Pushbutton switch assembly

Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Electric switch details – Actuators

Patent

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Details

200159B, 200 5A, 200292, H01H 1370

Patent

active

044866372

ABSTRACT:
A pushbutton switch assembly, for a keyboard, comprises a plurality of switch units each having at least a pair of superposed switch contacts, one of which is movable by an actuator to make or break contact. Each actuator is a hingedly mounted cantilever having a pushbutton at its free end. When the pushbutton is depressed an intermediate part of the cantilever actuates the movable switch contact. The cantilever is dimensioned so that the operating force needed at the pushbutton is only a fraction of that required to operate the switch contact directly. Also the pushbutton travel is correspondingly longer. Accordingly the assembly may use a relatively stiff, small travel type of switch unit, for example a snap-action spring plate or flexible membrane, yet provide at the pushbutton the "soft" action and long travel preferred by so many users. In order that this can be achieved without sacrificing the compactness desirable in a keyboard array, the distal end of one cantilever actuator is arranged to extend across the hinge axis of the next adjacent actuator. The part of the adjacent actuator proximal the hinge comprises a pair of arms spaced apart so as to accommodate such distal portion, at least when it is depressed.

REFERENCES:
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patent: 4190748 (1980-02-01), Langford
patent: 4315114 (1982-02-01), Monti, Jr.
patent: 4323740 (1982-04-01), Balash
patent: 4368364 (1983-01-01), Harbers, Jr.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 19, No. 3, 8/76 "Sloped Key Button" Pierson.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 18, No. 3, 8/75 "Torsion Spring Actuator for a Key Switch" Harris.

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