JPH0711702B2 - Electric device and machine using the same - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electric devices such as connectors, switches, and sensors for passing current. The present invention is particularly concerned with electrical devices useful for various types of machines and other applications that require such electrical devices to operate properly. More particularly, the electrical device has two contact elements, at least one of which is "pulled" having a plurality of small diameter conductive fibers in a polymer matrix.
(Pultruded) composite member, the fibers being oriented in a direction parallel to the axial direction of the member and extending continuously from one end to the other end of the member. A typical machine using such an electric device is an electrostatic copying machine.

(Prior Art and its Problems) In the electrostatic printing or copying machines which are commonly used at present, the insulating photoconductive member is usually charged to a uniform potential, and then the light of the original to be copied is copied. The image is exposed.
This exposure discharges the exposed or background areas of the photoconductive surface to produce an electrostatic latent image on the member which corresponds to the light image contained in the original document. It is also possible to modulate the light beam and use it to selectively discharge from a portion of the charged photoconductive surface to record the desired information there. Usually such systems use a laser beam. The electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface is then made visible by developing the image with a developer powder called toner.
Most development systems utilize developers that consist of both charged carrier particles and charged toner particles that are triboelectrically attached to the carrier particles. During development, the toner particles are attracted from the carrier particles by the charge pattern in the image areas of the photoconductive areas to form a particle image in the photoconductive areas. The toner image is then transferred to a support surface such as a copy sheet and is permanently attached to the support surface by heating or applying pressure.

Commercial use of such products requires distribution of power and / or logical signals to various locations within the machine.
To that end, ordinary wires and wire harnesses are commonly used to distribute power and logic signals to the various functional elements of an automated machine. In such a distribution system it is necessary to provide an electrical connector between the wire and the element. Further, for example, it is necessary to provide a sensor and a switch to detect the position of a copy sheet, a document or the like.
Similarly, other electrical devices, such as interlocks, may be provided to enable or disable certain functions.

The most common devices that perform these functions act on "metal-metal" contacts to create a conductive path for current flow from one location to another. While this long-standing method is very effective in many applications, it also has some drawbacks. For example, one or both of the metal contacts may deteriorate over time due to the formation of an insulating thin film due to the oxidation of the metal. Normal contact forces due to the low energy (5 volts and 10 milliamps) power present at the other contact also cannot penetrate this film. Holm 19 published by Springer Bookstore
It is listed on the 1st page of the 4th edition of "Electrical Contact", 67,
Due to the fact that even if the contact point is infinitely hard, it is impossible to force contact at more than four points with any magnitude of force.
Things get more complicated. Corroded contacts can generate high frequency buffers (noise) that disturb sensitive circuits in the machine. Also, ordinary "metal-metal" contacts are susceptible to contamination by dust and other debris in the machine environment. In some electrostatographic machines, for example, the toner particles may be widely dispersed in the air within the machine and the toner particles may accumulate at the contacts. Another common contaminant in copiers is the silicone oil commonly used as a fuser release agent. This contaminant is also sufficient to prevent the required metal-to-metal contact. Therefore, the reliability of direct metal-to-metal contact is low, especially at low energies. In order to improve the reliability of such contacts, especially for low energy applications, previously contacts have been made from rare earth elements such as gold, palladium, silver and rhodium, or specially developed alloys such as palladium nickel, or For some applications, the contacts were placed in a vacuum or sealed. Also, most metals have a positive thermal conductivity, which decreases their conductivity as the contact heats up, and thus becomes more and more hot with additional current flow, making metal contacts self-destructive. Then, it may burn out. A final failure occurs when the current crowd development dominates the conduction of current. In addition to being unreliable as a result of being susceptible to contamination, conventional metal contacts, especially sliding contacts, are prone to wear over time.

Lewis et al., U.S. Pat. By curing the material and removing the matrix material impregnated in the flexible portion, the fibers become a continuum of alternating stiff and flexible portions. The matrix material is a thermosetting resin and the reinforcing fibers are glass, graphite, boron or aramid fibers.

