Electroformed part and timepiece

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11053573-B2
Application number	US-201916511959-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2019
Priority date	Jul 17, 2018
Publication date	Jul 6, 2021
Grant date	Jul 6, 2021

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide an electroformed part favorable for an assembly part of a timepiece or the like and a timepiece using the same. The present invention relates to an electroformed part, which is an electroformed part composed of a nickel-iron alloy constituted by nickel, iron, and unavoidable impurities, containing iron at 5 to 25% by mass, and having a roughly layered form portion in which a stacked form portion having an inclined iron content in a thickness direction is repeatedly stacked a plurality of times. It is preferred that the stacked portion is constituted by crystal grains having an average grain diameter of 50 nm or less.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electroformed part composed of a nickel-iron alloy that contains Fe at 5 to 25% by mass, Ni at a remaining percentage by mass and a fraction of unavoidable impurities, wherein the electroformed part is generally configured in layers layered in a thickness direction of the electroformed part, and a Fe content in the electroformed part generally repeats a decrease and an increase alternatively in the thickness direction and a Ni content in the electroformed part also changes complementarily, wherein the Fe content generally decreases within each layer in the thickness direction and generally increases around a bound of two adjacent layers.

2. The electroformed part according to claim 1 , wherein each layer comprises crystal grains having an average grain diameter of 50 nm or less as measured by X-ray diffractometry.

3. The electroformed part according to claim 2 , wherein each crystal grain is shaped in a crystal form having a face-centered cubic lattice single layer, and a nickel atom is partially substituted by an iron atom.

4. The electroformed part according to claim 2 , wherein the crystal grains have different Fe contents, each layer has crystal grains whose Fe content changes from high to low in the thickness direction.

5. The electroformed part according to claim 2 , wherein each crystal grain has a Fe content that changes from high to low within the crystal grain, and the sizes of the crystal grains in each layer change from smaller to larger in the thickness direction.

6. The electroformed part according to claim 1 , wherein the Fe content in each layer changes within a concentration difference range of ±15% or more and ±50% or less of an intermediate concentration, where the intermediate concentration is an intermediate value between a maximum Fe concentration and a lowest Fe concentration.

7. The electroformed part according to claim 1 , wherein each layer has a thickness of 500 nm or more and 10 μm or less.

8. The electroformed part according to claim 1 , wherein the electroformed part is set to receive a mechanical load in the thickness direction.

9. A timepiece, wherein an assembly part composed of the electroformed part according to claim 1 is provided.

10. The timepiece according to claim 9 , wherein the assembly part is a spring part.

Assignees

• Seiko Instr Inc

Inventors

• Kishi Matsuo
• TAKAHAMA Miei

Classifications

• C25D1/00 Primary

  Electroforming · CPC title

• C25D5/50

  by heat-treatment · CPC title

• C25D3/562

  containing more than 50% by weight of iron or nickel or cobalt · CPC title

• C22C38/08 Primary

  containing nickel {(C22C38/105 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• C25D7/005

  Jewels; Clockworks; Coins · CPC title