Electric switch with kick-off attachment
AssigneeEaton Corporation
InventorTony O. Woodard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An auxiliary add-on attachment is disclosed for use in combination with an existing rocker switch. The attachment includes a spring loaded latch mechanism which upon release drives the rocker button to an OFF position. The latch mechanism is released upon retraction of a solenoid plunger when the solenoid is energized by a trip signal which may, for example, be delivered from a timing circuit when a designated machine should be automatically turned off after a certain length of time, such as cathode ray tubes, computers, photocopy machines, etc. Depressing the rocker button back to its ON position loads and resets the latch mechanism.
Claims9
An electric switch comprising in combination:
- (a) a switch housing;
- (b) contact means in said housing;
- (c) manually engageable operator means movably mounted to said housing for effecting actuation of said contact means, said operator means being movable to at least first and second stable positions;
- and
- (d) an auxiliary attachment mounted to said housing for moving said operator means from said second position to said second position in response to a trip signal, comprising:
- (i) a frame mounted to said housing;
- (ii) trip means mounted to said frame and having a trip member movable from a first to a second position responsive to said trip signal, and normally biased to said first position in the absence of said trip signal;
- (iii) a lever movably mounted to said frame for movement between tripped and non-tripped positions, said lever having a first arm engageable with said operator means and a second arm engageable with said trip member;
- and
- (iv) means biasing said lever to said tripped position;
- such that in the absence of said trip signal, said trip member is normally in said first position and engages said second lever arm to maintain said lever in said non-tripped position against the bias of said biasing means, said first lever arm being out of the path of motion of said operator means between said first and second positions of the latter;
- and such that in response to said trip signal said trip member moves to said second position and releases said second lever arm such that said lever moves to said tripped position under the influence of said biasing means such that said first lever arm strikes said operator means when in said second stable position to force the latter to said first stable position;
- after said trip-signal responsive movement of said operator means from said second to said first stable position, said attachment being resettable by manually moving said operator means to said second stable position wherein said operator means engages said first lever arm and moves said lever to said non-tripped position against the bias of said biasing means and said trip member returns to its normally biased said first position in the path of motion of said second lever arm to retain said lever in said non-tripped position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.