Deguchi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,786, discloses an electrically conductive thermoplastic composite including metal and carbon fibers. The composite is capable of being shaped into a desired shape by injection molding or extrusion molding (see column 3, lines 30-52). The purpose of this invention is to provide good electrical contact at both ends. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric device suitable for a connector, a switch, a sensor, etc., which has electrical conductivity of its electrical contact for a long time and is easy to handle and mold.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the present invention, there is provided an electric device for passing an electric current, comprising two contact elements, at least one of the contact elements being a polymer matrix. A drawn composite member having a plurality of electrically conductive fibers of small diameter therein, the plurality of electrically conductive fibers being oriented in the matrix in a direction substantially parallel to an axial direction of the composite member; Electrically conductive fibers of the composite member extend continuously from one end of the composite member to the other end to provide a plurality of potential electrical contacts at both ends, the polymer matrix being a structural thermoplastic or An electric device is provided which is a thermosetting resin.

Further, according to the present invention, such an electric device can be configured as a switch, a sensor, or a connector, and further, a copying machine or the like incorporating the electric device is provided.

(Example) According to the present invention, reliability of various electric devices such as a switch, a sensor, a connector, an interlock, etc. is significantly improved, it can be easily manufactured at low cost, and it operates with high reliability in a low energy system. You will be able to do it. Further, these electrical devices can have mechanical or structural functions as well as performing electrical functions. The above advantages are achieved using a manufacturing process commonly referred to as pultrusion. This process generally draws a length of fiber through a resin bath or impregnator and then into a preform fixture where it is partially molded and excess resin and / or air is removed. Removing, and then drawing the fibers into a heated die to continuously cure the part. This process is typically used to produce glass fiber reinforced plastic pultruded parts. For a detailed discussion of extraction techniques, first appeared in 1985 in Chapman and Ha, New York.
ll) "Pulling Out Technology Handbag" (Ha
ndbook of Pultrusion Technology).
In practicing the present invention, conductive carbon fibers are dipped in a polymer bath and drawn at elevated temperature through a suitably shaped die opening to form a solid piece having the dimensions and shape of the die. This solid piece can be cut, shaped and ground. As a result, thousands of conductive fiber elements are included within the polymer matrix, the ends of which are exposed at the surface to provide electrical contacts. Thus there is a great deal of redundancy and availability for electrical contacts,
The reliability of the device is greatly improved. The plurality of small diameter conductive fibers are drawn as a series through the polymer bath and the heated die so that the fibers in the molded member are continuous from one end of the member to the other end of the resin. It is oriented in the matrix in a direction substantially parallel to the axial direction of the member. The term "axial" shall mean the longitudinal or longitudinal direction, or the direction along the principal axis. Thus, the pultruded composite is formed as a continuous length which is cut to size to provide a large number of potential electrical contacts at each end to the individual fiber ends. Can be provided to As will become apparent later, the drawn composite member can be used for either or both of the contact elements of an electrical current carrying device.

Any suitable fiber can be used in practicing the present invention. Typically, the conductive fibers have a DC volume resistivity of about 1 × 10 ^{-5 to} about 1 × 10 ¹⁰ Ωcm, preferably about 1 × 10 ^{-3 to} about ¹⁰ Ωcm to minimize ohmic losses. Have. However, if the input level of the electronic device is high enough, the material with the highest resistivity may be used.
Also, the individual conductive fibers generally have a circular cross section,
Its diameter is about 4 to about 50 microns, preferably about 7 to 9 microns, which gives very high redundancy to small axial areas. The fibers are generally flexible,
Compatible with polymer systems. Typical fibers include carbon fibers, carbon / graphite fibers, metallized or metal coated carbon fibers, and metal coated glass fibers.

