Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Katsutoshi Uchida

Hisashi Izumida

Nagao Kuroda

Hironori Kato

Katsuya Mitsuzuka

Masaru Suda

Kimihiro Furuichi

Yukari Sano

Kofu Kawana

To easily set a rotary connector to a steering system when providing various types of switches for the steering system. A fixed-side housing and a movable-side housing are rotatably connected each other to wind a flat cable in a storage space partitioned between the both housings. The fixed-side housing has an outer cylindrical portion for partitioning a part of the storage space and a support wall is integrally formed outside of the outer cylindrical portion through a gap. Moreover, a switch is set inside of the support wall, the switch is connected to a joint bar through a flexible substrate at the inside of the support wall and conductors of the flat cable extended from the outer cylindrical portion are also connected to the joint bar.

Rotary connector

A rotary connector including a fixed housing 1 equipped with an outer cylindrical wall 6, a movable housing 2 provided with an inner cylindrical wall 7, and two flat cables 3, 4 housed in a storage section 8 defined between the fixed housing 1 and the movable housing 2 and wound in a manner of inverting their winding direction halfway. Both end portions of each of the flat cables 3, 4 are fixed to the circumferential surfaces of the outer cylindrical wall 6 and the inner cylindrical wall 7. Cable fetching sections 7a, 7b for taking out the flat cables 3, 4 from the inner cylindrical wall 7 are disposed in substantially 180-degree opposed relation to each other, and a movable side joint section 12 is provided in the movable housing 2 to gather up the separated flat cables 3, 4 in one place. One end portions of the flat cables 3, 4 are led out through the movable side joint section 12 to the exterior of the movable housing 2.

A chip resistor provided with a thin-film resistor has lateral electrodes formed at both sides of the substrate of the chip resistor. The lateral electrodes are formed by printing and firing conductive paste of a silver resin, not by thin-film technology. Electrode layers are formed on the lateral electrodes and on the thin-film electrode by plating. The chip resistor is thus constructed so as to be readily connectable to a motherboard by dip soldering or reflow soldering.

Chip resistor

Growing community of inventors

Miyagi-ken, Japan

Katsutoshi Uchida