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:
Jul. 09, 1985
Filed:
Oct. 03, 1983
Edwin T Coleman, III, Versailles, KY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A pivoting rocking actuator has a first bottom surface, which comprises two spaced portions, resting on an upper surface of a membrane contact switch assembly when the actuator is in its rest position. The actuator has one end of a buckling spring, which is initially buckled in a selected direction, acting against its upper surface with the other end of the spring acting against a key, which is slidably mounted on a frame, of a keyboard. When the key is depressed, the spring catastrophically buckles in the selected direction to cause initial pivoting of the actuator about a forward edge of each of the spaced portions. This causes a curved bottom surface of the actuator to rotate about a pivot point on the bottom curved surface to close a contact switch of the membrane contact switch assembly. When the key is released, the spring unbuckles at a slower rate than its compression so that there is an initial further rotation of the actuator along the curved bottom surface in the same direction as rotation occurred to close the contact switch. Then, the actuator returns to its rest position to open the contact switch.