Particularly preferred fibers that can be used are fibers obtained from a conditioned heat treatment that partially carbonizes polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor fibers. It has been found that for such fibers, by carefully keeping the carbonization temperature within a range, the electrical resistivity of carbonized carbon fibers can be accurately achieved. Polyacrylonitrile precursor fiber is a yarn handle of 1,000 to 160,000 filaments in a stack handle (St
ackpole company, a division of BASF Celion Carbon Fibers, Inc., d
ivision of BASF). The yaho bundle is made by stabilizing the PAN fiber in an oxygen atmosphere at a temperature of about 300 ° C, which is called "preox-stabilized PAN fiber" (preox
-Stabilized PAN fibers) and then partially carbonized in a two-step process in which carbonization is carried out at a higher temperature in an inert (nitrogen) atmosphere. The DC electrical resistivity of the resulting fiber is controlled by selecting the temperature of carbonization. For example, the carbonization temperature is about 500 ℃ to 750 ℃
When adjusted within the range, carbon fibers having an electric resistivity of about 10 ^{2 to} about 10 ⁶ Ωcm can be obtained. For processes that can be used to produce carbonized fiber, see
Ewing et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,709 and its eighth
See the references cited in the column.
Generally, these carbon fibers are about 30 to 60 million psi
Or having a count of 205-411 GPa, which is larger than most steels, allowing the production of very strong drawn composites. High temperature conversion of polyacrylonitrile fibers results in fibers consisting of about 99.99% carbon, which is inert and produces only carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide when used in high energy applications during oxidation. , This is a gas that does not contaminate the fiber end contacts.

One advantage of using conductive carbon fibers is that they have a negative thermal conductivity, which makes them more and more conductive as they get hotter. In this respect, carbon fiber is superior to metal fiber because the self-destructive action continues to break. Ten
^The fibers can be metallized or plated with a metal such as nickel, silver or gold if a very high conductivity of the order of ⁵ (Ωcm) ^-1 is desired. Carbon fibers also have the advantage that they adhere well to the polymer matrix due to their inherently rough surface.

Any suitable polymer matrix can be used in the practice of the present invention. The polymer may be insulating or conductive. Conducting polymers can be used if optimum electrical connection of the edges of the pultruded article is desired. Conversely, insulative polymers can be used if it is desired that the edges of the pultruded article be insulative.

In the present invention, the polymer is selected from the group of structural thermoplastics and structural thermosetting resins. Polyesters, epoxies and vinyl esters are generally suitable materials, with polyesters being preferred because of their short cure times and relatively low chemical activity. If an elastomeric matrix is desired, the polymeric matrix can be composed of silicone, fluorosilicone, or polyurethane elastomers. Typical materials are Hetron 613, Arpol 7030 and 7632, which are commercially available from Oshland Oil. Inc., and are commercially available from Koppers Company. Inc.
Dion Iso7315, Vestron Corporatio
There is Silmar S-7956 commercially available from n). See Chapter 4 of Meyer's above Handbook for more information on suitable resins. If desired, other materials may be added to the polymer bath to provide other properties such as corrosion resistance and flame resistance. It is also possible to add calcium carbonate, alumina, silica or pigments to the polymer bath for coloring or to add a lubricant, for example to reduce the friction of the sliding contacts. Other additives which modify the viscosity or surface tension, or which aid in the adhesion of the drawn product to other materials can be added. Of course, if a glue is applied to the fiber, one should choose a polymer that is compatible with it. For example, if epoxy resin is used, an epoxy glue is added to the fiber to promote adhesion.

The loading of the fibers into the polymer matrix depends on the desired conductivity and cross section. Generally, the specific gravity of the resin is about 1.1 to about 1.5 and the specific gravity of the fibers is about 1.7 to about 2.5. In order to achieve the above-mentioned levels of conductivity, pultruded composites generally have 50% or more of their weight,
Preferably, 80 or 90% or more is a fiber, and the higher the fiber loading, the more the fiber for the contact and the lower the volume resistivity. Fibers can be added to increase the conductivity of the matrix.

