JP2001266711A - Switching device and movable contactor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a switching device and a movable contactor, that can cause a movable contactor 30 to oscillate promptly following osillatory operation of an operating unit by increasing the rigidity of the movable contactor 30, and can improve durability of the movable contactor 30 with respect to oscillation load. SOLUTION: The movable contactor 30 is made of a metallic plate material and comprises a plate-like movable spring 32 in the intermediate potion. On a fact part 32a of the movable spring 32, a movable contact 34 is arranged, and on its both sides, engagement pieces 33 that are engaged with a driving contact part of an operating unit are formed. The movable spring 32 and the engagement pieces 33 are formed folded between then. By forming the part between the movable spring 32 and the engagement pieces 33 folded in this way, the rigidity of the movable contactor 30 can be increased, and deflection in receiving the pressure from the operating unit can be restrained. Furthermore, by the engaging the edges of the engagement pieces 33 with the drive contact of the operating unit, the edges of the engagement pieces 33 are made to receive the pressure which accompanies the oscillation of the operating unit, deflection deformation of the engagement pieces 33 can be restrained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switch device suitable as an indoor wiring device for performing N / OFF, and a movable contact incorporated in the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional switching device of this type is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-151122 which was previously proposed by the present applicant.
Is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-203 (1995). This switch device
A structure is provided in which the movable contact is swung (reversed operation) in conjunction with the swing operation of the operating element, and the movable contact formed on the contact is brought into contact with and separated from the opposed fixed contact. Here, the movable contact has an engagement piece, and a driving contact portion of the operation element is engaged with a tip of the engagement piece, and a pressing force from the operation element is received by the tip of the engagement piece. Rocks.

FIG. 6B is a perspective view showing a movable contact of the conventional switch device. As shown in the drawing, a conventional movable contact 130 is formed by forming two slits 132 in a vertical direction in a contact main body 131 made of a flat metal plate, so that an intermediate portion surrounded by the slits 132 is formed. A movable spring 134 having a movable contact 133 is formed at each portion, and a side portion of each slit 132 is formed as an engagement piece 136, and a distal end portion of each of the engagement pieces 136 is engaged with a drive contact portion of an operation element. I was

[0004]

In the above-described conventional switch device, the engagement piece 136 of the movable contact 130 is provided.
However, since the pressing force from the operator is received perpendicular to the plane portion as shown by the arrow in FIG. 6B, the actuator is easily bent, so that the movable contact 130 operates slightly with respect to the swing operation of the operator. There was a risk of delay. In addition, when the engaging piece 136 is repeatedly elastically deformed for a long period of time by the pressing force from the operator, the durability of the movable contact 130 (particularly, the engaging piece 136) may be reduced due to metal fatigue. there were.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and by increasing the rigidity of the movable contact, the movable contact can be swung quickly following the swing operation of the manipulator. An object of the present invention is to improve the durability of a movable contact against a dynamic load.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a container formed by a case body and a lid, and a movable contact having a movable contact and supported swingably in the container. An operating element which is swingably supported by the lid and has a driving contact portion which engages with the movable contact; and a fixed having a fixed contact and the fixed contact facing the movable contact in the housing. And a terminal, wherein the movable contact is configured as follows. That is, the movable contact has a plate-shaped movable spring formed in an intermediate portion, a movable contact is provided on a surface portion of the movable spring, and an engagement piece that engages with a drive contact portion of the operation element is formed on both sides. In addition, the movable spring and the engagement piece are bent.

As described above, since the movable contact and the engagement piece are bent, the rigidity of the movable contact is increased, and the bending when receiving the pressing force from the operation element can be suppressed.

It is preferable that the movable contact is configured to engage with a drive contact portion of the operating element at an edge of the engaging piece.
As a result, the engagement piece receives the pressing force from the operator on the edge, so that the bending deformation is suppressed, and the movable contact can be swung by promptly following the swing operation of the operator,
The durability of the movable contact can be further improved by suppressing metal fatigue.

