Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Special application – Change of inclination or of rate of motion responsive
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-13
2003-05-06
Enad, Elvin (Department: 2832)
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Special application
Change of inclination or of rate of motion responsive
C200S06145M
Reexamination Certificate
active
06559396
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tilt switch, more particularly to a tilt switch which is adapted to be mounted on a support and which has an electrically conductive ball that is rollable to establish or break an electrical connection between two electric contact terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to
FIGS. 1
to
3
, a conventional tilt switch
10
is shown to include an insulating housing
11
with an accommodation chamber
114
therein for receiving rollably an electrically conductive ball
14
. An insulating plug member
13
is mounted to a lower inner wall
111
of the housing
11
. An electrically conductive block
12
is mounted on the plug member
13
, and has an elongate terminal
124
extending downwardly through a through hole
133
in the plug member
13
. An elongate electric contact terminal
15
extends through a center portion of the plug member
13
and into the accommodation chamber
114
to engage an upper inner wall of the housing
11
. The electrically conductive block
12
has an upper downward sloping surface
122
extending downwardly and toward a center portion thereof so as to hold the ball
14
on the sloping surface
122
and in contact with the terminal
15
when the tilt switch
10
stands in an upright position, thereby establishing an electrical connection between the terminals
15
,
124
. Once the tilt switch
10
is tilted, the ball
14
will roll away from the terminal
15
to break the electrical connection. However, the ball
14
is liable to roll out of the upright position even when jerked by a slight tilting force, thereby resulting in undesired interruption of the electrical connection. Moreover, the tilt switch
10
is complicated in construction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a tilt switch which can maintain an electrical connection between two terminals thereof even when jerked by a slight tilting force.
According to this invention, the tilt switch includes an insulating housing which is adapted to be mounted to be spaced apart from an upper mount surface of a support in an upright direction. The housing includes a bottom wall surface which is adapted to be proximate to the upper mount surface and which has an outer periphery surrounding a centerline that is oriented in the upright direction. A surrounding outer field extends from the outer periphery towards the centerline, and terminates at an inner periphery which defines an access opening with a first dimension and which is adapted to communicate the surrounding outer field with the upper mount surface. An inner peripheral wall surface extends upwardly from the outer periphery, and terminates at an upper surrounding edge. The inner peripheral wall surface confines an accommodation chamber therein.
An electrically conductive ball is received in the accommodation chamber, and is rollable on the surrounding outer field. The ball is of a second dimension that is larger than the first dimension of the access opening so that when the ball rolls into an upright position where the tilt switch is not tilted, a contact surface of the ball protrudes downwardly and outwardly of the access opening.
First and second electric contact terminals are spaced apart from each other in a transverse direction relative to the upright direction. The first electric contact terminal includes a first contact body and a first terminal portion. The second electric contact terminal includes a second contact body and a second terminal portion. Each of the first and second contact bodies includes a lower major wall surface which is adapted to be electrically insulated from the upper mount surface, and an upper major wall surface opposite to lower major wall surface in the upright direction. The upper major wall surface includes a rolling area. The rolling areas of the first and second contact bodies are electrically insulated from each other, and are configured such that, when the upper major wall surfaces of the first and second contact bodies are brought to be disposed under the bottom wall surface, the rolling areas of the first and second contact bodies are exposed from the access opening, and such that, in the upright position, the ball is in contact with the rolling areas to establish an electrical connection between the first and second contact bodies. The contact surface of the ball is rollable on the rolling areas between a switch-on maintaining position, where the contact surface of the ball can still contact the rolling areas of both the first and second contact bodies even when the ball is jerked by a slight tilting to roll out of the upright position, thereby maintaining the electrical connection by virtue of bridging the first and second contact bodies, and a switch-off position, where the contact surface of the ball is thrown out of contact with at least one of the rolling areas by a large tilting force. Each of the first and second terminal portions includes a proximate end connected to a respective one of the first and second contact bodies, and a distal end extending from the proximate end in a plane to which the centerline is normal. The distal end is adapted to be superimposed on the upper mount surface of the support, thereby making an electric contact therebetween.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3812308 (1974-05-01), Bell et al.
patent: 4135067 (1979-01-01), Bitko
patent: 4618746 (1986-10-01), Schwob et al.
patent: 5639999 (1997-06-01), Hsu
patent: 5672856 (1997-09-01), Kolb et al.
patent: 6005205 (1999-12-01), Chou
patent: 6011254 (2000-01-01), Sano et al.
patent: 6028275 (2000-02-01), Jou
patent: 6448516 (2002-09-01), Chiang
patent: 4021055 (1990-06-01), None
patent: 480131 (1991-06-01), None
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Enad Elvin
Klaus Lisa N
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