US1751400A - Controller - Google Patents

Description

Marc-h 1s,r 1930. J, EATON 1,751,400

CONTROLLER Filed May 4, 1927 J6 inventor I John Eaton His Attorneg.

Patented Mar. 18, 1930 PATE.

OFFECE JOHN EATON, or SCHENEOTADY, NEW Yoan, seien-on To GENERAL ELECTRIC OOM# PANY, A ooRPonATrON or New YORK CONTROLLER Application filed May 4,

My invention relates to improvements in controllers and in part-icular to controllers intended for the control of a plurality of electric circuits in a definite succession.

he invention is directed to features of construction and arrangement whereby the controller will have a comparatively few relatively light weight moving parts, whereby a very accurate adjustment between the suc- 1-0 cessive operation of the separate switches controlling the electric circuits may be very easily had, whereby the manufacture and assembly of the various parts of the controller is relatively inexpensive, and whereby a comparatively large number of duplicate parts may be utilized in the manufacture of the controller.

These and other features, as will either be apparent to those skilled in the art, or as will be pointed out in detail hereinafter, are attained in the controller shown in the accompanying drawing.

Referring to the drawing, Fig. 1 shows a skeleton view of certain of the cooperating parts of the controller in their relative positions in order that a quick understanding of the general features of the arrangement may be readily had. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the controller assembled in its casing with'resistor tubes mounted therein in convenient position for connection with the switch terminals of the controller. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the controller on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the assembled controller and its enclosing case. Fig. 5 shows a detail of one'of the adjustable operating rollers which operate the various contacts of the controller. Fig. 6 shows another detail of the method of mount- 4.0v ing the shaft of the controller in an end bearing carried by the casing of the controller, and the arrangement whereby the controller shaft is biased to the position indicated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

Referring to Fig. 1, the controller com` prises a plurality of rows of cooperating relatively movable switch elements disposed along the axis of thecontroller shaft 10, One of these rows of cooperating elements comprises a .row of relatively movable coop` 1927. serial No. 188,808.

erating switch contacts, together with operating means therefor and the other row includes a rod carrying rollers spaced apart to operate the respective operating elements of the switch contacts. 1n order to obtain an easy imderstanding of the invention, only two sets of switch contacts are shown on the opposite sides of the shaft 10. Thus, on the right of the shaft 10 there is mounted a row of stationary switch contacts 11 and 12, with which the bridging contacts 13 and 14, respectively, cooperate. The bridging contact 18 is carried by a member 15 of insulating material which is mounted on the rod 16 for rotation about this rod. The member 15 is biased by the spring 17 to such a position that the switch contacts 11 are bridged by the bridging contacts 18. The bridging contact 18 is moved out of engagement with the stationary contacts 11 by means of the roller 18. This roller is carried by the supporting rod 19 which has the leftehand end thereof supported in the bloclr 2O and the right-hand end .thereof mounted in the block 21. The re` mainder of the row of switch contacts and the operating mechanism therefor includes substantially identical mechanism to that described in connection with the mechanism operated by the roller 18. Thus, the roller 22 operates an insulating member 23 corre* spending to the member 15 previously described, and on the opposite side of the con,- trol-ler the rollers 24 and 25, respectively, Opf erate similar switch contact mechanism.

It will be seen from the above that the switch contact mechanism and the operating mechanism therefor for controlling a plurality of electric circuits may be similarly constructed parts which are duplicated as desired to build up the complete controller so that these parts may be made by large scale production ymethods, an advantage which will be readily understood by those skilled in the art. Furthermore, the arrangement is very readily susceptible of expansion or contraction of the number of switch contacts to be successively operated, at the same time ob taining all the advantages of the manufacture of duplicate parts for the various switches.

