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:
Aug. 29, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 25, 1998
Sylvain Rochon, Dole, FR;
Gerard Bourriaux, Dole, FR;
Laurent Bouvier, Dole, FR;
Eric Pinero, Seyssinet, FR;
Claude Grelier, Grenoble, FR;
ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc., Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
A rotary switch includes a housing (14) with a pair of fixed select terminals (44a, 44b) and a fixed common terminal (44c). A rotor (28) that can pivot about an axis (A1), carries a connector (48) with a contact pad (60) for engaging one of the select contacts at a time and a common contact (58) for engaging the common terminal on the housing. The common terminal on the housing is in the form of a track extending in an arc centered on the rotor axis to enable the common contact to remain in continuous engagement with the common terminal as the rotor turns. The common contact on the rotor forms a pair of tabs (62) that slideably engage opposite sides of the track. The connector on the rotor can shift radially to the axis, and is biased by a spring (64) to urge the contact pad toward a select terminal. A cam arrangement shifts the contact pad radially away from a select terminal as the rotor begins to turn from a center position, to minimize the duration of electric arcs. The housing has an inner face (68) extending in an arc between the pair of select terminals, with the inner face having a plurality of axially-extending grooves (69), to minimize the duration of electric arcs. A plurality of switches can lie in a stack, with each rotor having one end forming a drive protuberance (76) of non-circular cross section, and an opposite end forming a recess (78) for receiving the protuberance of an adjacent switch of the stack.