CH710206A2 - Keyboard for musical shows ringtone or music box. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a keyboard for ringing musical watches or music box. According to the invention, the keyboard comprises at least two parts, joined together, made of at least two materials, a first portion (10) forming a first set of blades made of a first material (M1) so as to produce sounds in a first frequency range, and at least a second portion (20) forming a second set of blades made of a second material (M2) so as to produce sounds in a second frequency range.

Description

Field of the invention

The invention relates to the field of musical watches and small music boxes.

Background of the invention

[0002] Generally, the striking mechanism of the music boxes consists of a keyboard provided with several blades and an activation system of the keyboard blades, the activation system being in the form of a rotating cylinder or a rotating disk. To equip a watch with such a striking mechanism, it is necessary to reduce the size of the components taking into account their mechanical strength while maintaining good quality sound.

Currently, the keyboard material is chosen mainly on the basis of a criterion of manufacturability and resistance to wear and fatigue. Indeed, the blades of the keyboard are subjected to repeated elastic forces and must therefore be strong enough to have an acceptable life.

The criterion of the activation energy of the blades must also be taken into account during the manufacture of the keyboard blades. It is known that shorter blades require higher activation energy than long blades. The short blades are therefore subjected to greater elastic forces and must have a better resistance to wear and fatigue.

[0005] The present striking keyboards therefore have a major disadvantage since a single material is used to manufacture the keyboard blades, which implies that the manufacturers must make a compromise on the choice of the material for making the blades. with acceptable vibratory performance for both short blades and long blades. Such a compromise does not therefore make it possible to obtain optimal results for the reproduction of high and low sounds.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to overcome all or part of the disadvantages mentioned above by providing a keyboard to simultaneously meet the constraints of mechanical strength and vibration performance regardless of the length of the blades.

The invention also aims to provide a keyboard for matching the acoustic level of low and high notes.

The invention also aims, at least in a particular embodiment, to provide a keyboard for limiting wear and deformation of the blades.

The invention also aims to provide a keyboard with a small footprint.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a keyboard design simple and economical to manufacture.

For this purpose, the invention relates to a keyboard comprising at least two parts, joined together, a first part forming a first set of blades made of a first material so as to produce sounds in a first range of frequencies, and at least a second portion forming a second set of blades made of a second material so as to produce sounds in a second frequency range.

With these features, such a bi-material keyboard allows on the one hand to choose the appropriate material depending on the mechanical strength for the blades restoring the sounds of a first frequency range, typically high-pitched sounds, and on the other hand, to choose the appropriate material according to the activation energy required for the slides reproducing the sounds of a second frequency range, typically bass sounds. This provides a keyboard that provides optimal performance for the return of sounds on the frequency range or desired for the realization of the keyboard.

According to other advantageous variants of the invention: the first material has a Young's modulus of between 150 GPa and 250 GPa, a density of between 4000 kg / m <3> and "10,000 kg / m <3>, a hardness greater than 300 HV, and a limit of rupture greater than 800 MPa, which makes it possible to have a more resistant material; the second material has a Young's modulus of between 70 Gpa and 120 Gpa, a density of between 14,000kg / m <3> and 20,000kg / m <3>, a hardness of less than 300 HV, a rupture limit of less than 600 MPa, which makes it possible to have a material having a higher activation energy; the speed of sound in the second material is at least 40% lower than the speed of sound in the first material so as to limit the vibratory transfer between the two parts; the first part and the second part are joined together so as to obtain a one-piece keyboard by means of welding, brazing or embedding so as to optimize the vibratory transfer between the keyboard and the radiating components; the keyboard comprises at least three parts, said first part, second part and third part; the first part is made of a first material, the second part is made of a second material, and the third part is made of a third material, the sound velocities in the three materials being different from each other by at least 30% of in order to limit the vibratory transfer between the two parts; the first material is steel, titanium, metallic glass, bronze or magnesium, the second material is gold, cast iron or palladium, and the third material is platinum, brass, aluminum, metallic sapphire, Phynox or even Arcap; the activation energy of each of the blades is greater than or equal to 20 microwatts so as to obtain an effective radiation.

The invention also relates to a music box comprising a musical module provided with at least one keyboard according to the invention and an activation set to activate the blades to produce music.

The invention also relates to a musical watch comprising a musical module provided with at least one keyboard according to the invention and an activation set for activating the blades to produce music.

