Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Norihiro Ida

Haruhiko Mihara

Masafumi Itonaga

Hisaya Iwasaki

Toshiaki Saito

Tetsuya Hamaoka

Kazuhiko Shinshiki

Kiyohide Katsuya

Hideyuki Takashi

Masahiro Hiratani

A sensor apparatus for detecting a position of an axially movable camshaft is provided. The sensor apparatus includes a coil block including a detection coil wound along an axial direction of the camshaft to define a bore into which the camshaft is inserted, and a control unit electrically connected to the detection coil and designed to output a signal based on a change in inductance of the detection coil.

Sensor apparatus

A stroke sensor includes conductor piecestoof a detected bodytwo-dimensionally arranged on a lower surface of a sliderin a specified pattern. The lower surface of the slideris divided into four regions corresponding to respective detector unitstoalong a Y-direction. The conductor piecestoare arranged over a specified X-direction extent in the respective regions. The arrangement of the conductor piecestois set such that the combinations of the conductor piecestodetected by the detector unitsbecome different in each and every shift range in the X-direction. This makes it possible to consistently specify the shift range based on the combination of the detector unitstostaying in the detected state.

Stroke sensor

A rotary switch, which is used to detect a state of a stand with respect to a body of a motorcycle, for example, comprises a housing having a ring-shaped outer wall so that an annular recess is formed; a rotor which is rotatably supported on the housing around a center axis of the annular recess; a plurality of stationary contacts each having a circular arc shape and provided on a bottom face of the annular recess; a moving contact which is provided on the rotor and is connected and disconnected with the stationary contacts following to rotation of the rotor with respect to the housing; and a cable draw-out portion from which an electric cable including a plurality of inner cables respectively connected to at least the stationary terminals is drawn out from the housing. The rotor has a U-shaped joint which holds an end portion of the stand pivotally mounted on the body, so that the rotor rotates corresponding to rotation of the stand with respect to the stationary portion.

Rotary switch

A molded article is formed by an injection molding method of embedding a workpiece within a resin by the use of a mold. The mold has a mold cavity, at least one supporting pin removably projecting into the mold cavity to support the workpiece in the mold cavity, and at least one gate for injecting the resin into the mold cavity. The supporting pin is forced against the workpiece to support the workpiece within the molded cavity. The resin is injected into the molded cavity through the gate. In the present method, the supporting pin is removed from the mold cavity after the workpiece is supported by pressure of the resin injected in the mold cavity. The injection of the resin is continued to fill a hole left in the mold cavity by removal of the supporting pin. After the injection is finished, the injected resin is hardened to obtain the molded article. This method is useful for integrally molding a conductive member with an electrically insulating resin to form a component of an electrical device, for example, a base plate or cover plate of an electrical rotary switch for detecting positions of an automatic transmission of an automobile.

Method of molding a resin article with an embedded workpiece

An electrical rotary switch in use with an automatic transmission for detecting the operative position of the transmission and controlling an electric circuit associated with the positions of the transmission. The switch comprises a switch casing composed of a base plate and a cover plate each formed of an electrically insulating material and provided in its interior surface with a plurality of fixed contacts. Supported between the base plate and the cover plate is an actuator which is rotatable about a rotation axis in response to the changing positions of the automatic transmission. The actuator has a coupling end to be interlocked with a control output shaft of the transmission which is provided to rotate in synchronism with changing positions of the transmission. The actuator has first and second opposed faces each confronting the interior surface of each one of the base plate and the cover plate, and carries first and second movable contacts respectively on the first and second faces for electrical conduction between selective ones of the fixed contacts on the individual plates depending upon a particular angular position of the actuator about the rotation axis. Also formed on the switch casing is a terminal assembly comprising a plurality of terminal pins leading from the individual fixed contacts for connection with the external electric circuits. The movable contacts are carried in slots in the actuator. A third moveable contact is used to energize the starter circuit when the park and neutral positions of the transmission are detected.

Growing community of inventors

Tsu, Japan

Norihiro Ida