Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Solid contact – Push button operated
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-03
2004-11-16
Luebke, Renee (Department: 2833)
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Solid contact
Push button operated
Reexamination Certificate
active
06818848
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a pushbutton assembly, and more particularly to a pushbutton assembly having a positioning rod rotatably connected to a button and a positioning disk pivotally received in a housing of the pushbutton assembly and having a positioning hole defined in the positioning disk to receive therein a bent of the positioning rod such that repeated up and down movement of the button allows the bent to be positioned at a first position and a second position within the positioning hole to accomplish the designed purpose of the pushbutton assembly.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With reference to
FIGS. 1
to
3
, a conventional pushbutton assembly is applied in a ball point pen. The ball point pen has a barrel
403
, a button
406
, a cap
404
, a first sleeve
407
and a second sleeve
409
. The barrel
403
is provided with a spring
402
and a core
401
received in the barrel
403
. The cap
404
has positioning slots
405
defined in an inner periphery of the cap
404
and bars
4051
each alternately formed between, two adjacent positioning slots
405
. Each bar
4051
has an inclined top face.
The first sleeve
407
has first bosses
408
formed around an outer periphery of the first sleeve
407
to correspond to the positioning slots
405
of the cap
404
. The second sleeve
409
has second bosses
410
formed on an outer periphery of the second sleeve
409
to correspond to the positioning slots
405
of the cap
404
. After the cap
404
is assembled with the barrel
403
, the button
406
and the first sleeve
407
are slidable relative to the barrel
404
. After the assembly of the pen, the user pushes the button
406
, the downward movement of the first sleeve
407
drives the second sleeve
409
to rotate, allowing the second bosses
410
to about the top face of the bar
4051
to extend the core
401
out of the barrel, as shown in FIG.
2
. However, when the user pushes the button
406
again, the second bosses
410
are thus received in the corresponding positioning slots
405
, allowing the core
401
to be retracted in the barrel
403
, as shown in FIG.
3
. In this type of pushbutton assembly, parts are loosely connected to one another. Thus, every movement of the button
406
creates a lot of friction between parts and that wears out the engaged faces of the parts. From the foregoing description, it is noted that this type of conventional pushbutton assembly not suitable for sophisticated electronic components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,720; U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,548; U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,813 U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,729; U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,211 are numerous patents related to a pushbutton assembly, which all suffer from the following shortcomings:
1. Too many linking parts are involved in a single movement, causing a complex process to accomplish a single purpose and a non-real-time action; and
2. Because the quantity of the parts to accomplish a single action is large, possibility of malfunction is great and the quality of coupling between parts is low.
With reference to
FIG. 4
, a second conventional pushbutton assembly is shown to have a button
501
and a housing
506
.
The button
501
is mounted on top of a body (not numbered) having a V-shaped protrusion
503
which is formed on a bottom of a channel
502
and has a lowermost point (a). The channel
502
has a lowermost point (b). A positioning rod
504
has a first end inserted into the through hole
507
in the housing
506
and a second end
505
extending into the channel
502
. A spring
508
is employed to provide a resilience to the button
501
and to ensure that the second end of the positioning rod
502
to abut an inner face of the channel
502
.
When the user presses the button
501
, the second end of the positioning rod
504
moves from point (a) to point (b). When the user pushes the button
501
again, the second end of the positioning rod
504
moves from point (b) to point (a). After the pushbutton assembly is used for a period of time, the resilience of the spring
508
is deteriorated, and the engagement of the second end
505
of the positioning rod
504
with the inner face of the channel
502
is not secured. Therefore, it is noted that the second end
505
of the positioning rod
504
may deviate from point (a) if the resilience form the spring
508
is not enough. Another shortcoming from the insufficient resilience is that the contact
510
of the electrical plate
509
may not engage with the contact
512
of the pin
511
properly and thus causes malfunction.
Accordingly, the conventional pushbutton assembly uses too many parts so that the cost is high and the possibility of having malfunction is thus high.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide an improved pushbutton assembly to solve the aforementioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an improved pushbutton assembly having a positioning rod rotatably connected to a button and a positioning disk pivotally received in a housing of the pushbutton assembly and having a positioning hole defined in the positioning disk to receive therein a bent of the positioning rod such that repeated up and down movement of the button allows the bent to be positioned at a first position and a second position within the positioning hole to accomplish the designed purpose of the pushbutton assembly.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3172296 (1965-03-01), Tancred
patent: 4003010 (1977-01-01), Kuchuris et al.
patent: 4167720 (1979-09-01), Krasser
patent: 4273980 (1981-06-01), Rogero
patent: 4352967 (1982-10-01), Buchtel
patent: 4668847 (1987-05-01), Greene
patent: 4937548 (1990-06-01), Sdunek
patent: 5233813 (1993-08-01), Kenney et al.
patent: 5451729 (1995-09-01), Onderka et al.
patent: 5558211 (1996-09-01), Heydner et al.
patent: 6420670 (2002-07-01), Yu
patent: 31 40732 (1983-04-01), None
LandOfFree
Pushbutton assembly with positioning rod and disk does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Pushbutton assembly with positioning rod and disk, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Pushbutton assembly with positioning rod and disk will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3336305