Button Guide Structure Eliminates Masking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional button guide structures for in-vehicle apparatuses face issues with coating material adhering to guide grooves, leading to increased costs and variability in coating quality, necessitating masking which is costly and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A button guide structure with a tubular portion and a rib engagement system on the outer surface, allowing the rib and slit to engage slippably, eliminating the need for masking and reducing parts count, thereby minimizing costs and improving coating quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the guide groove portion is provided on the front panel side and coating is performed, then the coating material adheres to the guide groove portion, but this increases the cost for masking jig and man-hour for masking
Solution Approach 1:
The guide unit is extracted from the front panel and relocated to the push button assembly. The guide groove is formed on the push button's outer peripheral surface, and the guide rib is formed on the tubular portion of the front panel. This separation allows the front panel to be coated without the guide groove interfering, eliminating the need for masking while maintaining the guiding function.
Solution Approach 2:
The guiding function is segmented between two components: the guide groove on the push button and the guide rib on the tubular portion. This segmentation allows independent processing of the front panel (coating) and the push button (guiding feature formation), resolving the conflict between coating quality and masking complexity.
2Manufacturing precision
If masking is performed to prevent coating material adhesion, then coating quality improves, but the cost for masking jig and man-hour increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide unit is extracted from the front panel and placed on the push button assembly, allowing the front panel to be coated without masking. This eliminates the additional costs associated with masking jigs and manual masking operations while ensuring uniform coating quality.
3Ease of operation
If the guide groove portion is provided on the front panel, then the push button can be guided, but coating material flows around to the guide groove through small gaps causing variation in coating quality
Solution Approach 1:
The guide groove is extracted from the front panel and relocated to the push button's outer peripheral surface. This relocation eliminates the pathway for coating material to flow into the guide groove during spraying, ensuring consistent coating quality while the guide rib on the tubular portion continues to provide guidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidance system is segmented into the guide groove on the push button and the guide rib on the tubular portion. This segmentation allows the front panel to be coated independently without the guide groove interfering, preventing coating material from entering the guiding features and causing quality variations.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Provided is a button guide structure that makes it possible to achieve the reduction in cost and man-hour and the improvement in quality. In a button guide structure in which a push button 23 is provided on a front panel 11 through a guide unit in a slidable manner, the push button 23 operating a switch, the front panel 11 configuring a front surface of an electronic apparatus or the like, the front panel 11 includes a tubular portion 11b into which a part of the push button 23 is inserted, the push button 23 includes: a button main body portion 23a that is inserted into the tubular portion 11b; and an outer tubular portion 23b that is provided so as to surround the button main body portion 23a and that encloses the tubular portion 11b when the button main body portion 23a has been inserted into the tubular portion 11b, and the guide unit constituted by a rib 11k and a slit 23k is provided on an outer surface 11w of the tubular portion 11b and the outer tubular portion 23b.