electronic device housing, since the glass base has a small bending angle, the existing PET membrane can be firmly bonded to the glass base to achieve a good appearance. However, when the housing base (e.g., glass) has a large bending angle, the PET membrane is difficult to be bonded to the housing base with the large bending angle (e.g., greater than 30 degrees) due to its high rigidity and poor ductility. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a soft substrate having the relatively small elastic modulus (in a range of 800 Mpa to 2000 Mpa) is used as the substrate of the appearance membrane to fabricate the housing assembly. Since the soft substrate has a good flexibility, it can be firmly bonded to the housing base with a large bending angle without the problem of bubbles. Moreover, the inventors have conducted intensive research, and obtained the following findings. When a coating layer is formed on the soft substrate by a common coating way (to achieve the metallic luster effect for the housing assembly), the bonding force between the coating layer and the soft substrate is poor due to the softness of the soft substrate and the hardness and fragility of materials (usually being metal oxides) of the coating layer. In addition, when the appearance membrane is bonded to the base having the large bending angle, the coating layer is prone to crack, affecting the appearance of the housing assembly. In the housing assembly according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the glossy silver layer is located on the side of the soft substrate away from the housing base. The glossy silver layer may be formed by a simple process, such as by screen printing. In this way, the housing assembly may have the metallic luster effect by printing the glossy silver layer, etc., without coating the metal film, which improves the luminance of the housing assembly and the expressiveness of the product. Moreover, a bonding force between the glossy silver layer and the soft substrate may be strong. In this case, the glossy silver layer has a high cracking resistance when the appearance membrane is bonded to the housing assembly having the large bending angle, thereby achieving a high product yield and a good appearance.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, specific types of the housing assembly 1000 are not specially limited, and may be glass, for example. Specifically, the bottom surface 110 may be a flat or curved surface. Specifically, as shown in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, specific types of the soft substrate 210 are not specially limited, as long as it has a good flexibility. Specifically, the soft substrate 210 may have an elastic modulus in the range of 800 Mpa to 2000 Mpa, such as, 1000 MPa, 1200 MPa, 1500 MPa or 1800 MPa. Compared with the PET membrane with an elastic modulus up to 4000 Mpa, the soft substrate has a better flexibility, a better ductility, and a better curved surface adaptability, and may be conveniently and closely bonded to the glass base having a large curvature at its four sides. The housing assembly as fabricated may have a good appearance. Specifically, the soft substrate 210 may include at least one selected from a group consisting of a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and a thermoplastic elastomer. The thermoplastic elastomer may be a linear triblock copolymer, styrene ethylene butylene styrene (SEBS) with polystyrene as a terminal block and an ethylene-butene copolymer (which is obtained by hydrogenating polybutadiene) as an intermediate elastic block, or may be a linear triblock copolymer, styrene ethylene isoprene styrene (SEPS) with polystyrene as a terminal block and an ethylene-isoprene copolymer (which is obtained by hydrogenating polyisoprene) as an intermediate elastic block. For example, the soft substrate 210 may be thermoplastic polyurethane. Specifically, the soft substrate 210 may have a thickness of 80 μm to 100 μm, such as, 85 μm, 90 μm or 95 μm. The soft substrate 210 with the above-mentioned thickness may be closely bonded to the housing assembly 1000 having a large bending angle.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Specifically, the color layer 220 may have a thickness of 4 μm to 12 μm, such as, 5 μm, 7 μm, 9 μm or 11 μm. The color layer 220 with the above-mentioned thickness may have a suitable light transmittance, to make the housing assembly 1000 have a color effect and a metallic luster effect at the same time, thereby achieving the diversified appearance. When the thickness of the color layer 220 is too small (such as, less than 4 μm), the color effect is faint. When the thickness of the color layer 220 is too large (such as, more than 12 μm), the light transmittance of the color layer 220 will be reduced, thereby affecting the overall appearance of the housing assembly 1000.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Specifically, the housing assembly 1000 may have a luminance L of 60 to 80. In this way, the larger the luminance L of the housing assembly 1000 is, the higher the luminance is, and the better the appearance and expressiveness is. It should be noted that the luminance L ranges from 0 to 100. The larger the luminance L is, the brighter (whiter) the light is; and the smaller the L value is, the darker (more black) the light is.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
As described above, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the soft substrate 210 has a relatively small elastic modulus, and a good flexibility, the housing assembly 1000 has a large radian, and thus the appearance membrane 200 and the housing base 100 can be closely bonded, and the housing assembly 1000 has the diversified appearance. Moreover, the metallic luster effect can be achieved by the glossy silver layer 230 without coating a metal film, thereby improving the product expressiveness.
In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method for fabricating a housing assembly is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the housing assembly fabricated by the method may be the housing assembly in the first aspect. In this way, the housing assembly fabricated by the method has all the features and advantages of the above-mentioned housing assembly, which will not be repeated here. In general, the housing assembly fabricated by the method has a large radian, and the appearance membrane and the housing base may be closely bonded, and thus the housing assembly has the diversified appearance, and may have the metallic luster effect without coating a metal film, thereby improving the product expressiveness.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In block S100: providing a housing base.
