US 5,516,993 AGranted

Safety switch

AssigneeHans Bernstein Spezialfabrik fur Schaltkontake GmbH & Co.

InventorsRolf Wecke, Roland Monnings, Ralph Hoppmann

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Abstract

A safety switch includes a housing having at least one opening and supporting a spring-biased tappet which is movable between two end positions by a switching mechanism including a switch wheel received in the housing. The switch wheel includes at each side a pair of separate but operatively interconnected resiliently mounted locking members. Each locking member carries a locking pin which is engageable in a bore of the surrounding housing. An actuator is insertable through the opening to act on ramp surfaces of the locking member, with the ramp surfaces being spaced from the grooves in the switch wheel. Thus, only a very particular actuator of complex configuration is suitable to effect the unlatching and subsequently the turning of the switch wheel for movement of the tappet from the initial position to a switching position.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A safety switch, comprising:

a housing having at least one opening;
a spring-biased tappet supported in said housing and movable between two end positions;
a switch wheel received in said housing and rotatable about a pivot axis between an initial position and a switching position, said switch wheel acting upon said tappet for moving said tappet between the end positions in correspondence to said initial and switching positions;
an actuator engageable in said opening for turning said switch wheel between the initial position and the switching position;
and
locking means arranged on each side of said switch wheel for controlling rotation of said switch wheel, said locking means including a pair of separate but operatively interconnected locking members which extend at an angle to each other and are movable radially toward said pivot axis, with each said locking member having a locking pin engaging in respective bores of said housing.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.