Electric switch

Abstract

The invention relates to an electric switch that serves to switch on and/or off electric devices and for this purpose has a contact system in the switch housing. By means of a manual actuating element or a remotely controlled actuator, a switching operation can be effected.

Claims

1. An electric switch comprising: a housing; a manual actuating element, wherein the actuating element is movably mounted and configured to have two different actuating positions which correspond to two different switching positions; at least two electric contacts in the housing, each electric contact led out of the housing as electric connections, one contact being designed as a fixed contact and the other as a moving contact; wherein a bistable actuator for remote control is integrated in the housing of the switch; the actuating element interacts directly or indirectly with a control lever of the bistable actuator; the actuating element, the control lever of the bistable actuator, and the movable electric contact are forcibly coupled to one another; wherein the bistable actuator holds a permanent magnet between two yoke halves, wherein, through contact of the actuator with an arm of the control lever, the permanent magnet generates a closed magnetic circuit with magnetic flux generated by the permanent magnet for enabling a self-holding position of the control lever, wherein on both sides of the actuator there is a respective excitation winding which, when energised, generates an electromagnetic magnetic flux whose direction is opposite to the direction of the permanent magnetic flux; wherein the control lever comprises a driving head engaged with the actuating element, the control lever is pivotally connected to the bistable actuator, and forced to be pivoted by an interaction between the driving head and the actuating element in response to an operation of the actuating element, or energization of the excitation windings to generate an electromagnetic magnetic flux acting on the control lever.

2. The switch according to claim 1, wherein the position of the control lever is switched over by the generation of an electromagnetic flux in the yoke half of the actuator, which contacts an arm of the control lever, even without the electromagnetic flux, an arm of the control lever is held on the actuator in each position by a closed permanent magnetic circuit.

3. The switch according to claim 1, wherein electric connections are provided for activating the excitation windings, which are connected to a printed circuit board arranged in the housing.

4. The switch according to claim 1, wherein an arm of the control lever is extended beyond its point of contact with the actuator and the control lever is coupled on this arm to a transmission element connected to the moving contact.

5. The switch according to claim 1, wherein the moving contact is supported by a contact spring, wherein an engagement end of an angled arm of the contact spring engages a transmission element connected to the moving contact and the other end of the contact spring is connected to the printed circuit board or directly to a terminal.

6. The switch according to claim 5, wherein the contact on the contact spring is arranged on a free end of a spring tongue.

7. The switch according to claim 6, wherein in the open position, the spring tongue is held spread apart by the contact spring, namely spread apart in the direction of the fixed contact with the spreading being effected by a stop on the actuator.

8. The switch according to claim 6, wherein in the switched-on position, the contact spring is held spread apart by the spring tongue, with the spreading being effected by the fixed contact and thus this overstroke increases the contact pressure.

9. The switch according to claim 7, wherein a further contact is provided as a fixed contact in the housing, for the function of a changeover switch, the further fixed contact replacing the stop of the actuator and the spring tongue having a contact on both sides.

10. The switch according to claim 1, wherein the actuating element is a rocker which has a slot guide below its pivot axis, in which the driving head of the pivotable control lever engages, wherein the rocker is coupled to the control lever via the slot guide in such a way that two defined switching positions and two uniquely assigned positions of the rocker result from the two possible stable positions of the control lever when the yoke is closed.

11. The switch according to claim 10, wherein a pivot axis for the control lever is located below the driving head and above the actuator.

12. The switch according to claim 1, wherein the actuating element is a slide, with the slide having a receptacle for the driving head of the control lever.

13. The switch according to claim 1, wherein one position of the actuating element indicates the on position and the other position of the actuating element indicates the off position, irrespective of whether manual or remote controlled switching has been effected.

14. The switch according to claim 1, wherein further electronic control or display elements are arranged in or on the housing.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will subsequently be described in greater deal by way of an embodiment.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an electric rocker switch.

(3) FIG. 2 shows a side view of the rocker switch without housing in the off position.

(4) FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the rocker switch without housing and rocker.

(5) FIG. 4 shows a side view of the rocker switch without housing in the on position.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of a slide switch without housing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

(7) FIG. 1 shows a version of the electric switch 10 as a rocker switch with its housing 11. The manual actuating element 20, i.e. the rocker 22, is mounted on the housing 11 and can pivot. This rocker 22 has different actuation positions, namely in one actuation position, shown in FIG. 4, this corresponds to the on position of switch 10 and in the other position this corresponds to the off position of the switch, see FIG. 2. Four electric connections 15, 16, 17, 18 protrude from the housing 11. The electric connections 17, 18 are control connections for the bistable actuator 30. The electric connection 15 is connected to the contact spring 40 via the printed circuit board 19, as can be seen better from FIG. 2, where the switch 10 is shown without housing. The contact spring 40 holds the moving contact 41 at the end of a spring tongue 42. The electric connection 16 is connected to the fixed contact 61.

(8) The electric switch 10 is shown in FIG. 2 in the off position and can be moved to the on position by manually operating the rocker 22 in the direction of the arrow. The rocker 22 pivots around the pivot axis 21. Below this pivot axis 21 there is a slot guide 23 fitted to the rocker 22. A driving head 51 of a control lever or member 50 engages in this slot guide 23. If the rocker 22 is operated, the position of the driving head 51 is changed via the slot guide 23, which causes the control lever or member 50 to pivot. In this design example, this control lever 50 is pivotably mounted on the bistable actuator 30. The pivot axis 55 is located below the driving head 51. The control lever 50 has two arms 53, 54. The extended arm 54 is coupled with a transmission element 52. An angled arm 43 of the contact spring 40 engages in this transmission element 52, so that the operation of the rocker 22 causes the control lever 50 to pivot and the contact spring 40 to be lowered. This results in contacting as the moving contact 41 is pressed onto the fixed contact 61.