In this operation, the housing base is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the housing base may be the above-mentioned housing base in the first aspect, such as, may be a glass base. The housing base has a bottom surface and a sidewall connected to the bottom surface, and a bending angle between the sidewall and the bottom surface is greater than 70 degrees.
In block S200: forming an appearance membrane, and bonding the appearance membrane on a side of the housing base.
In this operation, the appearance membrane is formed and bonded on the side of the housing base. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In block S210: providing a soft substrate.
In this operation, the soft substrate is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the soft substrate may be the above-mentioned soft substrate in the first aspect. For example, the soft substrate may include at least one selected from a group consisting of a thermoplastic polyurethane, a polyvinyl chloride, and a thermoplastic elastomer, and the soft substrate 210 may have an elastic modulus in a range of 800 Mpa to 2000 Mpa. In this way, the soft substrate with the above-mentioned elastic modulus has a good flexibility, and may be closely bonded to the housing base with large bending angle without forming bubbles, thereby diversifying appearance of the housing assembly. In some embodiments, the soft substrate may have a thickness of 80 μm to 100 μm, and the soft substrate with the above-mentioned thickness may be well bonded to the housing base with a large bending angle.
In block S220: forming a color layer on a side of the soft substrate.
In this operation, the color layer is formed on a side of the soft substrate formed in the previous operation. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a color ink composition may be applied on the side of the soft substrate by screen printing to form the color layer, to realize a diversified color on the soft substrate. Specifically, the color ink composition may be suitably selected by those skilled in the art according to color requirements. The color ink composition may include a color ink, a first curing agent, and a first diluent. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the color of the color ink is not specially limited, and may be selected by those skilled in the art, such as, may be black, white, pink, gold, silver, light blue, purple or red. Specifically, the color ink composition may include 5% to 30% by weight of the first curing agent, and 5% to 20% by weight of the first diluent based on a total weight of the color ink composition. In this way, the color and the light transmittance of the color layer may be conveniently adjusted to obtain the desired color effect.
Specifically, the color ink composition may be placed on a screen of an automatic screen printing machine, and be printed on the soft substrate (such as a TPU film) by spreading the color ink composition. The screen may have a mesh number from 280 to 420 mesh. The mesh number of the screen is the number of holes per inch on the screen. The larger the mesh number of the screen is, the higher the fineness is.
Specifically, the formed color layer may have a light transmittance of 30% to 70%. In this way, the color layer with the above-mentioned light transmittance may be superimposed on a glossy silver layer formed in the following operation, and thus the housing assembly has a color effect and a metallic luster effect at the same time, and has a high luminance and an improved product expressiveness. Specifically, the color layer may have a thickness of 4 μm to 12 μm, and the appearance effect of the housing assembly may be further improved.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In block S240: forming a textured layer on a side of the color layer away from the soft substrate.
In this operation, the textured layer is formed on the side of the color layer away from the soft substrate. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the textured layer may be formed by UV transfer printing. As mentioned above, in order to achieve the metallic luster effect, various textures may be processed on a surface of the soft substrate (such as the TPU film). The textured layer may be superimposed on the glossy silver layer formed in the following operations to realize a diversified metallic luster effect. Specifically, a UV adhesive may be dispensed on an optical textured mold (master), and the soft substrate (such as the TPU substrate) may cover and be bonded on the master. The soft substrate and the master are pressed by a silicone roller with a pressure of 0.1 to 3 Mpa to be bonded together. After the UV adhesive is cured, the textured mold (master) is separated and removed from the TPU substrate. The UV adhesive remains on the TPU substrate to obtain the desired texture. Specifically, the UV transfer printing may involve a UV curing energy of 1000 mj/cm2 to 1500 mj/cm2, such as 1200 mj/cm2, 1300 mj/cm2 or 1400 mj/cm2. Specifically, the textured layer may have a thickness of 6 μm to 12 μm. In this way, the textured layer with the above-mentioned thickness may be closely bonded to the glossy silver layer, and thus the housing assembly may exhibit the diversified metallic luster effect.
In block S230: forming a glossy silver layer on a side of the color layer away from the soft substrate.
