US3352979A

US3352979A - Switch contact assembly

Info

Publication number: US3352979A
Application number: US583369A
Authority: US
Inventors: Edward L Grayson; Bernard J Perry
Original assignee: RCL Electronics Inc
Current assignee: RCL Electronics Inc
Priority date: 1966-09-30
Filing date: 1966-09-30
Publication date: 1967-11-14
Anticipated expiration: 1984-11-14

Description

N0V-*14 19.67A E. L. GRAYsoN ETAL. 3,352,979

SWITCH CONTACT ASSEMBLY Filed Sept. 30, 1966 FIG. l.

VENTORS EDWA L.. GRAYSON, BY BERNARD J. PERRY WIB L 1 ATT RNEYS.

United States Patent 3,352,979 SWITCH CONTACT ASSEMBLY Edward L. Grayson, West Orange, NJ., and Bernard J. Perry, Manchester, N.H., assignors to RCL Electronics, Inc., Maplewood, NJ., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Sept. 30, 1966, Ser. No. 583,369 Claims. (Cl. ZOO- 11) This invention relates in general to electrical switch assemblies and more particularly, to an electrical switch contact assembly having one or more bifurcated contact members carried by a rotatable hub for making electrically connecting contact between one or more corresponding pairs of spaced electrically conductive surfaces, when said hub is rotated into corresponding predetermined angular positions relative to said surfaces.

Essentially, the switch contact assembly of the instant invention provides a rotatable hub member disposed for rotation about a predetermined axis relative to the conductive surfaces to be electrically connected, with the rotation axis of said hub member being disposed in spatial relation to the pairs of conductive surfaces so that the contact members carried by said hub can be brought into the necessary physical contact with such conductive surfaces for making electrical connection therebetween.

The bifurcated contact members are made of a resilient, electrically conductive material, such as metal, and are generally W-shaped. Preferably, these contact members are formed from thin sheet or strip stock oriented to provide a lon-g dimension along the plane of rotation of the hub, vand a thin dimension transverse thereto.

The hub member is preferably lconstructed in the form of a disc, and of an electrically insulating material where it is desired to electrically isolate said hub member from the various electrical circuits made by its contact members. The hub disc is provided with a number of dowel members equal to the number of contact members carried, said dowel members being operatively connected to the hub member, each dowel being disposed in operative engagement wtih a contact member for releasably fastening same to said hub to be carried thereby.

The contact members are disposed on the hub in a predetermined angular and radial relation to each other and with respect to corresponding pairs of conductive surfaces so that each of such conductive surface pairs can be brought into Contact with the extended outer legs of a selected contact member for electrical connection therebetween when the hub is rotated into corresponding angular positions relative to said conductive surfaces.

One advantageous feature of the instant invention lies in the fact that individual contact members can be easily removed from and replaced upon the hub to adapt the switch assembly for various switching contact arrangements, For this purpose, the dowels are extended transversely to the disc hub, land are secured thereto by any conventional means, such as a press t,-etc., so that -portions at the opposite end of each dowel protrude beyond the axially disposed sides of the hub. The contact members are each provided witha pair of oppositely disposed perforations which are disposed on opposite reentrant leg portions of the W-shaped Contact member for operative engagement with the dowel protrusions. This arrangement enables the contact members to be releasably fastened to the hub simply by spreading apart their reentrant leg portions and slidably inserting their perforations over said dowel protrusions to secure the contact members to the hub. In the installed condition, the dowel protrusions extend through the reentrant leg perforation-s and constrain the contact members against radial movement relative to the hub. By reason of the W-shape of the Acontact members, each contact member has a centrally disposed closed loop portion which, when'the contact member is`installed over the dowel protrusions, is held against the -peripheral edge of the hub. When thus installed, the contact members can be removed by reversing the aforementioned procedure. Under normal operating conditions, the contact members are constrained against movement relative to the hub along its axial direction by their reentrant leg portions which are connected by the closed loop portion and straddle the opposite sides of the hub disc.

Although it is not absolutely necessary, the switch contact assembly of the instant invention provides means for constraining the contact members from rotating relative to the hub about their respective dowel axes.

