US3665166A - Electrical counter - Google Patents

Abstract

An electrical counter in which two movable contacts are provided in one rotatable wheel, six types of fixed contacts are provided on the respective orbits of circular movement of said movable contacts, and both magnet means and push-button means are provided for selectivity operating said rotatable wheel in accordance with a manual or electrical procedure.

Description

United States Patent Miyagawa et al. May 23, 1972 541 ELECTRICAL COUNTER [56] References Cited [72] Inventors: Takashi Miyagawa, Osaka-fu; Shunsuke UNITEDSTATES PATENTS Matsllo; Mlsflllol'i Maislllmlo, both of 2,344,254 3/1944 Leathers et al. .'.235/92 EA y all f pa 2,700,076 l/ 1955 Goode ..235/92 EA v 2,945,624 7/1960 Nicolaus ..235/92 C I731 Assignee. gmzgn Tatelsi Electronics Co., Kyoto-fu, 2,973,145 2,1961 Daniels et a1; 235]92 EA p 2,094,122 9/1937 l-laselton ..235/92 C [22] Filed: June 26, 1970 3,120,602 2/ 1964 Lagarde ..235/92 C [21] Appl 50l74 Primary Examiner-'I'ltomas A. Robinson Assistant Examiner-Joseph M. Thesz, Jr. I AttomeyCraig, Antonelli & Hill [30] Foreign Application Priority Data [57] ABSTRACT June 27, 1969 Japan ..44/5 1456 An electrical counter in which two movable contacts are provided in one rotatable wheel, six types of fixed contacts are [52] U.S. Cl ..235/92 EA, 235/92 C, 340/378 provided on the respective orbits of circular movement of said [51] Int. Cl. ..G06m 1/27 movable contacts, and both magnet means and push-button [58] Field of Search ..235/92 C, 92 EA, 1.3; 340/378, means are provi ed for elec ivi y perating said rotatable 340/9 wheel in accordance with'a manual or electrical procedure.

l0 Claim, 1 1 Drawing Figures Patented May 23, 1972 3,665,166

5 Sheets-Sheet E5 INVENTORS Tmnsm HWAGAWA, smmsuus MATSUO BY AND MASANORI MATSUMOTO Cvoic Rrfl'one h, Stcuork H1 ATTORNEYS Patented May 23, 1972 3,665,166

3 Shucts-Shoet 4 pi q- B 0 Q 95A! 6 INVENTORS TAKASHI MPIAGAWA, SHUNSUKE mm'suo BY AND MAsANom m'rsumoro Cvq'q qntnnvllll Smart ATTORNEYS Patented May 23, 1972 3,665,166

5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS TAKASHI MIYAG'AWA, SIIUNSUKE Mm'suo BY AND MAsnNom Mnrsur mro Graig qflrnm ui, Stuart ATTORNEYS ELECTRICAL COUNTER an electrical counter in which the movable contacts rotatably mounted in the figure wheel slidably contact with the fixed contacts provided along, the orbits circular movement of the movable contacts on the printed circuit card, said fixed contacts, including counting contacts in consistency with the numerical figure from to 9, resetting contact for clearing off the numerical character to 0 and a column transferring contact.

Prior art counters, each which counts the number of electric pulses impressed by the electric device are respectively provided with six types of contacts, that is, three pairs of read out contact and common contact such as a pair of counting contacts for counting purposes, a pair of transferring contacts for a column transfer pulse to be transferred to asecond counter upon completion of the counting operation by the first counter thereby to cause the second counter to operate, and a pair of resetting contacts for resetting the figures to 0" during the counting operation.

These prior art counters are each provided with two or three rotatable wheels therein together with movable contacts adapted to connect between said pair of read out contact and common contact, resulting in counters having complicated circuits and are, large in size and high in cost. Further, if a counter is provided with one rotatable wheel together with three movable contacts each adapted to connect the read out contact and common contact of either of three pairs concentrically disposed with respect to said movable contacts, said rotatable wheel may become so large in diameter and require so high a power for it to be driven that no commercial success has been achieved in the small electrical device.

One important object of this invention is to provide a simplified electrical counter having improved structural features and operational characteristics. v

Another important object of the invention is to provide an electrical counter'which is adapted to be conveniently made in various sizes, including miniature and sub-miniature sizes, and which is capable of rendering efficient and dependable service over extended periods of time.

