Other

Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Stephen Verner Andersen

Edwin G Swick

A method and apparatus for the precise manufacture of high quality, four-sided electrical contacts by means of a closely controlled material skiving process. The apparatus is designed so that the starting material from which the four-sided electrical contacts are made is closely constrained in the area of the shear boundaries so that predictable and precisely controlled shearing of the material can repeatedly be achieved to initially form four precursor sides, two of which are arcuate. The apparatus also includes sequentially operating forming mechanisms for precisely forming the precursor sides of the precursor contact into a final end product configuration.

Four-sided electrical contact

Method for making a four-sided electrical contact

Apparatus for making a four-sided electrical contact

A precision apparatus for controllably shearing a thin workpiece of material to make devices such as electrical contacts of the character having specially configured spaced apart tongues adapted to mate with plug connectors of standard design. The apparatus is designed to rigidly support the workpiece except in the precise area of the shear during the entire shearing step.

Method and apparatus for making an electrical contact

Electrical contact

A precision apparatus and method for controllably shearing a thin workpiece of electrically conductive material to make electrical contacts of the character having specially configured spaced apart tongues adapted to mate with plug connectors of standard design. The apparatus is designed to rigidly support the workpiece except in the precise area of the shear during the entire shearing step.

Method for making an electrical contact

A precision apparatus for controllably shearing a thin workpiece of electrically conductive material to make electrical contacts of the character having specially configured spaced apart tongues adapted to mate with plug connectors of standard design. The apparatus is designed to rigidly support the workpiece except in the precise area of the shear during the entire shearing step.

A multifinger contact device is produced by a series of deforming stations which compress the fingers into die cavities decreasing the width of the fingers while severing the adjacent fingers from one another, by deforming the adjacent fingers first in one direction and then in the other to decrease the formation of burrs. A subsequent forming station may be utilized to confine the entire periphery of the finger so as to form opposing longitudinal edges on adjacent fingers into noncontacting curved surfaces.

Apparatus for making a multifinger contact

An integral multifinger contact with each finger being capable of flexing independently of one another while maximizing the number of independent finger contacts along a given contact line. The method involves the shearing of finger portions and elongating these portions during the shearing operation to provide a positive clearance between adjacent edges of the fingers. One embodiment of the invention being directed to a contact member particularly adapted for a rotary potentiometer while another embodiment has particular use in a linear potentiometer.

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Burbank, CA, United States of America

Stephen Verner Andersen