U.S. patent number 3,761,664 [Application Number 05/191,225] was granted by the patent office on 1973-09-25 for lever switch with operating lever means detachable from movable contact carrying member only in neutral position.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Nihon Kaiheiki Industrial Company Ltd.. Invention is credited to Yasuo Kodaira.
United States Patent |
3,761,664 |
Kodaira |
September 25, 1973 |
LEVER SWITCH WITH OPERATING LEVER MEANS DETACHABLE FROM MOVABLE
CONTACT CARRYING MEMBER ONLY IN NEUTRAL POSITION
Abstract
A lever switch comprises (a) converter means rotatably supported
in a switch receptacle for rocking left-and-right and converting a
movable contact plate relative to a stationary contact or contacts,
and (b) a lever for actuating said converter means which is formed
separately from said converter means. Said lever and said converter
means are connected with each other by engaging the upper surface
portion of a lug, provided at a lower portion of the inner surface
of said lever, with a corresponding surface portion of said
converter means so that when the assembly of said lever and said
converter means is at the neutral position relative to the switch
receptacle said lever can be detached resiliently from said
converter means, whereas when the assembly is at either of the
rocked end positions said lever cannot be detached from said
converter means, by reason of the fact that a lower portion of the
outer surface of said lever contacts with the inner wall surface of
the receptacle at the same time when the inner lug of said lever
engages a corresponding portion of said converter means.
Inventors: |
Kodaira; Yasuo (Tokyo,
JA) |
Assignee: |
Nihon Kaiheiki Industrial Company
Ltd. (Tokyo, JA)
|
Family
ID: |
26448048 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/191,225 |
Filed: |
October 21, 1971 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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|
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|
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Oct 10, 1970 [JA] |
|
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45/108089 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
200/339;
200/315 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01H
9/162 (20130101); H01H 23/146 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H01H
9/16 (20060101); H01H 23/00 (20060101); H01H
23/14 (20060101); H01h 003/04 (); H01h 009/16 ();
H01h 023/24 () |
Field of
Search: |
;200/172R,167A,6R,5A |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Truhe; J. V.
Assistant Examiner: Vanderhye; Robert A.
Claims
I claim:
1. A lever switch comprising a receptacle;
at least one stationary contact;
a contact member movable relatively to said stationary contact;
converter means rotatably supported in said receptacle for rocking
to the left and right and converting said movable contact member
relative to said stationary contact;
and an upwardly projecting operating lever for actuating said
converter means, said lever being formed separately from said
converter means and having resilient lower projections extending
below the axis of rotation of said converter means, each projection
having means on its inner surface for resiliently engaging the
outer surface of said converter means, the lower end of the outer
surface of said projections being spaced from the inner wall of
said receptacle when said lever is in the central neutral position,
said space being sufficient to permit said projections to be
resiliently disengaged from said converter wall, and when said
lever has been rocked to the left or right position said
projections move to substantially close said space so that said
space is insufficient to permit such disengagement.
2. A lever switch according to claim 1, wherein the left and right
lower ends of said lever are positioned lower than the rotation
center shaft of said lever.
3. A lever switch according to claim 1, wherein a lamp is contained
within said converter means and said lever is made of transparent
or semi-transparent material.
4. A lever switch as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means on the
inner surface of each projection for resiliently engaging the outer
surface of said converter means comprises a lug.
Description
This invention relates to electric switches, and is concerned with
the provision of an improved design of lever switch.
According to the present invention, the novel switch comprises (a)
a converter means rotatably supported in a switch receptacle for
rocking left-and-right and converting a movable contacl plate
relative to a stationary contact or contacts, and (b) a lever for
actuating said converter means which is formed separately from said
converter means. Said lever and said converter means are connected
with each other by engaging the upper surface portion of a lug,
provided at a lower portion of the inner surface of said lever,
with a corresponding surface portion of said converter means so
that when the assembly of said lever and said converter means is at
the neutral position relative to the switch receptacle said lever
can be detached resiliently from said converter means, whereas when
the assembly is at either of the rocked end positions said lever
cannot be detached from said converter means, by reason of the fact
that a lower portion of the outer surface of said lever contacts
with the inner wall surface of the receptacle at the same time when
the inner lug of said lever engages a corresponding portion of said
converter means.
The invention now will be described with greater particularity in
the following disclosure taken with the accompanying drawing, in
which
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a switch according to the
invention;
FIG. 2 (a) and FIG. 2 (b) are its decomposed perspective views;
FIG. 3 is a partial side view showing an undesirable condition of
engagement; and
FIG. 4 is a partial side view showing a desirable condition of
engagement.
Detailed explanation of the invention:
The invention relates to the construction of a lever switch in
which a lever as an operating member of the switch is mounted
detachable, while it is never detached at the end positions of
operation in normal use.
Referring to the drawings, 1 is a base member of the switch and 2
is a cover member, which both members constitute a receptacle of
the switch. The cover 2 has attached thereto at its left and right
hand side surfaces spring plates 3 which are utilized when the
switch is mounted in a hole of a panel and the like. 4 is a lever
as an operating member of the switch, and 5 is a converting member
for actuating the switching conversion of contacts of the switch,
which both members are formed originally separated from each other
as shown in FIG. 2 (a) and (b) respectively.
The lever 4 is formed hollow with an upwardly projecting portion
for operating said switch, as seen from the section view shown in
FIG. 1, and has projections 6 formed downwards at the lower ends of
its left and right hand side walls as shown in FIG. 2 (a). Further,
each of projections 6 has a lug 7 formed on its inner surface and a
downwardly extending extension below the lug 7. The lever 4 is made
of such a material that its lower projections 6 have proper
resilient flexibility.