In the movable contact having the above-described structure, the ratio of the engagement piece to the entire width is small. Specifically, only the thickness of the engagement piece becomes a part of the entire width of the movable contact, and this is excluded. Since the width of the movable spring can be arbitrarily set within the dimensional range, the degree of freedom in design is increased. It should be noted that the width of the movable spring can be set arbitrarily independently of the engagement piece, and a cut is made between the movable spring and the engagement piece so that only the movable spring can be elastically bent. Preferably, a notch is formed.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a switch device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an appearance of the switch device, FIG. 3A is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 4 is a side sectional view.

In these figures, reference numeral 1 denotes a body, which is composed of a case body 2 having an open upper surface, and a lid 3 attached to the opening of the case body by a fastener 4. ing. The boss surface of the lid 3 has an opening for exposing an operation element 40 described later. As shown in FIG. 4, the case main body 2 is formed with an electric wire insertion hole 5 into which electric wires are individually inserted and a tool insertion hole 6 for operating the release button 13, which are opened downward. is there.

A fixed terminal 10, a connection terminal 11, a pressing spring 12, and a release button 13 are housed inside the body 1 (see FIG. 4). Each of the terminal portions 10 and 11 is bent in a U-shape from a copper alloy. And the fixed terminal 10
The fixed contact 1 at the tip by folding out the middle part
A narrow contact piece 15 provided with 4 is formed, and a connecting piece 16 is formed on the connection terminal 11 by folding out the lower end.

The terminals 10 and 11 are supported by support walls 15 and 16 provided on the case body 2 with their U-shaped openings facing the bottom of the case body 2. Each of the terminals 10 and 11 is arranged to face the wire insertion hole 5, and further, a holding spring 12 is provided inside each of the terminals 10 and 11, thereby forming a screwless terminal.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the holding spring 12 has one end bent into a U-shape and the other end bent into an S-shape to form locking pieces 12a and 12b at both ends. . The locking pieces 12a and 12b extend in the same direction as each other, and hold the electric wire inserted from the electric wire insertion hole 5 at each end edge. In addition, each locking piece 12a, 12b
The release edge of the release button 1 is opposite to the tool insertion hole 6.
3 and the release button 13 is moved by a tool such as a screwdriver, so that each locking piece 12
The leading edges of the wires 12a and 12b are pressed and elastically deformed, whereby the holding state of the electric wire can be released. The connection piece 21 of the support 20 is electrically connected to the connection piece 16 formed on the connection terminal 11.

The support body 20 includes a connecting piece 21, a leg piece 22 which rises continuously at one end of the connecting piece 21, and a V-shaped piece bent substantially in a V-shape which is continuous with the upper end of the leg piece 22. 23, and the leg piece 22
Elasticity is given to the character piece 23. A lower end of a movable contact 30 described later is swingably supported at a valley portion of the V-shaped piece 23.

The movable contact 30 is made of a metal plate, and as shown in FIG.
It has a movable spring 32 and an engagement piece 33 extending from 1a. The movable spring 32 is formed in a flat plate shape and extends from the center of the base 31a. A movable contact 34 is provided on the surface 32 a of the movable spring 32. The movable contact 34 is disposed in the body 1 so as to face the fixed contact 14, and comes into contact with and separates from the fixed contact 14 in conjunction with a swing operation of an operation element 40 described later.

A bent portion 32b is formed near the base of the movable spring 32 so that the surface portion 32a of the movable spring 32 is substantially the same as an engagement piece 33 described later in this embodiment. It is adjusted so that it is arranged on a plane. If necessary, the surface 32a of the movable spring 32 can be disposed forward or rearward of the engagement piece 33. By adjusting the position of the surface 32a, the contact pressure of the movable contact 34 against the fixed contact 14 can be arbitrarily adjusted. It is possible to

The engagement pieces 33 are formed on both sides of the movable spring 33 (ie, on both sides of the contact body 31). These engaging pieces 33 are attached to the base 31 a of the contact body 31.
And bent almost at a right angle from. Thus, the engagement piece 3
The rigidity of the movable contact 30 is increased by bending the movable contact 30. Although the movable contact 30 is swingable about the lower end supported by the support 20, the engagement piece 33 is formed by bending the engagement piece 33 as described above.
Are arranged substantially parallel to the swing direction.

