Keyboard Wippen Assembly with Removable Clip and Optical Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional keyboard instruments face challenges in assembly efficiency, productivity, and cost due to tedious processes and high mechanical load on switches, leading to frequent malfunctions and difficulties in repairing or replacing keys, especially when incorporating realistic key touch mechanisms with resin materials that lack strength.
Innovation Solution
A keyboard device with a key action mechanism featuring a wippen and hammer system where both components are removably attached to their respective axes, allowing for easier assembly and reducing mechanical stress on switches, utilizing a combination of metal and synthetic resin components for enhanced strength and productivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individual pins are used to attach wippen and hammer to their respective flanges, then reliable mechanical connection is achieved, but assembly process becomes tedious and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual pin attachments into a single integrated clip mechanism. The clip simultaneously engages with the wippen flange and wippen, as well as the hammer flange and hammer, replacing what would otherwise require multiple separate pin operations. This merging of attachment functions into one component directly addresses the productivity issue while maintaining connection reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The clip serves multiple functions: it acts as both the attachment mechanism and the retaining mechanism for both the wippen and hammer components. This multi-functional design eliminates the need for separate pins and retention elements, streamlining the assembly process while ensuring secure mechanical connections throughout the keyboard instrument.
2Productivity
If resin material is used for bracket to reduce weight and increase productivity, then manufacturing efficiency improves, but structural strength becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite construction by integrating metal components (the clip and rails) with resin components (the bracket). This hybrid approach allows the resin bracket to provide lightweight, cost-effective support while the metal clip and rails contribute the necessary structural strength and durability. The composite material strategy resolves the contradiction between manufacturing efficiency and structural integrity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If switches are provided under each key for detecting key depression, then key detection function is achieved, but mechanical load on switches increases and malfunctions occur frequently
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical switch system with an optical detection system. Instead of relying on mechanical switches that directly contact and wear from repeated key depression, the optical system uses light-based sensing to detect key position and depression. This substitution eliminates the mechanical wear issue while maintaining full key detection functionality, thereby improving reliability.
4Ease of operation
If complex action mechanism is implemented to achieve realistic key touch, then key touch realism improves, but assembly difficulty and repair difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the action mechanism into modular, independently replaceable components: the bracket, the rails, the clip, the wippen, and the hammer. This segmentation allows any single component to be removed and replaced without affecting the others, dramatically simplifying repair procedures while maintaining the complex functionality needed for realistic key touch. The modular design enables targeted repairs rather than complete mechanism replacement.
Data Source
AI summary
A keyboard device including a plurality of wippens that respectively rotate in the vertical direction in response to the respective depressions of the plurality of keys aligned alongside each other, a plurality of hammers that swing in response to the respective rotation of the plurality of wippens and then respectively add an action load to the plurality of keys, and a wippen holding member having a plurality of wippen flanges that are integrally formed along a direction in which the keys are aligned and that rotatably hold the respective plurality of wippens. Therefore, the plurality of wippen flanges do not need to be individually manufactured and assembled, and thus the plurality of wippen flanges can be easily disposed at once by just installing the wippen holding member.