In this operation, the glossy silver layer is formed on a side of the color layer that has been formed in the previous operation away from the soft substrate, or on a side of the textured layer that has been formed in the previous operation away from the color layer. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the method of forming the glossy silver layer and the formed glossy silver layer may be the same as the above-mentioned ones, and will not be repeated here. For example, the glossy silver layer may be formed by screen printing glossy silver ink, which is easy to be operated and controlled, thus further diversifying the appearance of the housing assembly. Specifically, a glossy silver ink composition may be applied on a side of the textured layer away from the color layer by screen printing. Specifically, the components of the glossy silver ink composition are not specially limited, and the glossy silver ink composition may include a glossy silver ink, a second curing agent, and a second diluent, wherein the glossy silver ink composition may include 1% to 10% by weight of the second curing agent, and 2% to 5% by weight of the second diluent. In this way, the formed glossy silver layer may have a good metallic luster effect, the fabricated housing assembly may have a high luminance, a diversified appearance and an improved expressiveness. For example, the housing assembly may have a luminance L of 60 to 80. Specifically, the glossy silver ink composition may be placed on a screen of an automatic screen printing machine, and be printed on the textured layer by spreading the glossy silver ink composition. The glossy silver ink may be commercially available. The mesh number of the screen (the number of holes per inch on the screen) may range from 280 to 420. The larger the mesh number of the screen is, the higher the fineness is. Specifically, the formed glossy silver layer may have a thickness of 2 μm to 8 μm. The glossy silver layer with the above-mentioned thickness may make the housing assembly have a good metallic luster effect, and a high luminance.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In block S250: printing a covering ink on a side of the glossy silver layer away from the textured layer to form a covering layer.
In this operation, the covering ink is printed on the side of the glossy silver layer away from the textured layer to form the covering layer. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the covering layer may be the above-mentioned covering layer in the first aspect. For example, the converting layer may have a light transmittance of equal to or less than 1%, and a thickness of 20 μm to 30 μm. Specifically, the covering ink, such as black ink or white ink, may be printed multiple times on the side of the glossy silver layer away from the textured layer (if the thickness of the covering layer formed by one-time printing is too large, the covering layer may have a high brittleness, a poor adhesion and a poor performance), to form the covering layer. In this way, the covering layer is formed by printing and curing the covering ink for multiple times, which may avoid light leakage of the covering layer, and further improve the use performance of the housing assembly as fabricated. Specifically, the covering layer of a thickness of 5 μm to 8 μm may be formed upon each printing, and the covering layer may have a total thickness of 20 μm to 30 μm after multiple-times of the printings. The covering layer with the above-mentioned thickness has a good light-shielding effect and an improved adhesion, which may protect the screen printed glossy silver layer from being corroded. Specifically, the mesh number of the screen for printing the covering ink may range from 350 to 420 mesh. On the above basis, the housing assembly fabricated by the method has a large radian, the appearance membrane and the housing base may be closely bonded together, and the housing assembly may have a diversified appearance. Moreover, the metallic luster effect can be achieved without coating a metal film, thereby improving expressiveness of the product.
In a third aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
For example, the electronic device may be any type of various mobile or portable computer system devices which are able to realize wireless communication. Specifically, the electronic device may be a mobile phone or a smart phone (e.g., a phone based on iPhone™ or Android™), a portable game device (e.g. Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™, iPhone™), a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable internet terminal device, a music player and a storage device or other handset device (e.g., a watch, an in-ear earphone, a pendant, a headphone, etc.). The electronic device may also be other wearable devices (e.g., electronic glasses, electronic clothes, electronic bracelets, electronic necklaces, electronic tattoos, electronic equipments, smart watches and head-mounted devices (HMD)).
The electronic device may be any one of a plurality of electronic devices including, but not limited to, a cellular phone, a smart phone, other wireless communication device, a personal digital assistant, an audio player, other media player, a music recorder, a video recorder, a camera, other media recorder, radio, a medical equipment, a vehicle transportation equipment, a calculator, a programmable remote controller, a pager, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a printer, a netbook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable multimedia player (PMP), a motion picture expert group (MPEG-1 or MPEG-2) audio player 3 (MP3), a portable medical equipment, a digital camera or any combination thereof.
In some cases, the electronic device may perform various functions (e.g., playing music, showing video, storing pictures and transmitting/receiving telephone calls). If desired, the electronic device may be a cell phone, a media player, other handset devices, a wrist watch device, a pendant device, an earpiece device or other compact portable devices.
The embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail above. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the specific details in the above-mentioned embodiments. Within the scope of the techniques of the present disclosure, a variety of simple modifications may be made to the technical solution of the present disclosure, and belong to the scope of the present disclosure. It should also be noted that the various specific technical features described in the foregoing specific embodiments may be combined in any suitable manner without contradiction.
Reference throughout this specification to terms of “an embodiment,” “some embodiments” means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure. In this specification, the exemplary expressions of the above-mentioned terms are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment or example of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics as described may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments or examples. In addition, different embodiments or examples and the features of the different embodiments or examples described in this specification may be combined by those skilled in the art without contradicting each other.
Although embodiments have been shown and described above, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodiments cannot be construed to limit the present disclosure, and changes, alternatives, and modifications can be made to the embodiments without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201910568849.1 | Jun 2019 | CN | national |
This disclosure is a continuation of the International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2020/096476, filed Jun. 17, 2020, which claims priority to and benefits of Chinese Patent Application Serial No. 201910568849.1, filed on Jun. 27, 2019, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/CN2020/096476 | Jun 2020 | US |
| Child | 17531376 | US |
