Fluorocarbon Resin Bushing Cloth for Keyboard Instruments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional bushing cloth used in keyboard instruments, such as acoustic pianos, experiences premature wear and noise due to low abrasion resistance and lubricity of wool fibers exposed after fluorocarbon resin coating wears off, leading to unstable key movement and increased manufacturing costs.
Innovation Solution
The use of bushing cloth made entirely of fluorocarbon resin fibers, which maintains high abrasion resistance and lubricity, preventing wear and noise, and eliminating the need for costly impregnation steps by utilizing commercially available fibers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If bushing cloth is made by coating woolen cloth with fluorocarbon resin, then initial lubricity is improved, but abrasion resistance deteriorates over time as resin wears off
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the fundamental material parameter from woolen cloth to fluorocarbon resin fabric, transforming the bushing cloth from a composite structure (wool + resin coating) to a homogeneous structure (pure resin). This parameter change ensures that the fabric itself possesses high abrasion resistance and lubricity without relying on surface coating that can wear off.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses fluorocarbon resin fabric as a composite material that inherently combines both structural integrity and lubricating properties. The resin fabric serves as both the structural base and the lubricating surface, eliminating the need for separate woolen cloth and resin coating layers.
2Reliability
If fluorocarbon resin is coated on woolen cloth through impregnation and heating, then lubricity is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the woolen cloth component from the bushing cloth structure, using only fluorocarbon resin fabric. This simplifies the manufacturing process by removing the impregnation and heating steps required to coat woolen cloth with resin, while maintaining the lubricity benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention adopts a simpler, more cost-effective fluorocarbon resin fabric that can be directly used without complex processing. This approach trades the long-term durability of multi-step coated materials for the immediate simplicity and cost-effectiveness of ready-to-use resin fabric.
3Ease of manufacture
If woolen cloth is used as bushing cloth, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but abrasion resistance and lubricity are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the material parameter from woolen cloth to fluorocarbon resin fabric, which inherently possesses superior abrasion resistance and lubricity. This material substitution maintains manufacturing simplicity by using a ready-to-use fabric that requires no additional coating or heat treatment steps.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Ensures stable and smooth pivotal motion of keys, reduces manufacturing costs, and maintains performance over time by preventing key wobbling and noise due to advanced abrasion resistance and lubricity of fluorocarbon resin fibers.
Implementation Method 1
the fluorocarbon resin has excellent abrasion resistance and lubricity... the bushing cloth affixed to the balance rail pin hole and the front rail pin hole is brought into sliding contact with the balance rail pin and the front rail pin
Implementation Method 2
the fluorocarbon resin can wear or fall off the surfaces of the wool fibers... since the abrasion resistance of the wool fibers is lower than that of the fluorocarbon resin
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
A key for a keyboard instrument, which is capable of maintaining the excellent abrasion resistance and lubricity of bushing cloth for a long time period, thereby making it possible not only to stably ensure a smooth pivotal motion of the key but also to manufacture the key at lower costs. The key is mounted in a state engaged with a pin and is pivotally moved in accordance with depression thereof. The key has a key stick formed with a pin hole having left and right wall surfaces opposed to each other and opening downward, and is pivotally engaged with the pin via the pin hole. Bushing cloth sheets are made of fluorocarbon resin fibers, and are affixed to the left and right wall surfaces of the pin hole.