Novel Spring and its Manufacturing Process for Semi Auto Sliding Mechanism to Maximize Function and Minimize Thickness of Portable Application

Abstract

Various portable applications such as a mobile phone, MP3 player, PMP player and so on, have been continuously developing with influencing on each other. In this environment, functions of IT applications have been built in the mobile phone, and consequently, the additions of them increase the size of the phone. However, the sizes of present phones have changed less than those of the past, and this trend is expected to be continued in the future because of the inherent characteristics mobility and portability of the phone. Great strides made in the industries manufacturing cellular phone components have facilitated the development of phones having similar size to the existing phone. However, in common, there are limitations on the extent to which the sizes of the parts can be reduced because of the technical reasons pertaining to mechanical or electrical properties, the forming process and assembly structure. In such a scenario, the use of a slide mechanism is the practical alternative for maintaining the mobility and portability. Reduction of the sliding space has a decisive effect on the decrease of the phone size. Therefore, a study of a novel spring to be manufactured by the etching process was performed to minimize the thickness. Meanwhile, the use of the slide mechanism is advantageous for maximizing visibility and increasing functionality with the limited space which are of utmost importance for the design of a contemporary cellular phone. In addition, various extra function keys including the main keypad buttons are required to maximize the visibility. However, the sliding stroke must increase to have them, and the existing spring units cannot be satisfied with the requirements under the limited space. Therefore, the study of a long-stroke spring unit and its manufacturing process to minimize the thickness with the stroke of 60 mm was performed.