FIELD DEVICE FOR AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The invention relates to a field device for automation engineering having a housing, wherein the housing has at least one associated pushbutton switch. Operation of the pushbutton switch is detected, according to the invention, inside the housing without the presence of mechanical or electrical passageway through the wall of the housing. For this, the housing does not need to have a blind hole or an inwardly directed depression. This is achieved by a rigid arrangement of a first element for producing a magnetic field on the outer wall of the housing. By means of interaction with a second element for influencing the magnetic field of the first element, which is arranged in an operating element, a variable magnetic field is produced inside the housing. This magnetic field is sensed by a sensor. On the basis of the alteration in the magnetic field, the sensor can determine whether the pushbutton switch is currently being operated.

Claims

1-13. (canceled)

14. A field device of automation technology with a housing, wherein the housing has at least one pushbutton switch, the pushbutton switch comprising: a first element arranged rigidly on the housing for producing a magnetic field; located on an outer surface of a wall of the housing, an actuating element, which is arranged movably relative to the first element, and which can assume at least a home position and a switching position; wherein the actuating element includes a second element for influencing the magnetic field of the first element; a sensor located in an interior of the housing for registering at least one component of a magnetic field reigning in the sensor; wherein the sensor transduces the at least one registered component of the reigning magnetic field into an electrical measurement signal; and an electronics unit, which, based on the electrical measurement signal, determines whether the actuating element is located in the home position or in the switching position.

15. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the sensor is a Hall effect sensor or a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor.

16. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the movement direction of the actuating element extends essentially perpendicularly to the wall of the housing.

17. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein a spring element is placed relative to the actuating element such that the actuating element is located in the home position in the absence of external force, and that the actuating element shifts into the switching position in the case of external force.

18. The field device as claimed in at least one of claim 14, wherein the first element and the second element are arranged relative to the actuating element such that the actuating element is held in the home position by a magnetic field reigning in the second element, and that the actuating element shifts in the case of external force into the switching position.

19. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the first element is a first ring magnet having diametral poling, wherein the second element is a non-magnetized cylinder of para- or ferromagnetic material having an essentially round cross section, and wherein the pushbutton switch is embodied such that the cylinder is arranged essentially concentrically and axially shiftably relative to the first ring magnet.

20. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the first element is a second ring magnet having diametral poling, wherein the second element is a third ring magnet having diametral poling, and wherein the pushbutton switch is embodied such that the third ring magnet is arranged essentially concentrically and axially shiftably relative to the second ring magnet, and that the poling of the third ring magnet is opposite to the poling of the second ring magnet.

21. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the first element is a parallel arrangement of a first rod magnet and a second rod magnet, whose poling extends with equal sense, wherein the second element is a third rod magnet, and wherein the pushbutton switch is embodied such that the third rod magnet is arranged essentially parallel and shiftably relative to the first rod magnet and the second rod magnet, and that a poling of the third rod magnet is opposite to the poling of the first rod magnet and the second rod magnet.

22. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the first element is composed of a ferromagnetic material, aluminum-nickel-cobalt, neodynium-iron-boron, or hard ferrite.

23. The field device as claimed in claim 20, wherein the second element is composed of a ferromagnetic material, aluminum-nickel-cobalt, neodynium-iron-boron, or hard ferrite.

24. The field device as claimed in claim 21, wherein the second element is composed of a ferromagnetic material, aluminum-nickel-cobalt, neodymium-iron-boron, or hard-ferrite.

25. The field device as claimed in claim 19, wherein the second element is composed of an iron, a nickel, or a cobalt alloy.

26. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the sensor is surrounded by a flux guide that is composed of a non-magnetized, para- or ferromagnetic material, and wherein the flux guide is embodied such that the magnetic fields emanating from the first element and/or from the second element toward the sensor is/are strengthened.

27. The field device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the housing is explosion protection conformly designed.

28. The field device as claimed in claim 17, wherein the first element, the actuating element, and the spring element are arranged on a subcomponent of the housing, wherein the subcomponent has a solid and releasable connection to the housing.

29. The field device as claimed in claim 14, further comprising a keypad composed of a plurality of such pushbutton switches, wherein the pushbutton switches are arranged in a row or as an array.

30. A field device, comprising: a housing; and a pushbutton switch, the pushbutton switch comprising: a first magnetic element having a through-recess, the first magnetic element fixed on the housing in an area of the housing such that the through-recess is generally orthogonal to the housing in the area; an actuating element having a second magnetic element embodied to influence a magnetic field of the first magnetic element, the actuating element disposed at least partially in the through-recess and moveable within the through-recess between a home position and a switching position, the switching position nearer the housing than the home position; a spring element disposed in the through-recess between the housing and the actuating element, the spring element embodied to push the actuating element away from the housing; a sensor disposed within an interior of the housing proximate to the first magnetic element, the sensor embodied to register at least one component of a magnetic field of the first magnetic element and to transduce the at least one component into an electrical signal; and an electronics unit embodied at least to determine a position of the actuating element within the through-recess based on the electrical signal and to determine if the position of the actuating element is the home position or the switching position based on the electrical signal.

31. The field device of claim 30, wherein the first magnetic element is a first ring magnet with diametral poling and the second magnetic element is a second ring magnet with diametral poling. wherein the second ring magnet is disposed generally concentrically with the first ring magnet, and wherein a poling of the second ring magnet is opposite of a poling of the first ring magnet.