A notch 35 is formed between the movable spring 32 and the engagement piece 33 so that the flat movable spring 32
Is elastically bent to reduce the impact when the fixed contact 14 is abutted. Each engaging piece 33 has a shape that becomes narrower toward the distal end, and a sharp distal end portion is engaged with a V-shaped groove of the operation element 40 described later.

The movable contact 32 having the above-described structure is
As shown in FIG. 7, the dimension occupied by the engagement piece 33 in the entire width D is only the plate thickness t. Therefore, it is possible to arbitrarily set the width d of the movable spring 32 within the range of D-2t. For example, the magnitude of the spring force can be adjusted by adjusting the width of the movable spring 32.

As shown in FIG. 8, the operation element 40 has an operation block 41 and a pair of operation arms 42 extending from the center of the bottom of the operation block 41. Among them, the operation block 41 passes through the opening of the lid 3 and the upper part is exposed to the outside. At the center of both sides of the operation block 41, a fulcrum 43 having a triangular shape that is pointed upward is formed to protrude. The upper end edge of each fulcrum 43 is the lid 3
And is engaged with a downwardly opening fan-shaped groove 3a (see FIG. 1) provided on the inner side surface.

At the lower end of each operating arm 42, a V-shaped groove 44 forming a drive contact portion with the engaging piece 33 of the movable contact 30 is provided.
Are formed, and the tips of the engaging pieces 33 are engaged with the V-shaped grooves 44 (see FIG. 8). As shown in FIGS. 4 and 8, a coil spring 24, which is a specific example of an urging means, is provided below the support 20. The urging force of the coil spring 24 causes the support 20 and the movable contact 20 to move. The child 30 is being pushed up. Thereby, the movable contact 3
0, the tip of the engagement piece 33 holds the engagement state with the V-shaped groove 44 formed on the operation arm 42 of the operation element 40, and the fulcrum 43 formed on the operation block 41.
Hold the engagement state of the lid 3 with the fan-shaped groove 3a.

With such a configuration, the inner surface of the V-shaped groove 44 formed in the operating arm 42 causes the distal end of the engagement piece 33 to move with the swing of the operation element 40 about the fulcrum 43. Press. As described above, the flat portion of the engagement piece 33
Since the movable contact 30 is arranged substantially in parallel with the swinging direction, the pressing force on the engagement piece 33 acts on the leading edge of the engagement piece 33 as shown by the arrow in FIG. (That is, it acts in parallel with the plane portion of the engagement piece 33). Therefore, the engagement piece 33 hardly bends even when receiving the pressing force from the operation arm 42.

Next, the operation of the above-described switch device will be described. FIG. 5A is a side sectional view showing a state where the movable contact of the switch device is separated from the fixed contact (OFF state), and FIG. 5B shows a state where the movable contact is at an intermediate position in the swing range. It is a side sectional view. It should be noted that FIG.
Indicates a state where the movable contact of the switch device is in contact with the fixed contact (ON state).

First, when the upper side (upper right side in FIG. 5) of the operation element 40 is pressed from the OFF state shown in FIG. 5A, the operation element 40 swings clockwise around the fulcrum 43. , An operating arm 42 integrated therewith similarly swings. As described above, the V-shaped groove 44 provided at the lower end of the operating arm 42 has the engaging piece 33 formed on the movable contact 30.
Are engaged, the leading edge of the engaging piece 33 is pressed as the operating arm 42 swings. As a result, the movable contact 30 swings counterclockwise around the lower end supported by the support 20, and the movable contact 34 contacts the fixed contact 14 as shown in FIG.

The pressing force acting on the movable contact 30 in the process of swinging the movable contact 30 includes a downward component force. Therefore, the movable contact 30 is connected to the coil spring 2
4 is slightly pushed downward against the urging force of 4.
The subsidence amount is maximized when the movable contact 30 comes to an intermediate position (the position shown in FIG. 5B) in the swing range, and thereafter decreases. As described above, the movable contact 30 operates by drawing a trajectory in which the swing around the lower end and the vertical movement are overlapped. Therefore, the movable contact 34 comes into sliding contact with the fixed contact 14 while slightly rubbing from below.