A further object of the invention is to provide an electrical counter of the character indicated that is simple, compact and light-weight in design; that is durable in construction; that is reasonable in manufacturing cost; and that is capable of perbeing disposed independently while a common contact en-.

gageable with said transferring read out contact and said resetting read out contact is disposed on the same orbit of circular movement of the associated movable contact, whereby the construction thereof can be simple, small and compact with reduction of the diameter of the rotatable wheel necessary for the counter of the present invention.

Therefore, a counter provided by this invention is characterized in the provision of a housing, a circuit card disposed in the housing, fixed contacts for counting digits of 0 to 9, a fixed contact for resetting the digit to O, a pair of common contacts for connecting with said corresponding fixed contacts, said both fixed contacts and common contacts being disposed in concentric on said card, a fixed contact for transferring one column disposed in the same circle as that of said resetting contact on said card, a wheel disposed rotatably over said card in the housing, a first movable contact for contacting slidingly between said counting contacts and one of said common contacts, and a second movable contact for contacting slidingly among said resetting contact, transferring contact and the other of said common contacts, said both movable contacts being disposed on wheel.

The counter of this invention is also provided with push-button means efi'ective to operate the rotatably wheel, so that the counter may be manually operated whenever desired. Furthermore, the present invention is to provide a mounting arrangement of simplified construction with which a counter or counters formed into a unitary structure can be readily mounted in the mounting opening of a panel board to which it is detachably mounted. Moreover, the unitary structure that has been formed with the counters may be easily disassembled for the purposed of re-combination of the counters with other inasmuch as the dimensions involved permit. a

This inventionis of generic scope and illustrated herein by means of a specific embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings in which: 7

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a unitary structure set up with a plurality of electrically operated counters and a pair of mounting members at both sides of said counters, and a panel having an opening for mounting said unitary structure therein,

FIG. 2 is a disassembled view, in perspective, of the unitary structure of FIG. 1,

I FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the unitary structure mounted in the panel opening showing the mounting member being resiliently held in said opening,

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the counter showing its interior mechanism,

FIG. 5 is an exploded view, in perspective, of parts of the counter of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of a printed circuit card employed in the counter of FIG. 5,

FIG. 7 is a enlarged plan view of a rotatable wheel of the counter of FIG. 4, FIG. 8 is a sectional view FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a schematic layout of the electric circuit of-the counter including the printed circuit card and control wirings disposed on each side thereof,

FIG. 10 is a enlarged view of a portion of a printed circuit card similar to that of FIG. 6, but showing a further modified embodiment, and

FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of a part of a rotatable wheel similar to that of FIG. 7 but showing a further modified embodiment.

r The objects of the present invention are accomplished by the preferred form of construction shown in the accompanying drawings. In this connection, the counter 10 according to the present invention as shown in FIG. 4 through FIG. 8 is composed of three main components, namely, the housing 11 with a removable cover (not shown in Figures), the printed taken along the line VIII-VIII in circuit card 20 having poles and contacts, and the rotatable wheel 30 with its control elements including magnet means 40 and push-button means 50. The printed circuit card 20 and rotatable wheel 30 are disposed between a pair of frames accommodated within the housing 11.

The housing 11, which may be made by molding plastic material in the form of a substantially rectangular container with front and both sides walls 11a, 11b, is provided with a front window 12 through which a proper numerical figure 31 engraved on the outer periphery of the rotatable wheel 30 can be viewed by the human eyes and with a plurality of holes 13 for inserting setting bolts 70. The interier of the housing 11 is also provided with metal wells (not shown) adapted to receive bolts to hold the frames in place and with metal wells 14 adapted to receive respective bolts for securing the remmovable cover plate over the housing 1 I in place. As shown in FIG. 5, the pair of frames are detachably secured through sleeves 61 provided on botton frame 60a in one body having an interval therebetween in which the printed circuit card 20, rotatable wheel 30 and control elements 40, 50 are placed. Many mounting projections including screws, sleeves and shafts are provided on the upper surface of the botton frame 60a for mounting the printed circuit card 20, rotatable wheel 30, control elements 40, 50 and top frame (not shown).

The printed circuit card on which the circuit is printed is made of rigid plastic material and is provided with apertures 21 through which the projections of the bottom frame 60a are extended, and with copper plated holes 22, if necessary, for circuit connection to other printed circuits as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 10. The rotatable wheel 30 which is made of plastic is rotatably mounted around one of the projections 62, the periphery of said wheel 30 being in register with the window 12 of the housing 11. This rotatable wheel 30 is rotatable in one direction as a detent piece 39 pivotally secured around a shaft 67 and always engaged to gear teeth 32 of the rotatable wheel 30 restrict the rotation of the latter in the opposite direction.