The pultruded composite is, for example, the "Handbook of Pultrusi
can be prepared according to the Meyer drawing technique described in "On Technology". Generally, this technique involves pre-rinsing a continuous, multifilamentary strand of conductive carbon fibers in a pre-rinse bath, then drawing the continuous strand through a molten or liquid polymer, which is then heated. Including into oven dryer (if necessary) through a die (which can be at the curing temperature of the resin) and pulling to a cutting or unloading position. See Meyer for more details on this process. The desired final shape of the pultruded composite member is the shape given by the die, but it can also be ground with a conventional carbide tool to obtain the desired shape. With ordinary grinding techniques, holes, slots, protrusions,
Grooves, convex or concave contact areas, threads, etc. can be formed in the pultruded composite member. Various die shapes that can be used to make the corresponding pultruded profile are shown in FIG. It will be appreciated that although the individual dots representing the individual fibers are drawn in an orderly pattern, they generally appear chaotic.

Typically, the fibers are, for example, 1, 3, 6, 12 per yarn.
Alternatively, provided as a continuous filament yarn having 160,000 filaments, it provides about 1 × 10 ^{5 to} about 2.5 × 10 ⁵ contacts per cm ^{2 of} the formed drawn member.

The thus-formed pultruded member can be used to provide at least one contact element in an electric current carrying device. Additionally or alternatively, both contacts can be made from similar or dissimilar pultruded composite members. Moreover, one or both of the contacts can have mechanical or structural functions. For example, not only can it act as a current conducting member of the connector, but the drawn member can also function as a guide pin. The pultruded member not only serves as a rail on which the scanning head rides, but can also provide a ground return path.

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows an electrophotographic printing or copying machine which uses a belt 10 having a photoconductive surface. Belt 10 is arrow 12
In the direction of to advance the photoconductive surface through various processing stations starting from the charging station including the corona generator 14. The corona generator charges the photoconductive surface to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential.

The charged portion of the photoconductive surface is advanced through the imaging station. At the imaging station, the document handling device 15 positions the document 16 face-down on the exposure system 17. The exposure system 17 includes a lamp 20 that illuminates a document 16 positioned on a transparent platen 18. Document 16
Rays reflected from are transmitted through lens 22, which focuses the light image of original 16 onto the charged portion of the photoconductive surface of belt 10 and selectively dissipates the charge.
This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface corresponding to the informational areas contained in the original document.

The platen 18 is movably mounted and moves in the direction of arrow 24 to adjust the magnification of the original document to be copied.
The lens moves synchronously with the light image of original 16 to focus it on the charged portion of the photoconductive surface of belt 10.

The document handling device 15 sequentially sends the documents from the holding tray to the platen 18. The document handling device returns the documents to the stack supported by the tray. Thereafter, belt 10 advances the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface to a development station.

At the development station, a pair of magnetic brush developer rollers 26, 28 deliver developer to the electrostatic latent image. The latent image attracts developer particles from the carrier to form a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface of belt 10.

After the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface of belt 10 has been developed, belt 10 and the toner powder image are advanced to the transfer station. At the transfer station, the copy sheet is contacted with the toner powder image. The transfer station includes a corona generating device 30 that disperses ions on the back side of the copy sheet. This attracts the toner powder image from the photoconductive surface of belt 10 to the copy sheet.

The copy sheet is sent from one selected tray 34, 36 to the transfer station. After transfer, the conveyor 32 sends the copy sheet to the fusing station. The fusing station includes a fusing assembly that permanently affixes the transferred powder image to the copy sheet. Preferably, the fusing assembly 40 includes a fusing roller 42 that is heated and a backup roller 44, and the powder image is in contact with the fusing roller 42. After fusing, the conveyor 46 feeds the paper to the gate 48 which functions as an inverter selector. Depending on the position of the gate 48, the copy paper is either a paper inverter 50 or a bypass paper inverter.
It is deflected to 50 and sent directly to the second gate 52. The judgment gate 52 sends the paper directly to the output tray 54,
Alternatively, the paper is fed into the transfer path for feeding to the third gate 56 without inverting the paper. The gate 56 feeds the paper directly, i.e. without inverting, into the output tray of the copier, or feeds the paper into the double sided reversing roller feeder 58.
The reverse feeding device 58 reverses and stacks the sheets to be overlapped in the overlapping tray 60. The overlapping tray 60 is printed on one side, and also serves as an intermediate storage place for sheets to be printed on the back side.

