Push button automotive vacuum-electric air control devices having

Abstract

Several individually operable push buttons are provided to initiate an OFF function, defrost, air conditioning and various air directions and other functions of an automotive heating, ventilating and air conditioning system. Each push button has a carriage adapted to be fitted on one side with an optional leaf spring contactor engageable with fixed contact members. The opposite side of the carriage is fixedly fitted with a compressible silicone rubber or other resilient valve member in sealing engagement with a port plate to carry out vacuum valving functions. Each carriage is guided by a tongue-and-slot guiding arrangement, whereby sealing pressure is applied between the valve member and the port plate. Each carriage has a rearwardly projecting tongue, slidably received in a slot formed in flange structure on the port plate. The front portion of each push button is also slidably guided to maintain the sealing pressure. Each push button has its own coiled return spring, received and detained in a semicylindrical nest, offset laterally on the carriage and overlapping the valve member and the contactor, thus affording a highly compact construction. A delatching mechanism is provided, whereby depression of a single push button, or any of a plurality of push buttons, delatches all of the other push buttons, including one push button having a push-push latching action. The delatching mechanism is operative to displace and disable a latching hook which produces the push-push latching action, while also displacing latching bars for the other push buttons.