As can be appreciated by the artisan, numerous means Iare potentially possible for constraining such rotation, the invention provides such means in the form of radially disposed notches recessed into the periphery of the hub, and disposed for operative engagement with the closed loop portions of the `Contact members. In such case, the dowels are positioned radially in relation to the radial distance between the contact member perforations and the inside surface of said closed loop portions so that, when said Contact members are installed on the hub, their. closed loop portions engage into the notches and are held firmly against the inner boundary surfaces thereof.

With the switch contact assembly of the invention, one or more contact members can be carried by a hingle hub, the exact number depending upon the size of the contact members, which are preferably of uniform construction, in relation to the available circumferential space on the hub disc. In typical applications of the switch contact construction, according to the invention, as many as six contact members can be installed on a hub of modest diameter, such as would be suitable for electronic equipment packaged in accordance vwith conventional standards of compactness.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a rotatable switch Contact assembly for electrically connecting one -or more pairs of spaced apart electrically conductive surfaces.

Another object of the invention is to provide a switch contact assembly as aforesaid, having switching contact members that can be simply installed and removed to adapt the assembly for a variety of switching configurations.

A further object of the invention is to provide a switch contact assembly as aforesaid which is capable of multipole switching operation.

Still another and further object of the invention is to provide a switch contact assembly as aforesaid which features interchangeably replaceable contact members for greater useful operating life, and to accommodate various switching current capacity requirements.

Other and further objects and -advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. l is a schematic longitudinal View, partly in section, of a rotatable switch contact assembly, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, as installed in relation to a typical arrangement of the conductive surfaces to be electrically connected thereby.

FIG. 2 is an axial view of the -switch contact assembly of FIG. l, showing the installation of a typical contact member thereon.

- 1y

conductive surfaces

13a, 13a and 14a, 14a.

Thehub 11 is preferably constructed in the form of a disc, and from an electrically insulating material, such as plastic, etc., and is disposed for rotation about a longitudinal axis X-X relative to the

conductive surfaces

13a, 13a', 14a, being also disposed in spatial relation to the pairs of

conductive surfaces

13a, 13a' and 14a, 14a', so that the contact members 12 and 12' carried by said hub 11 can be brought into the necessary physical contact with the

surface pairs

13a, 13a and 14a, 14a', respectively, as illustrated in FIG. 1, by rotating said hub 11 into a corresponding angular position, and thereby effecting electrical connection of the

surfaces

13a and 13a via the con- -tact member 12, and likewise electrically connecting the sur-

faces

14a and 14a' via the contact member 12.

The

contact members

12 and 12 are bifurcated, and are generally Wshaped in form. These

contact members

12 and 12 are made of an electrically conductive, resilient material, such as a spring-type of metal, and are preferably formed from thin sheet or strip stock oriented to provide a long dimension along the plane of rotation of the hub 11 and a thin dimension transverse thereto.

The hub disc 11 is provided with a plurality of dowel members 15 equal in number to that of the contact members 12, 12', etc., to be carried on said hub 11. The dowels 15 are disposed in a spaced-apart angular and radial arrangement on the hub 11, corresponding to that of the contact members 12 and 12', and are operatively connected to said hub 11 by any suitable conventional means, such as for example, by press-fitting them into transverse holes 16 extending through said hub 11. The dowels 15 serve for releasably fastening the

contact members

12 and 12 to the hub 11, with each contact member 12 and 12v being disposed in operative engagement with a dowel 15.

Each dowel 15 is secured to the hub 11 as aforesaid, so that opposite end portions 17 of each dowel 15 protrude beyond the axially disposed sides 18 of the hub 11. The

contact members

12 and 12 are provided with pairs o-f oppositely disposed perforations 19, which are disposed on opposite reentrant leg portions 20y of the W-

shaped contact members

12 and 12 for operative engagement with the dowel protrusions 17. This arrangement permits the

contact members

12 and 12 to be releasably fastened to the hub 11 by-simply spreading apart their reentrant leg portions 20 and slidably inserting their perforations 19 over said dowel protrusions 17.

In this inst-alled condition, as represented by FIG. l, the dowel protrusions 17 extend through the perforations 19 and thereby constrain the contact members 12 and 12' against radial movement relative to the hub 11.

As can be noted from the W-shaped contact members 12 and 12', each has a centrally disposed closed loop portion 21, which in the installed configuration, is held against the peripheral edge of the hub 11, or preferably against the inner surface 22 of a notch 23 to constrain

ysaid contact members

12 and 12 from rotating relative 'to said hub 11 labout the longitudinal axes of the ldowels 15.