FIG. 2 shows the document size driven by the pinch roller 64.
Documents traveling to platen 18 through sensor array 66
16 routes are shown. Document size sensor. Array 66 includes an array of opposing conductive contacts. As shown in detail in FIG. 3, the pair is a fiber brush 68 carried by an upper support 70 and a puller carried by a lower conductive support 74 and in electrical contact with the fiber brush. And the processed composite member 72. The pultruded composite member has a plurality of electrically conductive fibers 71 within a polymer matrix 75 having a surface 73, one end of which can be in contact with a brush 68, which brush is transverse to the paper path. Is in contact with the document passing between the contacts and is bent by the paper.
When no document is present, the brush fibers form a closed electrical circuit with the drawn member 72. A single position sensor can also be used. Referring to the pultruded members of FIGS. 2 and 3 above, it can be seen that the fiber loading of the member is generally much higher than the amount shown.

Testing was conducted on the apparatus shown in FIG. 3, in which case the fiber brush 68 was a Celion Carbon Fibers. Inc., a division of BAS.
F. Charlotte. North Carolina). 1
It is made of polyacrylonitrile fiber "Celion C-6000" which has 6000 fibers per yarn. The fiber has a 0.7% by weight polyvinylpyrrolidone "glue", a resistivity of 10 ^-3 Ωcm, and a diameter of 7 to 10 microns. The brush is formed by wrapping one end of the fiber in an ultrasonically welded conductive plastic holder, the other contact 72 having a circular cross section of about 6 mm in diameter cut to a length of about 3 mm. It was a drawn pellet. The pultruded pellets have about 10 in the polymer matrix.
Formed from 7 to 10 micron diameter carbon fibers having a resistivity of ^-3 Ωcm, 30 to 50% of the weight of the polymer matrix was fibers. The pellets are from Diversified Fabr
Commercially available from icators, Inc., Winona, Minn.

The pellets are attached to a conductive plate using silver filled conductive epoxy and the formed switch is a DC power source with a current sensing resistor that allows 10 milliamps to flow through the contacts.
Connected to 5V. Use one of the sensors in the test fixture
It was operated 100 million times, but there was no failure. A similar test was conducted by replacing the drawn contact with a metal contact. When placed in the test fixture, after about 100,000 actuations, failure occurred due to oxides adhering to the metal contacts, and at such low energy levels a relatively small force pierces the contaminant layer. It was not enough to pull it out.

The device of FIG. 3 was also tested, but in that case,
The plucked member was immersed in the fixing device oil or water, or the toner was poured on it. In each case it has been shown that effective switching is achieved even under such high levels of contact discrimination.

Reference is made to FIG. 4 which shows another embodiment of a device of this kind.
The pultruded composite member 78 is ground and has similar brush contacts.
A round groove 80 is formed that allows contact with 86 fibers. In FIG. 5, the device has two drawing members 82, 84 at the contact interface, both of which are slightly ground to ensure good contact. A round groove 83 is provided in one member and one end of the other member is rounded to fit the groove (85). Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown an apparatus including two pultruded composite members forming contacts. Each of the pultruded members 87, 88 is connected to an electrical wire 90, 91 through a hole in the end of the pulverized member, respectively, and is housed in a molded plastic cap 92, 93 within housings 95, 96. The connector is either Velcro (trademark of Velcro Company) or Scotch Fle.
Designed as a male-female compatible device held by a flexible fastener material such as xlock 97 (trademark of 3M).
Naturally, the drawn composite member should be electrically connected to the wire by a well-known technique such as crimping, passing a wire or wire through a hole formed in the drawn member, soldering, or fixing with an adhesive. It can be done.

FIG. 7 shows the elastomeric pultruded member 98 biased by a force applied near the center of the lever to connect the contacts 102, 103 at each end 100, 101.

Although shown as a switch, the device could be used for other purposes, including high energy applications. For example, this device may include audio and signal level connections, non-metal buses, corotron array fibers, ground or bias elements, power outputs,
It can be used for etc. If it is desired to provide brush-type contacts at the ends of the pultruded composite member, this can be accomplished by removing the polymer matrix with a solvent or by removing the binder by incineration or etching. .