On the other hand, from the ON state shown in FIG.
Pressing the upper side (upper left side in the figure) of the
The operating element 40 swings counterclockwise about the fulcrum 43, and the operating arm 42 integrated with the operating piece swings similarly. With the swing of the operating arm 42, the distal end edge of the engaging piece 33 formed on the movable contact 30 is pressed. As a result, the movable contact 30 is clocked around the lower end supported by the support 20. The movable contact 34 separates from the fixed contact 14 by swinging in the direction. At this time, the movable contact 34 is slightly rubbed downward, opposite to the operation at the time of the contact, so that the fixed contact 14
, The arc discharge generated at the time of separation can be suppressed as compared with the instantaneous separation. Note that, needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since both sides of the contact body that constitutes the movable contact are bent and the both sides are formed as engagement pieces that engage with the drive contact portion of the operation element, the rigidity of the movable contact increases, and Bending when receiving a pressing force can be suppressed.

Further, if the movable contact is configured to receive a load from the operator at the distal end edge of the engagement piece, the bending deformation of the engagement piece is further suppressed, and the swing operation of the operator is promptly performed. The movable contact can be swung in accordance with the movement of the movable contact, and the durability of the movable contact can be further improved by suppressing metal fatigue.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a switch device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an appearance of the switch device.

3A is a plan view of the switch device, and FIG. 3B is a side view of the same switch device.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the switch device.

FIG. 5A is a side sectional view showing a state in which a movable contact of the switch device is separated from a fixed contact (OFF state);
(B) is a side sectional view showing a state where the movable contact is at an intermediate position in the swing range.

FIG. 6A is a perspective view showing a movable contact of the switch device, and FIG. 6B is a perspective view showing a conventional movable contact.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the width of the engagement piece and the movable spring occupying the entire width of the movable contact according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view showing an engagement state of an engagement piece of a movable contact and an operation arm of an operation element.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: body 2: case body 3: lid 4: fastening fitting 5: wire insertion hole 6: tool insertion hole 10: fixed terminal 11: connection terminal 12: holding spring 13: release button 14: fixed contact 15: contact piece 16: Connecting piece 20: Support 21: Connection piece 22: Leg piece 23: V-shaped piece 24: Coil spring 30: Movable contact 31: Contact body 31a: Base 32: Movable spring 33: Engagement piece 34: Movable contact 35: Notch 40: Operation element 41: Operation block 42: Operation arm 43: Support piece 44: V-shaped groove (drive contact part)

Claims (6)

[Claims] A container formed by a case body and a lid; a movable contact having a movable contact and supported swingably in the container; A switch device comprising: an operation element having a driving contact portion that engages with a movable contact element; and a fixed terminal having a fixed contact and having the fixed contact facing the movable contact in the housing. The movable contact forms a plate-shaped movable spring in an intermediate portion,
The movable contact is provided on the surface of the movable spring, and an engagement piece is formed on both sides to engage with the drive contact portion of the operation element, and the movable spring and the engagement piece are bent. A switch device comprising: 2. The switch device according to claim 1, wherein the movable contact engages with a drive contact portion of the operation element at an edge of the engagement piece. 3. The switch device according to claim 1, wherein the movable contact has a notch between the movable spring and an engagement piece. 4. A switch comprising: a body formed by a case body and a lid; an operation member swingably supported by the lid and having a drive contact portion; and a fixed terminal having a fixed contact. A movable contact that is incorporated in a device and is swingably supported in the body, wherein a plate-shaped movable spring is formed in an intermediate portion, and the movable contact is provided on a surface portion of the movable spring. A movable contact that is formed with an engagement piece that engages with a drive contact portion of the operating element, and that is bent between the movable spring and the engagement piece. 5. The movable contact according to claim 4, wherein the engagement piece engages with a drive contact portion of the operation element at an edge. 6. The movable contact according to claim 4, wherein a notch is formed between the movable spring and the engaging piece.