Brief description of the drawings

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description of a particular embodiment of the invention, given as a simple illustrative and non-limiting example, and the accompanying figures. , among: <tb> fig. 1 <SEP> is a top view of a keyboard according to the invention according to a first embodiment; <tb> fig. 2 <SEP> is a perspective view of a keyboard according to the invention according to a second embodiment; <tb> fig. 3 <SEP> is a perspective view of a keyboard according to the invention according to a third embodiment; <tb> figs. 4a and 4b <SEP> are perspective views of a keyboard according to the invention according to another embodiment.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments

A keyboard for a small music box will now be described in the following with reference to Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4a and 4b.

The invention relates to a keyboard 1 comprising at least two parts, joined together, made of at least two materials, a first portion 10 forming a first set of blades 11,12,13,14 made of a first material M1 to produce sounds in a first frequency range, and at least a second portion forming a second set of blades 21,22,23,24 made of a second material M2 so as to produce sounds in a first range of frequencies. frequencies.

The first frequency range may, for example, extend between 1600 Hz and 20K Hz, which allows to restore the high-pitched sounds. The second frequency range can range from 20 Hz to 400 Hz, which can be used to reproduce bass sounds. We can also consider the frequency range extending between 400 Hz and 1600 Hz to be able to reproduce the midrange sounds.

According to the invention, the first material M1 has a Young's modulus of between 150 Gpa and 250 Gpa, a density of between 4000 kg / m <3> and 10,000 kg / m <3>, a hardness higher than 300 HV, and a rupture limit greater than 800 MPa.

An example of a material meeting these criteria is steel. Such a material makes the blades rendering the high-pitched sounds more mechanically resistant. Of course, any other material meeting these criteria can be used to make the first set of blades 11, 12, 13, 14.

The second material M2 has a Young's modulus of between 70 Gpa and 120 Gpa, a density of between 14,000 kg / m3 and 20,000 kg / m <3>, a hardness of less than 300 HV, and a limit of rupture less than 600 MPa.

An example of a material meeting these criteria is gold. Such a material allows the slides reproducing the bass sounds to store an amount of energy greater than or equal to 20 microwatts during their activation. Of course, any other material meeting criteria can be used to make the second set of blades 21, 22, 23, 24.

According to a particularly advantageous aspect, the use of two different materials for reproducing the bass notes and high notes allows to choose the material so that the activation energy of the blades rendering the high notes and low notes is relatively close.

According to the invention, the speed of sound in the second material M2 is at least 40% lower than the speed of sound in the first material M1 so as to limit the vibratory transfer between the first part 10 and the second part 20 .

According to the invention, the first portion 10 and the second portion 20 are joined together so as to obtain a one-piece keyboard by means of welding, brazing or embedding, or any other known method. of the skilled person to obtain a single piece.

The joining of the two parts 10,20 allows in particular to obtain a correct positioning vis-à-vis the activation member, such as a disk or a cylinder. The joining of the two parts also makes it possible to optimize the vibratory transfer between the keyboard and the radiating components of a music box or a musical watch.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the keyboard may comprise a first part 10, a second part 20 and a third part 30 which can form a third set of blades 31, 32, each part can be made in a distinct material. Of course, those skilled in the art can vary the number of parts of the keyboard 1 to obtain the desired result without departing from the scope of the present invention.

According to a first example given for illustrative purposes only, and not limiting, the first portion 10 and the second portion 20 are made of the material M1 and are connected to each other by means of the third portion 30 made of the material M2. According to this embodiment, the third portion 30 is sandwiched between the first portion 10 and the second portion 20.

According to another example, the first portion 10 and the second portion 20 are made of the material M2 and are connected to each other by means of the third portion 30 made of the material M1. The third portion 30 is also sandwiched between the first portion 10 and the second portion 20.

Still according to another example, illustrated in FIGS. 4a and 4b, the first part 10 is made of a first material M1, the second part 20 is made of a second material M2, and the third part 30 is made of a third material M3. According to a particular aspect of the invention.

According to a particularly advantageous aspect of the invention, the sound velocities in the three materials M1, M2 and M3 are different from each other by at least 30% so as to limit the vibratory transfer between the two parts. Such an embodiment makes it possible to produce a keyboard in three parts, each of the parts being able to reproduce sounds in a distinct frequency range.

Advantageously, the third material M3 used to make the third part 30 is chosen in such a way as to limit or even prevent the transfer of vibrations between the adjacent blades of the first and second parts 10, 20.

According to one embodiment of the invention, visible in FIG. 3a, the third portion 30 connecting the first portion 10 and the second portion 20 may have blades 31, 32 so as to restore additional sounds. According to another embodiment, visible in FIG. 4b, the third portion 30 may have no blades and serve only as a connecting element between the first portion 10 and the second portion 20.