(Effect of the Invention) According to the electric device of the present invention, at least one of the two contact elements is a drawn composite member having a plurality of small-diameter conductive fibers in a polymer matrix, and the conductive fibers are Oriented in the polymer matrix in a direction substantially parallel to the axial direction of the composite member, the conductive fibers provide multiple electrical contacts at both ends of the composite member in succession, and the polymer matrix is structurally Since it is a thermoplastic or thermosetting resin, both ends of the drawn composite member are good electrical contacts, and the parts other than the ends are composed of a polymer matrix made of structural thermoplastic or thermosetting resin. Therefore, the conductivity of the conductive fiber is maintained for a long time, the conductivity of the electrical contacts at both ends is also maintained for a long time, and the structural thermoplastic or Since the whole is made of thermosetting resin, its molding is easy and its shape can be changed in various ways, it is extremely easy to handle, it is suitable for connectors, switches, sensors, etc. Can be incorporated. That is, the present invention provides an extremely reliable electric device that can be used as a sensor, a switch, a connector, an interlock, or the like. As a result of using a pultruded member that provides a vast number of potential electrical contacts that provide greater degree of electrical redundancy than ordinary metal-to-metal contacts.
Such reliability is achieved. Moreover, the contacts are not degraded by oxidation over a long period of time and their integrity is not compromised even if they are contaminated. The device is relatively low cost, can be easily manufactured in a variety of cross-sectional shapes, and can be used to provide both structural and mechanical functions. The device offers relatively low cost and high contact reliability. The device can function in a low energy configuration over a very long period of time. For example, it can also function in a high voltage system in connection with the hybrid vehicle ignition cable described in Holtberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,423. In such a system, electromagnetic or high frequency buffering (noise) does not occur because the carbon wire at the contact attempts to consume the transient current in the wire before noise that disturbs the logic circuit is generated. Further, in the drawing composite member of the present invention, the coefficient of linear expansion is small as compared with the contact between metal and metal, so that the internal stress during heating and cooling is small.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other embodiments in various forms are feasible. For example, although the invention has been illustrated as being used in an electrographic printing apparatus, it will be appreciated that it is equally applicable to larger arrays of machines with electrical elements. Therefore, all the alternatives and modifications that come within the scope of the description of the claims are to be included in the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an automatic electrostatic copying machine to which the present invention can be applied. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing in detail the document handling apparatus of FIG. 1 to which the present invention can be applied. FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing the sensor of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an electrical connection between the drawing member and the conductive fiber brush. FIG. 5 shows an electrical connection where both contacts are pultruded, one of which is ground to provide a precise contact location. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connection between two pultruded members contained in a plastic cap and held by a flexible fastener. FIG. 7 is a view showing an electric connection portion which is an elastomer member in which the drawn member is biased in a contact relationship. FIG. 8 shows various typical cross-sections that a drawn member can have. Explanation of reference numerals 10 ... Photoconductive belt, 15 ... Document handling device 17 ... Exposure system 66 ... Document size sensor array 72 ... Drawing composite member

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor John E Courtney 14502 Macedon Panel Road, New York, USA 128 (72) Inventor Wilbur Mpeck, New York, USA 14616 Rochester Ripplewood Drive 227

Claims (42)

