The present invention relates to a keyswitch, and more specifically, to a keyswitch utilizing blocks to prevent lateral sliding of a cap.
A keyboard, which is the most common input device, can be found in variety of electronic apparatuses for users to input characters, symbols, numerals and so on. Furthermore, consumer electronic products and industrial machine tools are all equipped with a keyboard for performing input operations.
In general, a keyswitch on the keyboard usually adopts the design that a scissor support mechanism is disposed between a cap and a board to make the cap movable relative to the board. However, since the aforesaid design requires more internal space of the keyswitch and the overall height of the keyswitch is thus increased, it is disadvantageous to the thinning design of the keyboard. As such, a V-shaped support mechanical design is accordingly applied to the keyboard and involves connecting two support members in a V-shaped arrangement to the board pivotably and connecting the two support members to the cap slidably to make the cap movable relative to the board. In this design, since the two support members are slidably connected to the cap, it may cause lateral sliding of the cap relative to the support members when a user presses the keyswitch, so as to influence the pressing feeling provided by the keyswitch.
The present invention provides a keyswitch including a cap, a first support member, a second support member, a first block, and a second block. The cap is movable between a non-pressed position and a pressed position. The first support member has a first sliding end portion. The first sliding end portion is slidably connected to the cap to be movable along a first involute track with movement of the cap. The second support member is slidably connected to the cap. The second support member is opposite to the first support member. The first block is formed on the cap. A first concave structure extends from the first block along the first involute track. The first sliding end portion has a first convex structure. The first convex structure abuts against the first block or is spaced apart from the first concave structure at a first gap when the first sliding end portion moves along the first involute track. The second block is formed on the cap. A second concave structure extends from the second block along the first involute track. The first sliding end portion further has a second convex structure. The second convex structure abuts against the cap or the second concave structure when the first sliding end portion moves along the first involute track.
The present invention further provides a keyswitch including a board, a first support member, a second support member, a first block, and a second block. The first support member has a first sliding end portion. The first sliding end portion is slidably connected to the board to be movable along a first involute track relative to the board. The second support member is slidably connected to the board. The second support member is opposite to the first support member. The first block is formed on the board. The first concave structure extends from the first block along the first involute track. The first sliding end portion has a first convex structure. The first convex structure abuts against the first block or is spaced apart from the first concave structure at a first gap when the first sliding end portion moves along the first involute track. The second block is formed on the board. A second concave structure extends from the second block along the first involute track. The first sliding end portion further has a second convex structure. The second convex structure abuts against the board or the second concave structure when the first sliding end portion moves along the first involute track.
The present invention further provides a keyswitch including a cap, a board, a first support member, a second support member, a first block, and a second block. The cap is movable between a non-pressed position and a pressed position. The board is disposed opposite to the cap. The first support member and the second support member are opposite to each other and slidably connected between the cap and the board. The first support member has a first sliding end portion. The first sliding end portion is slidably connected to the cap to be movable along a first involute track with movement of the cap. The first sliding end portion has a first convex structure and a second convex structure. The first block and the second block are formed on the cap and opposite to each other. A first concave structure and a second concave structure extend from the first block and the second block respectively along the first involute track. When the first sliding end portion moves along the first involute track, the first convex structure of the first sliding end portion abuts against the first block or is spaced apart from the first concave structure at a first gap, and the second convex structure abuts against the cap or the second concave structure.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
Please refer to
In this embodiment, the first support member 18 has a first pivot end portion 30 and a first sliding end portion 32. The first sliding end portion 32 is slidably connected to the cap 16 and the first pivot end portion 30 is pivoted to the board 14, so as to make the first sliding end portion 32 movable along a first involute track relative to the first pivot end portion 30 (the related description for pivoting of a keyswitch support member along an involute track is commonly seen in the prior art and is omitted herein). In practical application, as shown in
Furthermore, as shown in
On the other hand, the second block 24 is formed on the cap 16 and located at an outer side of the first sliding end portion 32 to be aligned with the first block 22 (but not limited thereto, meaning that the present invention could adopt the block design that the first block 22 is misaligned with the second block 24 in another embodiment). The first sliding end portion 32 further has a second convex structure 46. The second convex structure 46 abuts against the cap 16 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position. A second concave structure 48 extends from the second block 24 correspondingly along the first involute track of the first sliding end portion 32. As such, when the first sliding end portion 32 moves along the first involute track, the second convex structure 46 can abut against the cap 16 or the second concave structure 48. To be more specific, via the second convex structure 46 and the second concave structure 48 extending along the first involute track of the first sliding end portion 32 respectively, the second block 24 can be spaced apart from the first support member 18 at a proper gap during the process of the cap 16 being pressed and can block the first support member 18 when the cap 16 is located at the pressed position.
In practical application, a concave slot 50 could be formed on the first support member 18 corresponding to the first block 22, and the first convex structure 42 could be formed in the concave slot 50. Accordingly, when the cap 16 is located at the pressed position, the first block 22 can enter the concave slot 50 to be spaced apart from the first convex structure 42, so as to efficiently prevent the first support member 18 from interfering with the first block 22 during pivoting of the first support member 18.
