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:
Jan. 02, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 07, 1998
Herve Guy Bricaud, Dole, FR;
Fabrice Valcher, Damparis, FR;
ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc., Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
A switch assembly (,, FIG.,) for detecting full insertion of a smart card, is of small thickness and can be mass produced with high precision. The switch assembly includes a molded support (,) forming an upwardly-opening support cavity (,), outer and central contacts (,) mounted on the support and having dome-engaging parts (,) lying in the support cavity, and a tripping dome (,) lying in the support cavity with a center portion lying over the dome-engaging part of the central contact. A cover (,) receives the support in a downward-opening cover cavity (,), and holds an actuating device (,) that can depress the tripping dome to close the switch. The actuating device is of sheet metal, with a heel (,) that is fixed in the rear end of the cover cavity, with a second part (,) substantially engaged with the center portion of the tripping dome, and with a front end forming an actuating lever (,) that extends through an opening (,) in the cover to be depressed by a smart card. The contacts have intermediate portions lying in a common plane and embedded in the support, with the dome-engaging part of the central contact being downwardly bent.