Disposed over the printed circuit card 20 is a horizontally lying magnet means 40 including an electromagnetic coil 41 and a moving iron plate 42 adapted to be attracted by the electromagnetic coil 41 upon application of an electric current to the latter. This electromagnetic coil 41 is secured by projections 63 on the bottom frame 60a, to which said projections respective nuts 43 are rigidly fastened. Disposed between said electromagnetic coil 41 and moving iron plate 42 is a nonmagnetized shielding plate 44 for shielding residual magnetism of the magnetic field. 'The moving iron plate 42 is rotatably supported as particularly shown in FIG. 4 by the fulcrum 45 provided at the upper right-hand corner of the magnet means 40, and normally biased in the clockwise direction away from the electromagnetic coil 41 by the action of a spring 46 provided between said plate 42 and one of projections 62. Between the rotatable wheel and the moving iron plate 42, a substantially Y-shaped lever escapement 47 is rotatably disposed around a pivot 64 extended from the bottom frame. This lever escapement 47 is formed with a rear end 47a which is loosely engaged to the adjacent end 42a of the moving iron plate 42 in the non-detachable condition with respect to the latter and is also formed with a pair of bifurcated front ends 4711 and 47c adapted to engage alternatively with any one of gear teeth 32 integrally formed with the rotatable wheel 30. When the moving iron plate 42 is attracted by the excited electromagnetic coil 41, the lever escapement 47 is rotated a predetermined angular distance in the clockwise direction whereby one of the front ends thereof 47b is brought into engagement with a proper one of the gear teeth 32 of the rotatable wheel 30 to advance the latter half a pitch of the gear teeth. At this time, the other end 470 of the escapement 47 is disengaged from a proper one of the gear teeth 32 because the force of a spring 48 provided between the escapement 47 and a projection 65 of the bottom frame 60a is overcome by the magnetic force of the excited electromagnetic coil 41.

' However, when the electromagnetic coil 41 is demagnetized, the spring 46 causes the iron plate 42 to move upwardly so that the escapement 47 is rotated the same angular distance in the counterclockwise direction in cooperation with the spring 48, whereby the front end 470 of said escapement 47 is brought into engagement with the proper gear tooth 32 of the rotatable wheel 30 to advance the latter the rest half of a pitch, while the end 4712 of the escapement 47 is disengaged from the proper gear tooth 32.

As hereinbefore described, it will be thus understood that the rotatable wheel 30 integrally formed with the gear teeth 32 face of the rotatable wheel 30 so that any one of the figures 31 may be positioned in register with the viewing window 12 of the housing 11 upon stepwise rotation of the rotatable wheel 30. In FIG. 1, the characters 1 and 5 are shown as appeared in the viewing windows 12 respectively of a combined pair of the counters 10a and 10b.

While the counter mechanism has been constructed as hereinbefore fully described, the housing 11 therefor is formed at its front wall beneath the viewing window 12 with an opening 15 through which a push-button 50 normally biased to the left by a spring 51 is extended. Within the housing 11, this push-button 50 is pivotally connected at its righthand extermity with the adjacent end of a lever 52 by means of a pin 53, said lever 52 being pivotally secured to a shaft 66 provided on the bottom frame 60a. This lever 52 is also designed as to have the other free end 52a adapted to abut against a stop pin 49 integrally formed with one of front end 47b of the lever escapement 47. This free end 52a of the lever 52 is normally disengaged from said stop pin 49 so that it does not interfere the pivotal movement of the lever escapement 47 that would be effected to rotate the rotatable wheel 30 when the electromagnetic coil 41 is energized.

While the electromagnetic coil 41 is not energized and at this time the push-button 50 is depressed against the resilient force of the spring 51, the lever 52 will be pivoted around the shaft 66 in the counterclockwise direction, causing the free end 52a of the lever 52 to abut against the stop pin 49 thereby to rotate the lever escapement 47 in the clockwise direction. Upon rotation of the lever escapement 47 around the pivot 64 in the clockwise direction, the rotatable wheel 30 will be rotated a first half of a pitch between one tooth to the other. Subsequently, the push-button 50 is released from its depression, the lever 52 will be rotated around the shaft 66 in the counterclockwise direction so that the free end 524 of the lever 52 is disengaged from the stop pin 49, causing the lever escapement 47 to be rotated in the counterclockwise direction by the action of the spring 48 thereby to rotate the rotatable wheel 30 the remaining half of the pitch. Thus, a one pitch transfer of the figure wheel is completed.