Similarly, the third block 26 is formed on the cap 16 and located at an inner side of the second sliding end portion 40. The second sliding end portion 40 has a third convex structure 52. The third convex structure 52 abuts against the third block 26 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position. A third concave structure 54 extends from the third block 26 correspondingly along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40. As such, when the second sliding end portion 40 moves along the second involute track, the third convex structure 52 can abut against the third block 26 or can move away from the third concave structure 54. To be more specific, via the third convex structure 52 and the third concave structure 54 extending along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40 respectively, the third block 26 can block the second support member 20 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position and is spaced apart from the second support member 20 at a proper gap during of the process of the cap 16 being pressed. On the other hand, the fourth block 28 is formed on the cap 16 and located at an outer side of the second sliding end portion 40 to be aligned with the third block 26 (but not limited thereto, meaning that the present invention could adopt the block design that the third block 26 is misaligned with the fourth block 28 in another embodiment). The second sliding end portion 40 further has a fourth convex structure 56. The fourth convex structure 56 abuts against the cap 16 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position. A fourth concave structure 58 extends from the fourth block 28 correspondingly along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40. As such, when the second sliding end portion 40 moves along the second involute track, the fourth convex structure 56 can abut against the cap 16 or the fourth concave structure 58. To be more specific, via the fourth convex structure 56 and the fourth concave structure 58 extending along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40 respectively, the fourth block 28 can be spaced apart from the second support member 20 at a proper gap during the process of the cap 16 being pressed and can block the second support member 20 when the cap 16 is located at the pressed position.
To be noted, the present invention could preferably adopt the design that the first support member 18 and the second support member 20 are pivoted to the board 14 at different shafts. In this embodiment, as shown in
In addition, the keyswitch 12 could adopt the keyswitch triggering and returning design. For example, the present invention could dispose a rubber dome between a cap and a circuit board of a keyswitch corresponding to a switch on the circuit board, but not limited thereto, meaning that the present invention could adopt other returning member (e.g. a metal dome or a compressed spring), or could adopt other returning design (e.g. a stretched spring could be horizontally connected between two support members of the keyswitch for providing a returning force). Accordingly, when the keyswitch is pressed to the pressed position by an external force, the cap can deform the rubber dome to trigger the switch for performing the corresponding input function. On the other hand, when the external force is released, the rubber dome provides a returning force to drive the cap upward to the non-pressed position for generating the cap returning effect.
Via the aforesaid designs, as shown in
Finally, when the cap 16 continues moving a second distance d2 downward to the pressed position as shown in
It should be mentioned that the third block and the fourth block could be omitted. In brief, in the embodiment that the third block and the fourth block are omitted, the keyswitch of the present invention could only utilize the first block and the second block to block the first support member for achieving the one-sided blocking purpose, so as to simplify the structural design of the keyswitch. Furthermore, the structural configuration of the blocks and the sliding slot of the cap is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment. For example, in another embodiment, the first block could be formed in the sliding slot of the cap and the second block could be aligned with the first block on the cap. As for the related description for the other derived embodiments, it could be reasoned by analogy according to the aforesaid embodiments and omitted herein.
The support design of the first support member and the second support member is not limited to the V-shaped support mechanical design mentioned in the aforesaid embodiments, meaning that the present invention could adopt the inverted V-shaped support mechanical design. For example, please refer to
In this embodiment, the first sliding end portion 32 of the first support member 18 and the second sliding end portion 40 of the second support member 20 are slidably connected to the board 14, and the first pivot end portion 30 of the first support member 18 and the second pivot end portion 38 of the second support member 20 are pivoted to the cap 16. As such, the first sliding end portion 32 and the second sliding end portion 40 can move along the involute tracks (i.e. the first involute track and the second involute track) relative to the first pivot end portion 30 and the second pivot end portion 38 respectively with movement of the cap 16. In such a manner, via the connection design that the first support member 18 and the second support member 20 are opposite to each other and are slidably connected to the board 14 and pivoted to the cap 16 for forming an inverted V-shaped support mechanism, the cap 16 can move between the non-pressed position and the pressed position relative to the board 14.
Furthermore, as shown in
Similarly, the third block 108 is formed on the board 14 and located at the inner side of the second sliding end portion 40. The third convex structure 52 of the second sliding end portion 40 abuts against the third block 108 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position. A third concave structure 116 extends from the third block 108 correspondingly along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40. The fourth block 110 is formed on the board 14 and located at the outer side of the second sliding end portion 40 to be aligned with the third block 108. The fourth convex structure 56 of the second sliding end portion 40 abuts against the board 14 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position. A fourth concave structure 118 extends from the fourth block 110 correspondingly along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40. As such, when the second sliding end portion 40 moves along the second involute track, the third convex structure 52 abuts against the third block 108 or is spaced apart from the third concave structure 116, and the fourth convex structure 56 abuts against the board 14 or the fourth concave structure 118. To be more specific, via the third convex structure 52, the third concave structure 116, the fourth convex structure 56 and the fourth concave structure 118 extending along the second involute track of the second sliding end portion 40 respectively, the third block 108 can be spaced apart from the second support member 20 at a proper gap during the process of the cap 16 being pressed and can block the second support member 20 when the cap 16 is located at the non-pressed position, and the fourth block 110 can be spaced apart from the second support member 20 at a proper gap during the process of the cap 16 being pressed and can block the second support member 20 when the cap 16 is located at the pressed position.
In such a manner, the keyswitch 102 of the present invention can efficiently solve the prior art problem that the V-shaped support mechanical design causes lateral sliding of the cap relative to the support members, so as to improve the pressing feeling provided by the keyswitch 102. As for the detailed description for the other related designs of the keyswitch 102 (e.g. the design that the first support member and the second support member are pivoted to the cap at different shafts or the same shaft, the design of omitting the third block and the fourth block, the concave slot design, the block arrangement design, and so on), it could be reasoned by analogy according to the aforesaid embodiments and omitted herein.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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108144417 | Dec 2019 | TW | national |