When thus installed, the individual contact members v12 and 12 can be removed and/ or replaced by following the aforesaid procedure, reversing its steps for removal of said

contact members

12 and 12.

As can be appreciated by the artisan, the

simple contact member

12 and 12 installation and removal procedures afforded by the invention, can be utilized to adapt the switch contact assembly 10 for various switching configurations.

' While only two installed

contact members

12 and 12 are illustrated for simplicity in FIG. 1, and the hub 11 as shown in FIG. 2 is provided with the capability for attaching four contact members (only one shown), it is understood that the number of contact members 12, 12',

ctc., mounted to the hub in any given application can be varied, as desired, and the number of such contact mem- 14a, said rotation axis X-X and the hub 11A bers 12., 12', etc., that can be carried by a is limited only by the space available thereon.

The

contact members

12 and 12 are disposed on the hub 11 in -a xed angular and radial relation to one another, and with respect to corresponding pairs of

conductive surfaces

13a, 13a and 14a, 14a respectively, so that whenthe hu'b 11 is rotated into corresponding angular positions, the extended outer legs 24 of said

cprltact members

12 and 12 are in physical, electrically conducting contact with both

surfaces

13a, 13a and 14a,114a' in each respective surface pair.

In any given application of the invention, the angular and/ or radial arrangement of the contact members 12, 12', etc., upon the hub 11 can be varied to correspond with the arrangement of the conductive surfaces to be electrically connected to one another.

As illustrated in FIG. l, the installed

contact members

12 and 12 are constrained againstraxial movement -relative to the hub 11 along its axial direction by their reentrant leg portions 20 which are preferably formed parallel to the sides 1S of said hub 11, said leg portions 20 being connected by the closed loop portion 21, so as to straddle both sides 18 of said hub 11.

While it is not absolutely necessary to provide the recessed notches 23 to constrain the

contact members

12 and 12 from rotating about their dowel 15 fastening, since the peripheral edge of the disc-lil e hub 11 inherently limits such rotation, the notches 23 can be advantageously provided to substantially eliminate any such rotation. The notches 23 are preferably radially disposed for operative engagement with the closed loop portions 21 of the contact members 12 Iand 12', and, accordingly, are recessed to a depth which, taking into account the radial positions of the d-owels 15 and the effective-radial distance between the perforations 19 and the inside surface of said closed loop portions 21, permits the contact members 12 and 12' to be installed on the hub 11 with their closed loop portions 21 held securely `against the inner boundary surfaces 24 of said notches 23.

For practical reasons, the contact members 12 and 12' are preferably constructed uniformly, and/or for interchangeable installation upon the hub 11. Likewise, and even more so, the dowels 15 and notches 23, and their arrangement on the hub 11 is preferably uniform.

As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the single dowel 15 provide-d for fastening

individual Contact members

12 and 12 can be replaced by a plurality of dowels or by a pair of stud pins (not shown)fastened to the hub 11 and protruding from each side 18 thereof, to accomplish the same result effected by the single dowels 15 pressed through said hub 11. Y

What is claimed is:

1. A rotatable switch contact assembly which comprises a pair of spaced, electrically conductive surfaces,

a rotatable hub member disposed for rotation relative to said conductive surfaces about an axis generally perpendicular to said conductive surfaces, a dowe'l member operatively connected to said hub member and carried thereby, a W-shaped, bifurcated, electrically conductive contact member for electrically connecting said conductive surfaces, said contact member being disposed in` operative engagement with said hub member and with said dowel member for fastening said contact member to said hub member to be carried thereby, said contact member being disposed on said hub member in relation t-o said spaced conductive surfaces to contract both of said conductive surfaces and thereby electrically connect same when said h-ub member is rotated into .a predetermined angular position.

2. The switch contact assembly according to claim l, wherein said -hub member is made of an electrically insulating material.

3. The switch contact assembly according to claim 1, wherein said contact member is formed from flat stock, resilient, conductive material oriented to provide a long dimension along the plane of rotation of said hub member and a thin dimension transverse thereto.