By repeating the abovementioned procedure, transfer of the figure from 0" to 1, 1" to 2, 2 to 3," 3" to 4," and so on, can be manually performed in the counter 10 according to the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 in which the construction of the rotatable wheel 30 is shown, the rotatable wheel 30 having integral the gear teeth 32 is formed with two pairs of through holes 33A, 33B and 33C, 33D eccentric to each other. These through holes 33A, 33B, 33C and 33 D respectively accommodate therein springs 34 and balls, that is, two pairs of movable contacts 35A, 35D and 35B,35C, each of the balls 35 having the diameter slightly smaller than that of each of the through holes 33. The rotatable wheel 30 is also formed at its upper surface with a recess 36 in which a pair of electric conductive detent pieces 37 and 38 is disposed.

As clearly illustrated in FIG. 8, the upper end of each of the through holes 33 is closed by the electric conductive detent piece 37 or 38 and one of the balls 35 is positioned about the other end or lower end of the through hole 33 with a spring 34 being interposed between said detent piece 37 or 38 and the ball 35. However, it should be noted that the balls 35 are held in position sandwiched between the springs 34 and the printed circuit card 20 so as to slidably contact contacts A, B, C and D provided on said card, respectively, as will be hereinafter described. The balls 35A and 35D are electrically associated to each other through the corresponding springs 34 by means of the detent piece 37 to serve as one movable contact A, D while the balls 35B and 35C are electrically associated to each other through the corresponding springs 34 by means of the detent piece 38 to serve as the other movable contact B, C.

The printed circuit card 20 is provided on its surface beneath the rotatable wheel 30 with four orbits of circular movement of the balls 35A, 35B, 35C and 35D, respectively, said orbits being equally spaced in the radial direction. Refer-

Claims (10)

1. An electrical counter for counting and displaying a counting sequence having at least one counting means, each comprising a housing, a circuit card disposed in said housing, a plurality of first fixed contacts disposed on said card and adapted to be electrically connected in the counting sequence of the counter wherein each of said first fixed contacts correspond to a predetermined digit in one order position of the counting sequence, a second fixed contact disposed on said card and adapted to be electrically connected for resetting the counting means, a pair of common contacts disposed on said card, each of said pair of common contacts and said plurality of first fixed contacts and said second fixed contact being arranged along spaced concentric circles, a third fixed contact disposed on said card along the concentric circle of said second fixed contact and adapted to be electrically connected each time the counting sequence exceeds the count of the one order position of said plurality of first fixed contacts, a wheel disposed rotatably over said card in the housing, a first movable contact for slidingly connecting said plurality of first fixed contacts and one of said common contacts, and a second movable contact for slidingly connecting said second and third fixed contacts and the other of said common contacts, said first and second movable contacts being disposed on said wheel.

2. An electrical counter as defined in claim 1 further including a plurality of wires connected to said fixed contacts, said wires being disposed on opposite sides of said card such that the wires do not cross.

3. An electrical counter as defined in claim 1 wherein said wheel is provided with a plate mounted thereon and connecting portions for said first and second movable contacts are separately printed on the surface of said plate.

4. An electrical counter as defined in claim 1 further comprising magnet means disposed in the housing adapted to be energized in accordance with the electrical connection of said fixed contacts and lever means associated with said magnet means for rotating said wheel in a stepped manner.

5. An electrical counter as defined in claim 4 further including a plurality of counting means operatively connected in tandem such that each counting means is arranged to count a different order position of a counting sequence, said third fixed contact being electrically connected for energizing said magnet means of the adjacent counting means each time the counting sequence exceeds the count of the order position of the first fixed contacts in said corresponding counting means.

6. An electrical counter as defined in claim 4 further comprising means for manually rotating said wheel in a stepped manner.

7. An electrical counter as defined in claim 6 and further comprising a window formed in said housing, digital display means provided on said wheel and having digits corresponding to the digits of said plurality of first fixed contacts, said display means being arranged for viewing through said window.

8. An electrical counter as defined in claim 7 and further comprising a pair of mounting means for mounting said housing within an opening of a panel, said mounting means being secured to opposite sides of the housing.

9. An electrical counter as defined in claim 8 including a plurality of counting means operatively connected and having the housings thereof arranged in tandem, said pair of mounting means being secured to opposite sides of the counter.

10. An electrical counter as defined in claim 8 wherein said mounting means includes members secured to opposite sides of the counter and resilient members carried by said securing members for detachably mounting the counter within the opening of the panel.

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