ln order to obtain a sequential operation of the row of switch contacts mounted on the rod l16 and the corresponding row of switch contacts mounted on the rod 26 on the opposite side of the controller, I have provided an arrangement which also lends itself very readily to large scale production methods. It will be seen that the : rods 16 and 26 carrying the rows of switch contact elements are spaced apart from the controller shaft 10 and are mounted in parallel relation therewith. The rod 19 and the corresponding rod 27 on the other side of the controller shaft are also spaced apart from the controller shaft 10 and are inclined at an angle thereto, as is indicated in this skeleton view. Thus, by mounting the right-hand end of rod 19, near the upper edge of the bloclr 21 at the right-hand end of the controller shaft and the left-hand end of this rod near the lower edge of the corresponding block 20 at the lefthand end of the controller shaft 10, the rollers on the shaft 19 will be successively brought into engagement with the members of insulating material which carry the bridging contacts corresponding to the contacts 13 and 14, so that the circuits controlled by the respective switch contacts will be successively opened. It will be observed that although in one plane the rod 19 is mounted parallel with a plane containing the shaft 10 for any position of the controller, there is no plane which contains both the shaft 10 and the rod 19. That is because of the fact that the rod is inclined at an angle to the shaft 10. From this it can be seen that the rod 19 and the rollers carried thereby rotate as a unit about the axis of the shaft 10, an axis different than the axis of rotation of the rollers carried by the rod 19, so that as the shaft is rotated clockwise, the bridging contact 18 is iirst caused to break engagement with its corresponding stationary contacts 11, next the bridging contact 1a is caused to break engagement with its corresponding stationary contacts 12, and so on along the row of contacts. v.Tvhen the shaft 10 is rotated counter-clockwise from its position indicated in Fig. 1, the row of switch contacts mounted along the rod 16 are likewise successively operated, beginning with the left-hand end of the controller. The rod 19 is preferably mounted so that the radial distances of the ends of this rod from the aXis of the shaft 10 are equal. The shaft 10 is operated by an arm 28 which carries a roller 29.

The controller shown in the drawing is particularly intended for use as a limit switch for controlling the slowing down and stopping of an elevator motor when the elevator has reached predetermined limits of travel. For such application the entire assembly will be mounted on the elevator car and the roller 29 will be positioned so as to be engaged by a stationary cam in the hatchway. However,

I would have it understood that. the invention is not necessarily limited to its application as a controller for governing the slowing down and stopping of an elevator at these limits, since the invention has a much wider application, as will be readily understood by those skilled in the art from an understanding of the invention.

rllhe blocks 2O and 21 are secured in respective ends of the shaft 10 in any suitable manner. Thus, l have indicated the block 20 as secured to the shaft 10 by means of the cotter pin 30. rlhe reds 19 and 27 are preferably threaded, as is indicated in Fig. 2, so that the rollers carried thereby may be readily adjusted along these rods so as to obtain a very accurate timing action in the opening and closing of the controller switch contacts. The particular arrangement for obtaining this adjustment is shown in detail in Fig. 5. The roller 22 is carried by the part 31 which has an internal thread corresponding to the thread on the rod 19. The locking nut 32 is provided for securing the member 31 in its adjusted position along the rod 19. The end of the part 31 is squared as is also the nut 32 so that this adjustment may be had by turning part 31 with a wrench while holding nut` 32, and then tightening the nut when the part 31 has been adjusted to its proper position. It will be observed from this figure that the roller 22 has an exterior surface which is at an angle with respect to the axis of the rod 19. The purpose of this is to obtain a relatively large area of contact between the roller and the cooperating spring pressed part of the rows of contacts mounted along the shaft 16.

One of the features of the invention is that the greater the extent of rotation of the shaft 10 from its neutral position indicated in Fig. 1, the greater the force will be tending to return theshaft to its neutral position. Thus, the effect of the springs which bias the sets of switch contacts to their respective closed positions tend to return the controller to the neutral position, and the more of these contacts which are operated to their open positions, the more of these springs there will be brought into action to bias the controller to its neutral position.

By referring to F ig, 2, it will be seen that the controller parts are mounted within a casing 83, within which the rods 26 and 16 are supported. T he ends of the shaft 10 are suit ably journaled in the ends of the'casing 33, as indicated. In Fig. 6 I have shown a detaill of the manner in which the right-hand end of the shaft 10 is journaled so as to spring bias this shaft to its off or neutral position. Thus it will be seen that the end of the shaft fits in a journal which forms a part of the member 35 which is adapted to be bolted to the right-hand end of the controller casing 33 in alignment with an aperture therein. The

.bloclr 2l is provided with a pin 36 which is inserted between the projecting ends of a biasing spring 37 positioned about the journal 34. lVith this arrangement, when the shaft l0 is rotated in either direction, the spring 37 will be put under strain tending to return the controller to its neutral position.

The row of resistor tubes 38 is supported by and insulated from the rods 39 and 40, the ends of which are secured in the ends of the casing rhese resistor tubes are thus mounted in convenient location for connection with suitable switch contacts of the controller so that the leads between the controller contacts and the resistor terminals are very short. The tubes mayrbe'tilted baclt as a unit so as to obtain access to the switch contacts, by opening the fastening of the resistor tube unit with one of the rods 39 or l0 and swinging the unit about the other rod.

