A five-step technique for microswitch manufacture is described: (1) A clad board is inlaid with a precious metal and the board is pressed. (2) One end of the fixed contact containing a precious metal inlay section is curved, and this edge of the precious metal inlay section becomes a fixed contact. (3) Inserts are formed in the unit body and terminal strips are placed through the top and bottom of the base and held. (4) The unit body is held by the base and the sequential contact strips are cut off. (5) Movable stripes are attached to the support of the terminal strips on the movable side and movable contacts are placed opposite the fixed contacts

Kitamura, T.

Kiyoyama, S.

English

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%SA TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM:
	
NASA TM-77239
TECHNIQUE FOR MICROSWITCH MANUFACTURE
T. Kitamura and S. Kiyoyama
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ws"i",>	 A
Translation of Japanese Kokai Patent, Omron Tateisi Electronics
Co. Ltd., Kokai No. 57-22172, May 12, 1982, Pp. 63-66
(14ASA-TM-77234) TECHNIQUE FOR MICROSWJ.IC.d 	 N83-30912
MANUFACTURE (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration) 9 p HC A02/MF A01 C.Sc.i, 09C
Unclas
G3/33 13173
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20546 	 MAY 1983
t
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aF • POOR Q'U.AQ =7 Y
STANDARD TITLE PAGE
1.	 Report No.
F-17
owmtn*no Accession No. 2:	 Recipient's Catalog No.
NASA	 TM-77234
6.	 Title and Subtitle S. Report Date
TECHNIQUE FOR MICROSWITCH MANUFACTURE May 1983
6.	 Performing Organisation Code
7.	 Author(s) S.	 Performing Organisation Report No.
T. Kitamura and S. Kiyoyama 10. Work Unit No.
Omron T teisi Electronics Co. 	 Ltd.
9.	 Performing Organization Name and Address 11.	 Contract or Grant No.
NASW-3541
Leo Kanner Associates
Redwood City, CA 94063
17,	 Type of Report and Period Coverers
Translation
12.	 Sponsoring Agency Name and Address'
National Aaronautics and Space Administration 14. Sponsoring Agency Code
Washington DC 20546
15.	 Supplementary Notes
Translation of'Japanese Kokai PAtent, Omron Tateisi Electronics Co. Ltd.,
Kokai No. 57-22172, May 12,	 1982, pp.	 63-66
r
16.	 Abstract
The patent describes a five-step technique for microswitch manufacture:
1,	 A clad board is inlaid with a precious metal and the board is
pressed,	 2.	 One end of the fixed contact containing a precious metal
inlay section is curved, and this edge of the precious metal inlay
section becomes a fixed contact.
	 3.	 Inserts are farmed in the unit
body and terminal strips are placed through tht top and bottom of the
base and held.	 4,	 The unit body is held by the bai3e and the sequential
contact strips are cut off,
	 5.	 Movable •stripes are.attached to the
support of the terminal strips on • the movable side and movable ^,ontacts
are placed opposite the fixed contacts.
17.	 Kay Words (Selected by Author(s)) is.	 Distribution Statement
. Unclassified-Unlimited
19.	 Seaurity Classif. (of this (eport) 20.	 Security Classi(. (of this Page) 21• No. of Pagea 22.
Unclassified Unclassified
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OF Fuo"-j QUALITY
Application fc,: Patent
Name of Patent
Technique for microswitch manufacturing
Range of Patent Application
1. The present invention is a technique for microswitch man-
ufacturing which consists of five separate processing steps. In the
first step, a clad board is inlaid with a precious mF.tal. The board
is then pressed. The press forms a unit body which has a series of
alternating contact strips. There is at least on terminal strip on
the side of the fixed contact. The strip or strips are arranged
along one edge of the section inlaid with precious metal. The pre-
cious metal section becomes a fixed contact. There are also terminal
strips on the movable strip side and these form the support section
of the movable strip. The movable strip has movable contacts. The
movable strip moves back and forth between the fixed strips. In the
second processing step, one end of the fixed contact, containing a
precious metal inlay section, is curved and this edge of the precious
metal inlay section becomes a fixed contact. In the third processing
step, inserts are formed in the unit body and the terminal strips are
placed through the tops and bottom of the base and held. The base is
made from a synthetic resin insulating material. In the fourth step
of the process, the unit body is held by the base and the sequential
contact strips are cut off. This separates each of the terminal
strips. In the fifth step of the process, movable strips are at-
tached to the support section of the terminal strips on the movable
side and the movable contacts are placed in opposition to the fixed
contacts.