(9) The manual switching operation described above can be effected in the same way by remote control, as the control lever 50 is not only actively connected with the rocker 22, but also with a bistable electromechanical actuator 30. This actuator 30 is arranged in the housing 11 and has a permanent magnet 32 in the middle between two yoke halves 34, 35 holding a centre leg 36. In this way, an e-shaped magnetic core is created. On both sides of the actuator 30, there is an excitation winding 31. In the passive states, i.e. when the excitation windings 31 are not activated and thus do not generate an additional magnetic field, the permanent magnet 32 holds an arm 53, 54 of the control lever 50. In FIG. 2 this is the arm 53. In the shown left half of the actuator 30, a closed permanent magnetic circuit A is present by touching the arm 53 of the control lever 50, whereby a permanent magnetic flux flows via the permanent magnet 32, the centre leg 36, the yoke 34 and the arm 53. This permanent magnetic flux, fed by the permanent magnet 32, pulls the arm 53 on the actuator 30 steadily onto the yoke 34. In this position of the control lever 50, shown in FIG. 2, the contact spring 40 is pulled upwards via the transmission element 52 and the contact 41 is at a distance from the fixed contact 61. In this manually or remotely controlled switch-off position, the control lever 50 is tilted to the left and the rocker 22 tilted to the right, as shown in FIG. 2.

(10) If a coil 31 is now activated, in this case the excitation winding 31 at the yoke 34, then the magnetic circuit A in the yoke 34 is cancelled, since the magnetic field of the coil 31 is opposed to the magnetic flux A. The magnetic flux A generated by the permanent magnet is displaced from the left parallel circuit into the right parallel circuit B. This exerts a magnetic attraction on the arm 54 of the control lever 50, which causes the control lever 50 to pivot to the right, closing the gap at the yoke 35. If the control voltage is disconnected from the coil 31 at yoke 34, the arm 54 remains at actuator 30. Due to its permanent magnetic field B, the permanent magnet 32 produces a magnetic force that holds the arm 54. This position is shown in FIG. 4. With the lowered arm 54, the transmission element 52 is also lowered, which moves the arm 43 of the contact spring 40. By lowering the contact spring 40, a contact between the moving contact 41 and the fixed contact 61 is established. In this manually or remotely controlled switch-on position, control lever 50 in this example is tilted to the right and rocker 22 is tilted to the left. The rocker 22 can be operated in the direction of the arrow to open the contact. In the same way, the excitation winding 31 adjacent to the yoke 35 can be excited to cause this switching process by generating a magnetic field.

(11) The moving contact 41 is provided from a contact spring 40, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4. The shape of contact spring 40 is best shown in the perspective view of FIG. 3. It is designed in such a way that a spring tongue 42 as the carrier of the moving contact 41 is exposed. In this example, one end of the contact spring 40 is connected to the electric connection 15 via the printed circuit board 19 and is firmly clamped at this end. The other end of the contact spring 40 is angled to an arm 43, which has an engagement end 44 that engages in the transmission element 52. This transmission element 52 is coupled to the control lever 50, so that a pivoting movement of the control lever 50 causes the contact spring 40 to be lowered or raised. Due to the release of the spring tongue 42, when the contact spring 40 is lowered, this contact spring 40 can also move further downwards after the contact has closed and generates a so-called overstroke, see FIG. 4. This generates a suitable contact force when the contact is closed. In the switch-off position, shown in FIG. 2, the end of the spring tongue 42 rests against a stop 33. Here too, the movement of the contact spring 40 is not blocked, but the resulting stop forces support the start of the switching movement. The shown contact spring 40 has the advantage that due to the release of the spring tongue 42, the contact 41 safely contacts the fixed contact 61, even if the end position of the contact spring 40 varies due to manufacturing and assembly tolerances. In addition, undesirable contact bounce is suppressed.

(12) The contact spring 40 can have several exposed spring tongues 42 with contacts 41, which interact accordingly with several counter contacts 61, i.e. the contact system comprises several pairs of contacts 41, 61. In this way, contact bounce can be additionally minimised and the current carrying capacity or switching capacity can be increased for the same installation space of switch 10.

(13) In addition, a defined spring force can be provided to the bistable actuator 30 in the on position as well as in the off position, so that the start of the switching movement is supported and a faster and safer switching takes place. It should be noted that the control lever 50 can be substituted for a control member with any other shapes in other embodiments.

(14) With a further version of a switch 10, another contact can be provided instead of the previously described stop 33 to form a changeover switch.

(15) FIG. 5 shows a further version of a switch 10 according to the invention, here without housing. The manual control element 20 is a slide 24. The further structure of switch 10 corresponds to the structure of the rocker switch 10 described above. Slide 24 has a receptacle 25 on its underside for the driving head 51 of the control lever 50 mounted on the bistable actuator 30. When the slide 24 is actuated, the position of the driving head 51 changes, causing the control lever 50 to pivot and the contact spring 40 to be lowered or raised in the same way as with rocker switch 10.

(16) The invention is not limited to the design examples shown. Switches 10, 10 may contain further electronic elements that provide illumination, communication, time control or acoustic signals.