[Claims] 1. A current carrying electrical device having two contact elements, at least one of said contact elements having a plurality of small diameter electrically conductive fibers in a polymer matrix, wherein the composite element is drawn. The plurality of conductive fibers are oriented in the matrix in a direction substantially parallel to the axial direction of the composite member, and the plurality of conductive fibers are
A composite member continuously extending from one end to the other to provide a plurality of potential electrical contacts at both ends, the polymer matrix being a structural thermoplastic or thermosetting resin An electric device characterized by the above. 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the conductive fibers are carbon fibers. 3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the carbon fiber is a carbonized polyacrylonitrile fiber. 4. The device of claim 1 wherein the conductive fibers are substantially circular in cross section and have a diameter of about 4 microns to about 50 microns. 5. The device of claim 4, wherein the fibers have a diameter of about 7 microns to about 10 microns. 6. The fibers are from about 1 × 10 ^-5 Ωcm to about 1 × 10 ¹⁰
The device of claim 1 having a DC volume resistivity of Ωcm. 7. The device of claim 6 wherein the fibers have a DC volume resistivity of about 1 × 10 ⁻³ Ωcm to about 10 Ωcm. 8. At least one contact element is at least 5
2. Having a weight percent of conductive fibers.
The device according to. 9. At least one contact element is at least 50
9. Having wt% conductive fibers.
The device according to. 10. At least one contact element comprises about 90% by weight.
10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the device has conductive fibers. 11. The device according to claim 1, wherein the resin is polyester or epoxy. 12. The device according to claim 1, wherein the polymer is a crosslinked silicone elastomer. 13. The composite member after being drawn is an electric element and a mechanical element.
The device according to. 14. The device according to claim 1, wherein both contact elements are composite members that are both drawn. 15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein at least one of the drawn composite members is an electric element and a mechanical element. 16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein both of the drawn composite members are mechanical elements. 17. The device according to claim 2, wherein the carbon fiber is metallized. 18. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pultruded composite part member has at least one mechanical function incorporated therein. 19. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein at least one mechanical function is incorporated into the pultruded composite member. 20. The device of claim 14 wherein the polymer matrix is removed from one end of one drawn composite member to expose individual fibers. 21. The device of claim 1, wherein both contact elements are held in contact by a flexible fastener. 22. The device of claim 1, wherein the electrical device is a switch, sensor or connector. 23. A machine comprising a plurality of electrical elements which require a current source to operate and which comprises at least one electrical device for passing current, said electrical device comprising: Having two contact elements, at least one of which is a pultruded composite member having a plurality of small diameter conductive fibers in a polymer matrix, wherein the plurality of conductive fibers are Oriented in the matrix in a direction substantially parallel to the axial direction of the composite member, the plurality of conductive fibers continuously extending from one end of the composite member to the other end of the composite member. A machine that provides a plurality of potential electrical contacts at each end, the polymer matrix being a structural thermoplastic or thermosetting resin. 24. The machine according to claim 23, wherein the conductive fibers are carbon fibers. 25. The machine according to claim 24, wherein the carbon fibers are carbonized polyacrylonitrile fibers. 26. The conductive fiber has a substantially circular cross section,
24. The machine of claim 23 having a diameter of about 4 microns to about 50 microns. 27. The device of claim 26, wherein the electrically conductive fibers have a diameter of about 7 microns to about 10 microns. 28. The machine of claim 23, wherein the electrically conductive fibers have a DC volume resistivity of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ Ωcm to about 1 × 10 ¹⁰ Ωcm. 29. The conductive fiber is from about 1 × 10 ⁻³ Ωcm to about 10
A DC volume resistivity of Ωcm.
Machine as described in 28. 30. At least one of the contact elements has at least 5% by weight of conductive fibers.
Machine as described in 23. 31. At least one contact element is at least
Claims, characterized by having 50% by weight of conductive fibers.
Machine as described in 30. 32. At least one contact element comprises about 90% by weight.
32. The machine according to claim 31, having the conductive fibers of 33. The machine according to claim 23, wherein the resin is polyester or epoxy. 34. The machine according to claim 23, wherein the polymer is a crosslinked silicone elastomer. 35. The drawn composite member is an electric element and a mechanical element.
Machine described in. 36. The machine according to claim 23, wherein both the contact elements are composite members that have been drawn. 37. The machine according to claim 36, wherein at least one of the drawn composite members is an electric element and a mechanical element. 38. The machine of claim 36, wherein both pultruded composite members are mechanical members. 39. The machine according to claim 24, wherein the carbon fibers are metallized. 40. The machine of claim 23, wherein the pultruded composite member has at least one mechanical function incorporated therein. 41. The machine of claim 36, wherein the polymer matrix is removed from one end of one pultruded composite member to expose individual fibers. 42. The machine of claim 23, wherein the contact elements are held in contact by a flexible fastener.