Touch Screen Display Support Tray With Gel Pads
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touch screen devices on portable electronic devices lack user-desirable tactile feedback, leading to difficulties in discerning intended inputs and resulting in erroneous inputs due to lack of feedback.
Innovation Solution
A touch screen display assembly with a support tray and compliant gel pads overmolded on the tray, providing structural support and tactile feedback through gel pads between the tray base and the housing, and between the lip and the frame, enhancing user interaction by providing cushioning and dampening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If a rigid support structure is used for the touch screen display, then structural stability is improved, but tactile feedback is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different material properties to different parts of the support structure. The support tray uses rigid materials (metal or rigid plastic) for overall structural stability, while the contact points with the housing use compliant materials (gel pads or elastomeric materials) to provide tactile feedback. This local differentiation of material qualities resolves the contradiction between rigidity and tactile responsiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The support structure combines rigid and compliant materials in a composite construction. The rigid support tray provides structural integrity, while the compliant gel pads or elastomeric elements provide tactile feedback through deformation. This composite approach allows both structural stability and tactile feedback to coexist.
2Ease of operation
If compliant pads are added to provide tactile feedback, then user interaction is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The compliant pads are integrated directly into the support tray structure through overmolding, combining two previously separate components (rigid support tray and compliant pads) into a single unified part. This merging reduces assembly steps and overall device complexity while maintaining the tactile feedback function.
Solution Approach 2:
The compliant pads are pre-formed and integrated into the support tray during manufacturing through overmolding. This preliminary integration eliminates the need for separate installation steps, reducing assembly complexity while ensuring the tactile feedback mechanism is already in place for improved user interaction.
3Productivity
If gel pads are overmolded on the support tray, then manufacturing efficiency is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The overmolding process allows the compliant pads to self-align and conform to the support tray geometry during injection molding. The material flows into pre-formed cavities or channels in the support tray, automatically positioning the pads without requiring additional alignment operations or high-precision manual positioning, thus improving manufacturing efficiency while managing precision requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The overmolding process utilizes controlled material parameters (viscosity, injection pressure, temperature) to ensure proper filling and bonding of the gel pads to the support tray. By optimizing these processing parameters, the system achieves both high manufacturing efficiency and adequate bonding precision without requiring extreme dimensional precision in the tooling.
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
The solution enhances user interaction by providing positive tactile feedback, reducing the likelihood of erroneous inputs by ensuring that inputs are accurately registered and the device responds correctly to user actions.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of complaint pads on an exterior of the support tray including pads on the tray base and pads on the lip
Implementation Method 2
The positioning element includes rubber cylinders that are fixed to the touch screen support tray and to the frame using retaining bolts and retaining screws. A gel damper (vibration damping element) is held in place using retaining screws.
Data Source
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AI summary
An electronic device includes a housing with a back and a frame. A support tray is spaced from the back and includes a tray base, and a lip connected to and spaced from the tray base. The support tray supports a display device and touch-sensitive overlay disposed on the display device. A plurality of pads on an exterior of the support tray include pads between the tray base and the back and pads between the lip and the frame. Operational components are housed in the housing and include a touch screen controller connected to the touch-sensitive overlay and a processor connected to the display device and the touch-screen controller.