4. The switch contact assembly according to claim 3, wherein said hub member is in the form of a disc, and wherein said dowel member extends transversely through said disc hub member and protrudes beyond each side thereof, and including means defining an oppositely disposed pair of perforations in said contact member, each of said perforations being disposed on an opposite reentrant leg portion of said W-shaped contact member for operative engagement with said dowel member to releasably fasten said contact member to said hufb member, whereby said contact mem-ber can be releasably fastened to said hub member by spreading apart said reentrant leg portions and slidably inserting said perforations thereon over said dowel member protrusions to secure said contact member to said hub member with said dowel protr-usions extending through said reentrant leg perforations and with a closed loop portion of said c-ontact member being held against the peripheral boundary of said disc hub member.

5. The switch contact assembly 'according to claim 4, including means dening a radially disposed notch recessed into the periphery of said hub member, said notch being disposed for -operative engagement with the closed loop portion of said contact member to constrain said contact mem-ber from rotation relative to said hub member about said dowel member.

6. A rotatable switch contact assembly which comprises a plurality of pairs of spaced, electrically conductive surfaces, a rotatable hub member disposed for rot-ation relative to said conductive surfaces about an axis generally perpendicular to said conductive surfaces, a plurality of dowel members operatively connected to said hub member and carried thereby, a corresponding plurality of W-shaped, bifurcated, electrically conductive contact members for electrically connecting said pairs of conductive surfaces, said contact members being disposed in operative engagement with said hub member and with corresponding dowel members for fastening said contact members to said hub member to be carried thereby, said contact members being disposed on said -hub member in predetermined relation to corresponding pairs of said conductive surfaces to contact both conductive surfaces in each corresponding pair thereof, and thereby electrically connect same when said hub member is rotated into corresponding angular positions.

7. The switch contact assembly according to claim 6,

thereof, said dowel members wherein said hub member is sulating material.

8. The switch contact assembly according to claim 6, wherein each of said cont-act members are substantially similar, and are formed from flat stock, resilient, conductive material oriented to provide a long dimension along the plane of rotation of said bub member and a thin dimension transverse thereto.

9. The switch contact assembly according t-o claim 8, wherein said hub member is in the for-m of a disc, and wherein said dowel members extend transversely through said disc hub member and protrude beyond each side being disposed at predetermined spaced-apart angular positions on said hub member, and including means defining an oppositely disposed pair of perforations in each of said contact members, each of said perforations being disposed on opposite reentrant leg portions of said W-shaped contact members for operative engagement with corresponding dowel members to releasably fasten said contact members to Said hub member at positions thereon corresponding to the positions of their respective dowel members, whereby said contact members can be releasably fastened to said hub member by spreading apart their reentrant leg portions and slidably inserting said perforations thereof ove-r corresponding dowel member protrusions to secure said contact members to said hub member with said dowel protrusions extending through said reentrant leg perforations and with a closed loop portion of each contact member being held against the peripheral boundary edge of said disc hub member.

10. The switch contact assembly according to claim 9, including means defining a plurality of radially disposed notches recessed into the periphery of said hub member, said notches being disposed for operative engagement with the closed loop portions of corresponding contact members to constrain said contact members from rotation relative to said hub member about their respective dowel members.

made of an electrically in- References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,213,212 10/1965 Sefton 3,258,547 6/1966 Rector

Claims

1. A ROTATABLE SWITCH CONTACT ASSEMBLY WHICH COMPRISES A PAIR OF SPACED, ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE SURFACES, A ROTATABLE HUB MEMBER DISPOSED FOR ROTATION RELATIVE TO SAID CONDUCTIVE SURFACES ABOUT AN AXIS GENERALLY PERPENDICULAR TO SAID CONDUCTIVE SURFACES, A DOWEL MEMBER OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID HUB MEMBER AND CARRIED THEREBY, A W-SHAPED, BIFURACTED, ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE CONTACT MEMBER FOR ELECTRICALLY CONNECTING SAID CONDUCTIVE SURFACES, SAID CONTACT MEMBER BEING DISPOSED IN OPERATIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID HUB MEMBER AND WITH SAID DOWEL MEMBER FOR FASTENING SAID CONTACT MEMBER TO SAID HUB MEMBER TO BE CARRIED THEREBY, SAID CONTACT MEMBER BEING DISPOSED ON SAID HUB MEMBER IN RELATION TO SAID SPACED CONDUCTIVE SURFACES TO CONTACT BOTH OF SAID CONDUCTIVE SURFACES AND THEREBY ELECTRICALLY CONNECT SAME WHEN SAID HUB MEMBER IS ROTATED INTO A PREDETERMINED ANGULAR POSITION.