Keyboard Apparatus with Differential Coupling Parts for Yawing Restriction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional keyboard apparatuses for electronic instruments face challenges in simplifying structure, reducing manufacturing costs, and ensuring effective yawing restriction for both black and white keys, particularly with the use of mass members, which complicates design and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
The keyboard apparatus features distinct coupling parts for black and white keys, where black keys have wider coupling parts to restrict yawing without guides, and white keys have narrower coupling parts with guide parts on free ends to prevent yawing, allowing for reduced component count and simplified assembly while maintaining key stability and playability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If key guides are provided for each key to restrict yawing, then key stability is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard is divided into separate white key units and black key units that can be independently manufactured and assembled. Each key unit contains its specific coupling part design (wide coupling parts for black keys, narrow coupling parts with guide parts for white keys), allowing specialized yawing restriction solutions for each key type without requiring key guides for every individual key
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts and eliminates the need for separate key guides by integrating yawing restriction functionality directly into the coupling parts themselves. The coupling parts are designed with specific geometries (wide for black keys, narrow with guide parts for white keys) that inherently prevent yawing without requiring additional key guide components
Solution Approach 3:
The coupling parts serve multiple functions: they connect keys to the key support part, enable pivotal movement in the key depression direction, and restrict yawing in the key width direction. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate key guides and simplifies the overall structure
2Reliability
If coupling parts are made wide to restrict yawing without key guides, then key stability is improved and component count is reduced, but key unit shape becomes complicated and molding cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
Different coupling part geometries are applied locally to different key types: black keys use wide coupling parts without guide parts, while white keys use narrow coupling parts with guide parts. This localized differentiation allows each key type to have the optimal coupling part design for its specific requirements without unnecessarily complicating all key units
3Reliability
If coupling parts are made wide to restrict yawing, then black key stability is improved, but white key playability deteriorates due to insufficient yawing restriction
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies different coupling part designs locally to different key types based on their specific requirements. Black keys, being shorter and less prone to yawing, use wide coupling parts without guide parts. White keys, being longer and more prone to yawing during glissando, use narrow coupling parts with guide parts that extend beyond the key width to provide sufficient yawing restriction while maintaining playability
Data Source
AI summary
A key unit having a white key unit and a black key unit in which main bodies of a plurality of white keys and black keys, respectively, are coupled to respective common key support parts via coupling parts pivotably in a key depression direction is mounted on a keyboard frame. In the black key unit, a total width in a key arrangement direction of each of the coupling parts is wider than a key width of the black key main body, whereby the coupling parts restrict yawing in a key width direction when the black keys are depressed/released. In the white key unit, each of the coupling parts is narrower in total width in the key arrangement direction than each of the coupling parts in the black key unit, and guide parts are provided on free end sides of the white keys to restrict yawing in the key arrangement direction.