According to the invention, the first material M1 may be one of the following materials: steel, titanium, metal glass, bronze or magnesium. The second material M2 may be one of the following materials: gold, cast iron or palladium. The third material M3 can be one of the following materials: platinum, brass, aluminum, metallic sapphire, Phynox or Arcap.

For example, the first part 10 may be made of gold, the second part 20 of steel and the third part 30 of brass. The skilled person can of course perform the combination he wants to obtain the desired result without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Each blade of each of the parts 10, 20, 30 may be rectilinear in shape with a rectangular or circular cross-section or the like, which may be identical over the entire length of the blade. The cross section may also vary progressively or discontinuously along the length of each blade. The length and thickness of each blade can also be of different sizes to produce different notes. Each of the blades of each of the parts 10, 20 and 30 may have a different width.

Each blade of the keyboard 1 is dimensioned so as to generally produce a different note for each blade, when the blade is activated by a specific activation member of a musical module. However, it can be expected to have a pair of blades capable of producing the same particular note.

As can be seen in Figs. 1 to 3, the number of blades may vary on each of the parts 10, 20, 30. Each part 10, 20, 30 of the keyboard 1 may comprise an even or odd number of blades according to the needs of the skilled person to achieve the keyboard 1 and reproduce the desired notes.

The invention also relates to a music box comprising a musical module provided with at least one keyboard 1 according to the invention and an activation assembly, such as a disk or a cylinder provided with lugs , to activate the blades to produce music.

The invention also relates to a musical watch equipped with a musical module provided with at least one keyboard 1 according to the invention and an activation assembly, such as a disc or a cylinder provided with pins, to activate the blades to produce music.

With these different aspects of the invention, there is a keyboard of simple design, to match the acoustic level of low and high notes, while having good mechanical strength and good vibratory performance.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to the example shown and is susceptible of various variations and modifications that will occur to those skilled in the art.

NOMENCLATURE

[0044] <Tb> 1. <September> keyboard, <tb> 10. <SEP> First part of the keyboard, <tb> 11, 12, 13. <SEP> Blades of the first part, <tb> 20. <SEP> Second part of the keyboard, <tb> 21, 22, 23. <SEP> Blades of the second part, <tb> 30. <SEP> Third part of the keyboard <tb> 31,32. <SEP> Blades of the third part, <tb> M1. <SEP> First material, <tb> M2. <SEP> Second material, <tb> M3. <SEP> Third material.

Claims (17)

1. Keyboard (1) for musical watch ring or music box characterized in that the keyboard (1) comprises at least two parts, joined together, made of at least two materials, a first portion (10) forming a first set of blades (11,12,13,14) made of a first material (M1) so as to produce sounds in a first frequency range, and at least a second portion (20) forming a second set of blades ( 21, 22, 23, 24) made of a second material (M2) so as to produce sounds in a second frequency range. 2. Keyboard (1) according to claim 1, wherein the first material (M1) has a Young's modulus between 150 Gpa and 250 Gpa. 3. Keyboard (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first material (M1) has a density of between 4000 kg / m <3> and 10 000 kg / m <3>. 4. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first material (M1) has a hardness greater than 300 HV. 5. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first material (M1) has a breaking strength greater than 800 MPa. 6. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the second material (M2) has a Young's modulus between 70 GPa and 120 GPa. 7. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the second material (M2) has a density of between 14 000 kg / m <3> and 20 000 kg / m <3>. 8. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the second material (M2) has a hardness less than 300 HV. 9. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the second material (M2) has a breaking strength of less than 600 MPa. 10. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the speed of sound in the second material (M2) is at least 40% lower than the speed of sound in the first material (M1). 11. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the first portion (10) and the second portion (20) are joined together so as to obtain a keyboard (1) monobloc by means of welding, brazing or embedding. 12. Keyboard (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 10, comprising at least three parts, said first portion (10), second portion (20) and third portion (30). The keyboard of claim 12, wherein the portion (10) is made of a first material (M1), the portion (20) is made of a second material (M2), and the third portion (30) is manufactured in a third material (M3), the sound velocities in the three materials M1, M2 and M3 being different from each other by at least 30%. 14. Keyboard according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the first material (M1) is steel, titanium, metal glass, bronze or magnesium, the second material (M2) is gold, cast iron or palladium, and the third material (M3) is platinum, brass, aluminum, metallic sapphire, Phynox or Arcap .. 15. Keyboard according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the activation energy of each of the blades (11, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 23, 24) is greater than or equal to 20 microwatts . 16. Music box comprising a musical module provided with at least one keyboard (1) according to one of the preceding claims and an activation assembly for activating the blades to produce music. 17. A musical watch comprising a musical module provided with at least one keyboard (1) according to one of the preceding claims and an activation assembly for activating the blades to produce music.