Description

[0032] The invention will now be explained based on the appended drawing, the figures of which show as follows:

[0033] FIG. 1a a sectional view of a variant of a pushbutton switch 2 on a housing 1 of a field device of the invention,

[0034] FIG. 1b a plan view onto a second ring magnet 31 and a third ring magnet 51 of the variant of the pushbutton switch 2 of the field device of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1a,

[0035] FIG. 2a a sectional view of an additional variant of the pushbutton switch 2 on the housing 1 of the field device of the invention,

[0036] FIG. 2b a plan view onto a first ring magnet 30 and a cylinder 50 of the variant of the pushbutton switch 2 of the field device of the invention illustrated in FIG. 2a,

[0037] FIG. 3a a sectional view of a third variant of the pushbutton switch 2 on the housing 1 of the field device of the invention,

[0038] FIG. 3b a plan view onto a first rod magnet 32, a second rod magnet 32 and a third rod magnet 52 of the variant of the pushbutton switch 2 of the field device of the invention illustrated in FIG. 3a.

[0039] FIG. 4 a sectional view of a fourth variant of the pushbutton switch 2 with a subcomponent 10 on the housing 1 of the field device of the invention.

[0040] FIG. 5 a sectional view of a fourth variant of the pushbutton switch 2 with a subcomponent 10 on the housing 1 of the field device of the invention in the switching position.

[0041] FIGS. 1a and 1b show an embodiment of the pushbutton switch 2 on a housing 1 of a field device of the invention. As described above, the field device can be any device, which can be applied near to a process and which delivers, or processes, process relevant information. The pushbutton switch 2 shown in FIG. 1a is located in the home position, which it assumes due to the action of a spring element 8.

[0042] In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b, a first element 30, 31, 32, 32 is embodied as a diametrally poled, second ring magnet 31. In the case of a second element 50, 51, 52, it is likewise a diametrally poled, third ring magnet 51. An actuating element 4 is arranged in such a manner relative to the second ring magnet 31 that the third ring magnet 51 is located concentrically with the second ring magnet 31 and in the case of actuating of the actuating element 4 shifts axially relative to the second ring magnet 31 toward the housing 1. In such case, the polarities of the two ring magnets 51, 31 are opposite to one another and the movement direction of the actuating element 4 is perpendicular to the surface of the housing 1. The return force for returning the actuating element 4 into the home position is provided by the spring element 8, which is located between the wall of the housing 1 and the actuating element 4. Located in the interior of the housing 1 is a sensor 6 for registering the magnetic field reigning there. In order to transmit the magnetic field from the two ring magnets 31, 51 to the sensor 6 with low loss, there is located around the sensor 6 a flux guide 9 extending toward the inner surface of the wall of the housing 1. Sensor 6 is connected with an electronics unit 7, which, based on the electrical measurement signal of the sensor 6, determines whether the actuating element 4 is located in the home position or in the switching position.

[0043] Shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b is another embodiment of the pushbutton switch 2 of the invention. The embodiment shown in the variant of these figures differs from that illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b by the feature that the second element 50, 51, 52 is present as a non-magnetized cylinder 50 of para- or ferromagnetic material with, for instance, a round cross section. Thus, the cylinder 50 changes the field produced by the ring magnet 30 as a function of current position of the actuating element 4. This change is, in turn, perceived by the sensor 6. The first ring magnet 30 is in this embodiment not only diametrally poled, but also the poling extends, supplementally, diagonally in comparison with the second ring magnet 31.

[0044] FIGS. 3a and 3b illustrate a third form of embodiment of the invention. This form of embodiment differs from the form of embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b, again, in the embodiment of the first element 30, 31, 32, 32 and the second element 50, 51, 52. Here, the first element 30, 31, 32, 32 is implemented as a parallel arrangement of a first rod magnet 32 and a second rod magnet 32, wherein the poling of the two rod magnet 32, 32 extends with the same sense. The second element 50, 51, 52 is embodied as a third rod magnet 52, which is arranged in such a manner in the actuating element 4 that the third rod magnet 52 is, for instance, parallel to the first rod magnet 32 as well as also to the second rod magnet 32. The poling of the third rod magnet 52 is, in such case, opposite to the poling of the first rod magnet 32 and the second rod magnet 32.

[0045] FIG. 4 shows another embodiment differing from the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b by the feature that the first element 30; 31; 32; 32, the actuating element 4 and the spring element 8 are arranged on a subcomponent 10 having a solid and releasable connection to the housing 1. Possible securement components for securing the subcomponent 10 to the housing 1 in FIG. 4 include, for example, screw connections or engagement connections such as snap-in structures (not shown).

[0046] In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1a to 4, the actuating element 4 is located in the home position. FIG. 5 differs in this regard. FIG. 5 shows the same embodiment of the housing 1 of the invention as shown in FIG. 4, except that FIG. 5 shows the actuating element located in the switching position by actuation with a force F, which acts counter to the force of the spring element 8.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

[0047] 1 housing [0048] 2 pushbutton switch [0049] 30 first ring magnet [0050] 31 second ring magnet [0051] 32 first rod magnet [0052] 32 second rod magnet [0053] 4 actuating element [0054] 50 cylinder [0055] 51 third ring magnet [0056] 52 third rod magnet [0057] 6 sensor [0058] 7 electronic unit [0059] 8 spring element [0060] 9 flux guide [0061] 10 subcomponent