Molon Motor and Coil Corporation

The Singer Company

Cherry Corporation

William H Redfield

Joseph J Mahon

Athanase N Tsergas

George Obermann

Raymond F Lewandowski

Ralph A Bley

Erich Kothe

Ignacy Supel

Jacek P Doros

Direct current gear motor box with side bracket

In a deployment apparatus for extending a safety device from a school bus, the safety device is attached to a connector which is rotated about a pivot pin that is turned by a friction clutch driven by an output shaft. The safety device may be either a guard arm on a front bumper or a stop sign on a side of the school bus. The present invention is an improvement, i.e. an L-shaped bracket and a gear box are integrally molded together into a unitary structure. Gears inside the box turn the output shaft and an electric motor, operatively connected to the gear box, drives the gears. Furthermore, the L-shaped bracket has closed-end elongated slots through which fasteners extend to secure the unitary structure to an inside wall of the deployment apparatus. Because the L-shaped bracket and the gear box form a unitary structure, vibrations and constant jarring caused by the school bus do not separate the L-shaped bracket from the gear box, as may occur in the prior art devices which have an L-shaped bracket and a separate gear box bolted together.

Gear motor used to extend safety device on school bus

A sub-miniature snap-action switch which can be manufactured efficiently and reliably with minimal reliance on tedious hand assembly. The switch includes a novel pivot bracket assembly comprising a pivot bracket, a blade and a spring coupling the bracket to the blade.

Snap action switch

The electric motor drives high and low speed drive pinions through reduction gearing. A low torque capacity clutch is located in the reduction gear train to the low speed pinion to permit the user to turn the manual shift to position the timer. The various program cams are driven by a drive member carried by an arbor on which the cams are mounted. The cams are independently spaced relative to the arbor and housing so any may be omitted as desired. The pulsing cam is mounted on the arbor and driven by the high speed pinion. The switch blades are essentially straight, the only forming being at the contact end where contact position or pressure will not be affected.

Dryer timer

The timer motor drives a non-circular drive gear fixed on the same shaft as the final gear of the reduction gear train. The final gear is driven by a pinion which is mounted on an axially movable spring loaded jackshaft on which a large gear is mounted with clutch members on the pinion and large gear. When the timer is set the shaft carrying the driven non-circular gear and cam is depressed causing the cam face to depress the jackshaft to disengage the clutch permitting easy rotation of the cam to the desired starting point. The angular motion of the driven non-circular gear and cam is substantially logarithmic with the angular motion increasing as 'zero' is approached. When the timer is set the switch is closed to start the motor and the timed device. The lever carrying the cam follower is spring loaded to urge the follower against the cam and to take up the motion in the pin and slot pivot for the lever. When the follower drops into the notch at zero the lever pivots rapidly, hits the fixed stop and pivots about the stop using the motion in the pin and slot. This lets the striker end of the lever hit the bell and then the lever bias spring again takes up the motion to pull the lever off the bell and let the bell 'ring' while the fixed stop holds the lever off the bell. The follower is pivoted so during the initial set motion it moves to present an incline to the cam allowing the cam to push the follower out of the notch.

Expanded scale timer

Growing community of inventors

Lake Forest, IL, United States of America

William H Redfield