Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Multiple circuit control – Pivoted contact
Patent
1991-09-06
1993-03-23
Scott, J. R.
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Multiple circuit control
Pivoted contact
200 6C, 200242, 200339, 200557, H01H 2320, H01H 112
Patent
active
051966573
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an electric, automatically centering and self-cleaning switch for manual operation which includes a push rod which may be shifted from neutral centre position to at least two electrically-conducting side positions that are symmetrical in relation to the centre position, and in particular the invention relates to a switch intended for use in electronic miniature devices, like hearing aids, wherein such switch may for instance be used for controlling the volume of the hearing aid.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electric, automatically reversing switches are known from for example German Patent Publication Nos. 2636632 and 3338452 and from U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,062 and 3,408,463, and although none of these publications seems to disclose switches intended for use in miniature electronic devices. The automatically reversing effect is imparted to the thus known automatically reversing switches either by a resilient force produced by constructing the end terminals as spring elements with which the lower end of the push rod is brought into contact when moved from its neutral position, or by use of a particular additional spring mechanism mounted in the upper part of the switch box, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,688,062 and 3,408,463. This is especially the case in the switch according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,463, which discloses a double-pole, double-throw electric switch for the reversing operation of a permanent magnetic motor and where the size of and clearance required by the springs or spring mechanisms in the switch box makes the switching mechanism as a whole relatively complex and space consuming, and a minimization, if any, for use in electronic miniature devices would thus encounter major problems when faced with the requirement to provide a simple and safely operating mechanism of very small outer dimensions the size of which should be comprised within about 3-4 min.
A hitherto use volume control in hearing aids is known from Danish Patent Publication No. 134876 wherein in a rotating potentiometer of very small outer dimensions is provided by a particular construction comprising a circular potentiometer resistance sheet divided into material sections having mutually different specific resistance and across which sections a sliding contact may be conductively connecting that portion of the sheet which corresponds to a desired volume control. Despite this minimized construction the rotating potentiometer in question and the accessory adjusting button are too large for incorporating into another unit, for example, the amplifier unit of a hearing aid, and consequently it should be included as a separate unit which contributes undesirably to an increase in the outer dimensions of the hearing aid aggregate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to provide an electric switch suitable for incorporation into a miniature electronic device and which is not associated with the inconveniences described above for the hitherto known switches and which has such small outer dimensions that it may further be incorporated into a pre-existing unit, for example an amplifier, of such an electronic device and which is self-cleaning and extremely easily operated.
The object is achieved with an electric, automatically centering self-cleaning switch comprising a switch box of an electrically-insulating material, and the upper part of which forms a bearing for a push rod which is also manufactured from an electrically-insulating material, and which is provided with an internal space and which, in a central plane of the box, may be moved from a centre position symetrically to either side and when so moved tends back to its centre position by virtue of a spring mechanism within the box. The box has in its lower part securedly fixed at least three electrically-conducting terminals corresponding to a neutral centre position and activating side positions of the pushing rod. The spring mechanism is constituted by an electrically-conducting U-formed spring, the upp
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patent: 3408463 (1968-10-01), Wanlass
patent: 3475566 (1969-10-01), Bauer
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patent: 3688062 (1972-08-01), Yamamoto et al.
patent: 4575592 (1986-03-01), Rose
patent: 4733028 (1988-03-01), Flumignan
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