The converter 5 has a configuration such as that shown in FIG. 2
(b), in which frame members 9 are attached to front and rear sides
of a box 8, and these members 8 and 9 are formed continuously as
one body. The converter 5 is provided on its front and rear side
surfaces at their upper portions with shafts or shaft-like
projections 10 which are fixedly or loosely mounted thereto, and
the converter is mounted rotatably to cover 2 by inserting the
projectons 10 into recesses formed on the front and rear side walls
of cover 2.
The lever 4 is connected to converter 5 by fitting the former
slidingly to the latter so that inner surface lugs 7 of lower
projections 6 of the lever will enter into the lower surface of
square box 8 of the latter. The connecting operation and the
removal operation are performed by utilizing the resiliency or
elasticity of projections 6.
The lever 4 is usually made of transparent or at least
semi-transparent colored synthetic resin, and in order to
illuminate it from its interior, a lamp 11 is mounted at the inner
base portion of square box 8 of converter 5. At the center portion
of lower surface of each of front and rear frame portions 9 there
is provided a recess within which a sliding member 13 (see FIG. 2
(b) ) is inserted with a spring 12 (see FIG. 1).
The insulator base member 1 has penetrated therethrough and secured
thereto a central terminal 14 and left and right terminals 15 and
16, respectively, and a movable contact plate 17 is placed on the
top end of the central terminal 14 free to incline to the left and
to the right. The upper surface of each of terminals 15 and 16
forms a stationary contact against the movable contact 17. The
lower end of sliding member 13 is placed on the upper surface of
movable contact plate 17 under pressure; it may be shifted left and
right by the rocking operation of lever 4 to convert the "on" and
"off" states of the left and right hand side contacts.
In order to remove lever 4 from converter 5, the assembly of these
two is moved from the resting position after operation as shown in
FIG. 1 to the neutral position where lever 4 stands vertically, and
at this state the latter can be pulled upwards to remove it. To
this end, of course, clearance corresponding to the height of lug 7
must exist between left and right side outer surfaces of lever 4
and confronting inner surfaces of cover 2.
Now, if lever 4 and converter 5 are thus constructed removably as
above stated, it might happen sometimes that at the end of an
operation of lever 4, for converting its inclined state from either
one side to the other side, one side portion of lever 4 would be
disengaged from converter 5 to float up and eventually be separated
entirely. The reason is that such a situation as shown in FIG. 3
would occur. That is to say, in FIG. 3 there must exist some
clearance between outer side surfaces of lower projections 6 of
lever 4 and the confronting inner side surfaces of switch
receptacle 2 (for the reason above stated), and if, as shown in the
figure, when lever 4 comes to its end position inclined to the
right hand side, converter 5 first contacts with receptacle 2 and
at this time there exists still a considerable amount of clearance
between projection 6 and receptacle 2, then when lever 4, which is
the operating member, is pushed strongly in the direction indicated
by the arrow in the figure the projection 6 will be detached (as
shown by the dotted line in the figure) from box portion 8 of
converter 5, and at last it might be completely separated away in
an upward direction.
In order to prevent this, such a construction as shown in FIG. 4
may be adopted, so that when lever 4 attains the end position
inclined to the right hand side, the extension below the lug 7 at
the lower end portion of projection 6 first contacts with the inner
side surface of receptacle 2, and by the fact that, at the same
time, the upper surface portion of lug 7 is pressed inwardly to
engage with lower surface of box portion 8 of converter, whereby
the detachment of lever 4 is prevented. Here, however, at the
normal resting end position of lever 4, there may exist a small
amount of clearance between its lower end portion and receptacle 2.
The essential thing is that when lever 4 is subjected to strong
impulse-like force such as occurs when it is strongly operated for
rocking, the detachment of lever 4 is prevented by the cooperation
of the contacting of the lower extension of the end portion of the
projection 6 with receptacle 2 and the engagement of upper surface
portion of inner lug 7 of lever 4 with corresponding surface
portion of converter 5. In addition to the projections 6 having
resilient flexibility, there may be provided projections at the
lower portions of the front and rear surfaces of lever 4 which are
wide in the direction perpendicular to the projections 6 shown in
the figures and have no flexibility in the left and right
direction, the left and right hand side surfaces of the lower end
portions of the projections being made to contact with inner
surfaces of receptacle 2. Furthermore, in order to prevent the
detachment stated above, it is desirable to select the position of
lower end portion of lever 4 as much lower as possible than center
shaft 10.
An advantage obtained by the lever 4 being made removable or
detachable is that it becomes easily possible to select any one
color of the lever which serves as indicator of "on" or "off" state
of the switch from various possible colors, for example, red, blue,
yellow and others; or, to change the color one to another, in
accordance with customers' demands. Namely, the necessity as before
to prepare beforehand a large number of switches per each of those
various colors is eliminated, and it is only necessary to prepare
switch main parts except lever 4 as common for all and only levers
4 of various different colors, thereby various demands of customers
can be met immediately, with the result that the amount of goods in
stock can be considerably reduced. Furthermore, in case of switches
as shown in the figures wherein a lamp 11 is internally contained
for illuminating lever 4, such an advantage is also obtained that
it becomes easily possible to replace or exchange the lamp when it
becomes inoperable or for replying to the demand of various
different voltage rating values of the lamp, for example, 6V, 12V,
18V, 24V, and the like by merely removing the lever 4 and exposing
the lamp for replacement.
According to the invention, the removal or exchange of lever 4 as
described above can be easily performed, while in normal use
condition the lever 4 is prevented from detachment from converter
5, being connected thereto even against impulsive force produced at
the end of left and right rocking operation of lever 4.
* * * * *