Another feature of the controller is that by reason of the vertical position of the switch contacts, a natural blowout effect is had to extinguish the arcs formed at the switch contacts.

lt will be seen from the above that my improved controller lends itself very readily to large scale manufacture because of the fact that the switch contact elements and the operating means therefor' are duplicate parts which can be manufactured by the ordinary large scale aroduction methods. A further feature is that the rods 19 and 27 with the rollers carried thereby are relatively light so that a small amount of energy is necessary to operate the controller. A further feature of advantage is that there is no wedging action which would tend to keep the controller in any definite operated position.

llfhat l claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. n controller comprising an operating member having a longitudinal axis and mounted for rotation about an axis other than said first axis and disposed at an angle to the said other axis, and a row of spaced apart devices disposed parallel with said other axis and operated in a predetermined succession by said member.

2. ln an electric controller, a shaft, a plurality of separately operable switches, two rows of relatively movable cooperating switch elements, of which one row is carried by said shaft and serves as the operating mechanism for the other row, each of said rows being spaced apart from the axis of said shaft with one row parallel to said axis and the other row inclined at an angle to said axis, whereby as the said shaft is 'rotated the said switches are operated in a predetermined succession.

3. An electric controller comprising an operating member having a longitudinal axis and mounted for rotation about an axis other than the first said axis and disposed at an angle to said other axis, and a row .of spaced apart relatively movable contacts mounted along said other axis and spaced apart therefrom to be operated in a definite succession by said member as the member is rotated about said other axis.

Ll. in electric controller comprising an operating member having a. longitudinal axis and mounted for rotation about an axis other than said first axis and disposed at an angle to said other axis, a plurality of operating devices carried by said member and relatively movable with respect thereto, and a row of spaced apart relatively movable contacts mounted along said other axis and spaced apart therefrom to be operated by said devices in a delinite succession as said member is rotated.

rin electric controller comprising an operating member having a longitudinal axis and mounted for rotation about an axis other than said first axis of the member, said axes being at an angle to each other so that at any position of the member there are two planes each containing one of said axes which are parallel to each other and there is no plane which contains both axes, a row of spaced apart pairs of cooperating relatively movable contacts disposed along the said axis ot rotation to be operated in a definite succession by said member.

(l. ,an electric controller comprising a i'od mounted for rotation about an axis other than the axis of the rod, said axes being at a angle to each other so that at any position of the rod there are two planes each containing one of said axes which are parallel to each other and there is no plane which contains both axes, a plurality of spaced apart rollers carried by said rod and adjustable along the rod, and a row of spaced apart relatively movable contacts disposed along the said axis of rotation ofthe rod to be operated in a definite succession by said rollers.

7. fin electric controller comprising a rod mounted for rotation about an axis other than the axis of the rod, said axes being at an angle to each other so that at any position of the rod there are two planes each containing one of said axes which are parallel to each other and there is no plane which contains bot-h axes, a plurality of spaced apart rollers carried by said rod and adjustable with reference thereto, a support mounted parallel to said axis of rotation, and a plurality of spaced apart switches mounted on said support to be successively operated by said rollers.

8. An electric controller having a plurality of pairs of relatively movable contacts, means tor supporting said pairs ot' contacts in a row in spaced apartrelation for relative movement ofthe contacts of the respective pairs in parallel planes, and operating means for the respective pairs of contacts comprising arod disposed at an angle to said row of contacts and'movable about an aXis other than the axis of the rod to bring the rod into operating relation With the contacts of the respective 5 pairs in a definite sequence.

9. An electric controller having an operating shaft, a plurality of spaced apart pairs of spring pressed contacts disposed parallel to said shaft and spaced apart therefrom, and

operating means for successively separating the contacts of said pairs, the said means including a rod disposed at an angle to said shaft and extending along the shaft.

10. An elect-ric controller comprising a shaft, a plurality of substantially straight rods connected With said shaft to be rotated about the shaft aXis, the ends of said rods being each spaced apartfrom the shaft a substantially equal radial distance and the 2o rods being each inclined at an angle to the shaft, each of said rods having a plurality of spaced apart rollers carried thereby and adjustable with reference thereto, a plurality. of supports mounted parallel to said shaft,

and a roW of relatively movable spaced apart switch contacts carried by each of said supports to be operated in a definite succession by associated rollers carried by said rods.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 3d day of May, 1927.

JOHN EATON.

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