Electrical switch with improved mechanical assembly

Abstract

A shaft is rotatable in a housing and connected to a rotatable actuator having a notch that pivots around the shaft. A slidable actuator is slidable along the shaft and has a notch that moves parallel to the shaft. The shaft is inserted into a slot in a lever, and a pin having a shoulder is passed through the lever perpendicular to the slot, passing through a bore in the shaft and the shoulder pressing the shaft against the side of the slot. The pin is driven in with a predetermined force high enough to hold the lever and shaft together with zero clearance and low enough to allow the lever to easily pivot on the shaft. The lever is deformable and thus grips the pin. A pair of identical carriages are pivotable on pins, each carriage having an arm that fits into one of the notches in the actuators, the arm and notches having surfaces shaped to provide a zero-clearance, non-jamming fit over their entire range of motion. Contacts are mounted on the carriages and are moved across traces on a circuit board by the pivoting motion of the carriages to activate the switch.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.