Rotary sensor
AssigneeAlps Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorRyuji Mukaiyama
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a rotary sensor according to the present invention, when a casing expands or contracts by changes in the external environment, relative sliding operation is performed between a rotator and a first elastic member in an axial direction of a drive shaft, so that a gap between the rotator and an insulating substrate need not change during expansion or contraction of the casing due to the external environment and/or during the movement of the drive shaft in the axial direction. Hence, the position of a sliding contact contacting a resistor pattern does not change so as to have excellent performances while when the drive shaft rapidly rotates, the first elastic member cannot be twisted, preventing the rotator from delaying the rotational transmission so as to have the excellent followingness of the rotator to the drive shaft.
Claims9
A rotary sensor comprising:
- a casing having a support portion;
- a rotator rotatably supported within the casing;
- detecting means operated by the rotation of the rotator;
- a first elastic member attached to the rotator;
- a drive shaft supported by the first elastic member for rotating the rotator;
- and
- a second elastic member for pushing one end of the rotator to the support portion by pushing the rotator in the axial direction of the drive shaft,
- wherein between the rotator and the first elastic member, the first elastic member is held to the rotator relatively and slidably in the axial direction of the drive shaft so as to enable the one end of the rotator to be pushed to the support portion when the support portion moves away from the rotator in the axial direction and/or when the drive shaft moves relatively to the rotator in the axial direction coming off the rotator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.