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. 25, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 12, 1998
ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc., Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
An electrical switch (26) is mounted in a rigid housing in the form of a control handle (10), where the housing has a soft flexible covering (32) with a portion (40) that can be depressed to operate the switch. The housing is in the form of a shell with first and second separately molded shell parts (14,16). The first shell part has a hole (24) in it that is aligned with the switch actuator, and the covering is overmolded onto the first shell, with the portion of the covering lying over the hole in the first shell being thickened at the middle (44) of the hole to indicate the area to be depressed and for more comfortable depression. A peripheral area of the first shell has an upstanding wall (62) with passages (66) therein, and the overmolded flexible covering has connection portions (72) that extend from the main covering portion (46) and through the passages to a peripheral covering portion (74), with the peripheral covering portion lying between the first and second shell parts to seal the gap (70) between them.