US3820052A - Potentiometer - Google Patents

Potentiometer Download PDF

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Publication number
US3820052A
US3820052A US00324383A US32438373A US3820052A US 3820052 A US3820052 A US 3820052A US 00324383 A US00324383 A US 00324383A US 32438373 A US32438373 A US 32438373A US 3820052 A US3820052 A US 3820052A
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United States
Prior art keywords
slider
shaft
resistor
potentiometer
resistor element
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
US00324383A
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English (en)
Inventor
J Gruendinger
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Vernitron Corp
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Individual
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Publication date
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Publication of US3820052A publication Critical patent/US3820052A/en
Assigned to VERNITRON CORPORATION, A CORP. OF DELAWARE reassignment VERNITRON CORPORATION, A CORP. OF DELAWARE ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST. Assignors: LITTON SYSTEMS, INC., A CORP. OF DELAWARE
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01C—RESISTORS
    • H01C10/00—Adjustable resistors
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01C—RESISTORS
    • H01C10/00—Adjustable resistors
    • H01C10/24—Adjustable resistors the contact moving along turns of a helical resistive element, or vica versa

Definitions

  • Arbuckle 5 7 ABSTRACT A potentiometer having a resistor which can be adjusted to a desired value by establishing a short circuit between portions of the resistor.
  • the resistor has terminals on both ends.
  • a slider contact which is electrically connected to a slider terminal contacts the resistor and short circuits a portion of the resistor.
  • the slider contact is movable with respect to the resistor.
  • the slider contact comprises two, spaced-apart, electrically-connected, slider springs carried on a rotatable shaft positioned within a spiral resistor.
  • the present invention relates to the field of potentiometers and more particularly to a potentiometer having a resistor with terminals on each end, the resistance between the terminals being adjustable by means of a slider contact with short circuits a portion of the resistor.
  • Potentiometers are usually produced in large numbers and are therefore available on the market with only a limited number of fixed resistor values. However, in many applications potentiometers are needed having resistance values deviating from the values available in the mass-produced potentiometers. For ex ample, the total resistance between the terminals of the potentiometer must have a certain value. Occasionally, the length of the slider track or the number of rotations which the slider contact must perform to move over the total resistor do not agree with the required values. For certain applications, multi-turn potentiometers are required whose total resistance between the terminals must be completely covered by a certain number of slider rotations.
  • An object of the present invention is to provide a potentiometer having a resistor which can be easily adjusted to desired resistance values deviating from conventional values. Another objective is to provide such a potentiometer utilizing a wire-wound resistor. A further objective is to provide such a potentiometer utilizing resistors which are not wire-wound.
  • the slider is configured so that is establishes a short circuit between two points on an adjustable portion of the resistor.
  • a certain portion of the resistor can be shortcircuited in various ways by means of the slider.
  • the width of the slider can be selected to span a portion of the resistor so that only the desired portion of the resistor is short-circuited.
  • adjustable sliders which rest with two contact fingers on the resistor can be used, the distance between the contact fingers being adjustable to short-circuit desired portions of the resistor.
  • the potentiometer has the form of a multi-turn potentiometer with a spiral resistor.
  • the resistor is mounted around a shaft carrying a slider movable in axial direction on the shaft by rotation of the shaft.
  • the slider comprises two electrically connected, spring-type sliders spaced apart on the shaft a pre-determined axial distance. The axial distance between the two slider springs determines the potentiometer portion which is shunted by a short circuit. Since the two slider springs are moved simultaneously on the shaft, the shunted resistance situated between the two sliders is constant. No extensive modification of prior art potentiometers is required in the production of adaptable potentiometers of this type. A second slider of the type used in conventional potentiometers is simply mounted on the shaft of a conventional potentiometer.
  • a slider track is provided on the shaft, the slider track being connected to the slider terminal of the potentiometer and to the two spring-type sliders.
  • a potentiometer of this type is particularly suitable for special purposes since no additional short-circuit connections must be made between the two spring-type sliders, the short circuit connection being formed by the slider track.
  • At least two electrically connected slider tracks are mounted on the shaft in offset relationship.
  • the two spring-type sliders to be mounted on the shaft can also be arranged in offset relationship.
  • FIG. 1 is a cross section of a multi-turn potentiometer of the invention
  • FIG. 2 is a cross section along line A-A of the multitum potentiometer shown in FIG. 1;
  • FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of the potentiometer of the invention.
  • the potentiometer shown in FIG. 1 is a multi-turn potentiometer with resistor I mounted in the form of a spiral in a housing 2.
  • the ends of resistor 1 are provided with tenninals 3 and 4 protruding from housing 2.
  • Two sliding members 6 and 6' are mounted in housing 2 on shaft 5 which is located in coaxial position with respect to resistor 1. Sliding members 6 and 6' are ro tated by shaft and can move in axial direction on shaft 5. Slider springs 7 and 7', carried by the sliding members, rest on resistor 1. Guiding extensions 8 and 8 are provided'on sliding members 6 and 6'. The guiding extensions surround a portion of a resistor turn and cause the slider springs to slide over resistor 1 when the shaft is rotated.
  • An axial slider track 9 is provided on shaft 5 and is connected to slider springs 7 and 7 via an extension 10.
  • a slider ring 1 l is mounted on the front side of shaft 5.
  • Another sliding spring 12, which is connected to slider terminal 13 protruding from housing 2 of the potentiometer, is in contact with slider ring 11.
  • FIG. 2 shows the connection of resistor l with slider track 9 on the shaft by means of slider spring 7.
  • a short-circuit connection between the two slider springs 7 and 7 is obtained by means of extensions and slider track 9 mounted on shaft 5.
  • the resistor portion situated between slider springs 7 and 7 is therefore shunted by the short-circuit connection. Consequently, the total resistance appearing between terminals 3 and 4 of the potentiometer consists of the partial resistances beyond the short-circuited portion, denoted by R1 and R2 in FIG. 3. Since the two sliding members 6 and 6' and the slider springs 7 and 7' move uniformly when shaft 5 is rotated, the shortcircuited portion of the resistor and, hence, the sum of resistances R1 and R2 remain constant.
  • the potentiometer is of the type of conventional l0-turn potentiometers. However, in the embodiment shown with two slider springs 7, 7 mounted on shaft 5, the potentiometer functions like a six-turn potentiometer, since the slider range extends only over six turns, with the four other turns being short-circuited.
  • a potentiometer of this type is easily assembled.
  • two sliding members rather than one sliding member, are mounted on shaft 5.
  • the resistor portion to be short-circuited by slider springs 7, 7' is obtained by screwing the first sliding member 6 over a desired number of turns into housing 2, with sliding member 6' abutting resistor l and being adjusted by means of guiding extensions 8.
  • the second sliding member 6 is brought into engagement with the first turn of the resistor and screwed into the proper position.
  • the invention is not restricted to the embodiment shown but can be applied to any type of potentiometer.
  • the two slider springs need not necessarily be separated. Rather, a single slider of selected width can be used, the width selected depending upon the resistance value of theresistor section to be short-circuited.
  • trimmer potentiometers which consist of an annular film resistor over which a slider spring rotates
  • resistor sections which do not correspond to one full turn or to an integer multiple of slider rotations can be short-circuited by providing several slider tracks on the periphery of the shaft and mounting the slider springs in offset relationship on the shaft. It is also convenient to provide the sliding members with a guiding lug which runs along the shaft. Additionally, slider springs of different length can be arranged on the sliding member so that the slider springs rest on peripheral resistor points in offset relationship, or the slider springs can be made peripherally adjustable so that resistor intervals of any length can be short-circuited.
  • a potentiometer comprising: a resistor element having terminals on two ends thereof; a slider contact contacting said resistor element and short-circuiting a portion of said resistor element,
  • said slider contact being carried by said shaft and being movable with respect to said resistor element by rotation of said shaft;
  • said slider contact comprising two spacedapart electrically-connected slider springs contacting said resistor element so that the portion of said resistor element between said slider springs is shortcircuited.
  • said resistor element comprises a multi-turn spiral resistor
  • said shaft is positioned within said spiral resistor in coaxial relation with said spiral resistor
  • said slider contact is movable in the axial direction by rotation of said shaft.
  • the potentiometer as claimed in claim 2 including a slider track positioned along a portion of the length of said shaft, said slider track being electrically connected to said slider terminal and contacting said slider contact.
  • the potentiometer as claimedin claim 6 including two slider tracks positioned along portions of the length of said shaft and peripherally spaced from each other, said two slider tracks being electrically connected to each other, one of said slider tracks contacting one of said slider springs, and the other of said slider tracks contacting the other of said slider springs.
  • a potentiometer comprising:
  • a slider track positioned along a portion of the length of said shaft, said slider track being electrically connected to said slider terminal and contacting said sliders.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Adjustable Resistors (AREA)
US00324383A 1972-01-25 1973-01-17 Potentiometer Expired - Lifetime US3820052A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE2203431A DE2203431C3 (de) 1972-01-25 1972-01-25 Drehpotentiometer

