The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 11, 1978
Filed:
Jan. 24, 1977
John E Flint, Herkimer, NY (US);
Stephen E Dudek, Clayville, NY (US);
Mohawk Data Sciences Corporation, Herkimer, NY (US);
Abstract
An improved method is disclosed for manufacturing a keyswitch assembly which includes a plurality of switches in a predefined arrangement on the face of an insulative circuit board and which also has a protective, insulative coating over the switches and board face. Each of the switches includes a pair of spaced contacts on the board face and a resilient, deformable, electrically conductive actuating element which can be selectively deformed to provide an electrical circuit between the two contacts. The method is performed with the aid of a planar template having a plurality of apertures positioned in a predefined arrangement corresponding to the arrangement of the switches on the circuit board. As an initial step, an insulative sheet, eventually forming the coating, is placed on a flat surface and the template is placed on top of the sheet so that the sheet is sandwiched between the template and the surface. Next, a plurality of actuating elements are secured to the sheet by being inserted, in an inverted position, into different template apertures and bonded to the sheet at the point of contact therewith. This forms an assembly sheet comprising the original insulative sheet with the actuating members secured thereto, which assembly sheet is conveniently handled as a unit for accurate alignment and bonding to the circuit board. High accuracy is achieved in aligning the assembly sheet with respect to the circuit board by using alignment guides which are constructed to mount in registry over the contacts of switches in the four corners of the circuit board so as to permit aligning of the actuating elements in the four corners of the assembly sheet with their corresponding switch contacts. After such alignment, the assembly sheet is spot-bonded to the circuit board in each of its corners and, thus restrained, is quickly and accurately bonded to the circuit board on a conventional press. SU