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US3820052A true US3820052A (en) 1974-06-25

Family

ID=5833978

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US00324383A Expired - Lifetime US3820052A (en) 1972-01-25 1973-01-17 Potentiometer

Country Status (5)

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US (1) US3820052A (de)
JP (1) JPS5620682B2 (de)
DE (1) DE2203431C3 (de)
FR (1) FR2169168B1 (de)
GB (1) GB1426074A (de)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN105139988A (zh) * 2015-09-15 2015-12-09 陈海花 一种多阻值电阻盒

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN107507685B (zh) * 2017-08-30 2019-11-12 北京控制工程研究所 一种导电环集成电位器
CN107651219B (zh) * 2017-08-30 2019-06-18 北京控制工程研究所 一种离心式导线展开机构

Family Cites Families (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US1504483A (en) * 1922-05-31 1924-08-12 Central Scientific Co Rheostat
US2566911A (en) * 1949-08-27 1951-09-04 Gen Electric Variable resistance
US3191137A (en) * 1962-09-18 1965-06-22 Michael E Sekerich Multiturn helical potentiometer

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN105139988A (zh) * 2015-09-15 2015-12-09 陈海花 一种多阻值电阻盒

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
FR2169168A1 (de) 1973-09-07
DE2203431B2 (de) 1979-03-01
DE2203431A1 (de) 1973-08-02
JPS5620682B2 (de) 1981-05-15
FR2169168B1 (de) 1976-05-14
JPS4883359A (de) 1973-11-07
DE2203431C3 (de) 1979-10-25
GB1426074A (en) 1976-02-25

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Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
AS Assignment

Owner name: VERNITRON CORPORATION, 645 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YOR

Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNOR:LITTON SYSTEMS, INC., A CORP. OF DELAWARE;REEL/FRAME:005563/0624

Effective date: 19901106