Detailed Description of the Invention
This invention is a technique for manufacturing microswitches.
The most common of thc- conventional methods for microswitch manufac-
turing contain the following steps. A belt board is placed in a
punch press. This punch press puts out continuous unit bodies with
*Numbers in the margin are those of the pages in the original text.
*/1
/2
1
alternating series of continuous strips at fixed locations. Those
are common-strips, oloso-stripn and open-strips. Terminal strips are
fixed in the plastic base through inserts formed in the unit body.
The serial strips are cut off thus separating the terminal strips.
This assembly process is extremely simple oomparod to methods Q,
which the terminal strips are separately formed and attached to the
base. The assembly process very effectively upgrades the precision
of interval location between terminal strips.
Contacts of precious metals such as silver are being built into
the tips of open and close torminals in many microswitchos to achieve
highly stabilized connection resistance, But conventional manufao-
tuning techniques using previous metals fasten the metal in the oon-
tact section to the terminal strips by welding or caulking. The op-
oration of fastening contact sections of one metal to terminal strips
made from some other typo of material is extremely difficult and time
consuming. Such operations are obstooles to smoothly functioning
automation in assembly and manufacturing. They aro also an important
cause prevent cost reductions. it is also difficult to obtain a bal-
anced strength of adhesion, the locations where the contact materials
are adhered locations is not highly precise and both factors are
cause for higher prices.
This invention was designed to solve the` 	 problems. We
first inlaid belt strips of precious metals in a clad board. Thou a
series of single unit terminal strips were shaped from the clad
board. By doing this there in no need to weld the metal in the con-
tact seQUan to the terminal strips. The invention is a technique
for manufacturing microswitohes that roducos cost and gives a highly
reliable oontact structure.
in the following paragraphs, we will use the appended diagrams
and describe the invention based on an example prototype.
Figure I in a drawing showing the chief components of the micro-
switch in perspective. This m0roswitch was produced by the manu-
2
facturing techniques in this invention. Number I is the common
terminal strip, 2 is the open-terminal strip and 3 is the close-ter-
minal strip. These three strips are inserted (to be explained later) 	 A
and fixed into microswitch base 4 to make a solid unit. Two tabs are
formed in the upper terminal section of common terminal strip I and
one of them, la, is turned 90 0 to become the support section for mov-
able strip 5. The other, lb, becomes the spring stop section. At
the upper terminal section of open-terminal strip 2 and olose-tormin-
al strip 3, contact section 2a and 3a are formed by a procedure that 	
ak
will be explained later. Contact sections 2a and 3a maintain a fixed
interval and are placed so that they are in opposition in up and down
movement.
Movable strip 5 is made from a spring quality metal conductive
plate, and holds the base terminal section into its relationship with
the groove of support section la. In addition, the pressure spring
tongue strip 5a is formed at the center section and held into rela-
tionship with the groove of spring stop section lb. By forming this
relationship, movable strip 5 is attached to common terminal 1. Mov-
able contact 5b is also set at the tip of movable strip 5 and the
precious metal contact material is fastened to the front and back of
that strip. MovablP contact A is between contacts 2a and A on the
fixed side and is in opposition to both contacts 2 and 2b. The
spring of movable strip 5 will, normally, cause movable contact 5b to
pressure-contact with contact 3a. When pressure pushes movable strip
S into operation, as the arrow shows, the snap action of movable
strip 5 moves the pressure contact of movable contact A down to con-
nect with the section 2a side. We should point out that the cover
over the upper section of base 4 is omitted in this diagram but as
with most microswitches a push-button cover is attached to operate
movable strip 5.
Figure 2 shows one of the important points in producing this
microswitch. First in Figure 2(A), 6 is the clad board in which the
precious metal 8 such as silver has been previously belt inlaid into
pure brass recipient plate 7. Terminals 1, 2 and 3, are formed in
3
Y	 Y
continuous contact strip 9 by alternately punch-pressing clad board 6
at specified Locations. This group of terminals strips, 1, 2 and 3
is considered as a unified body. The unified bodies are formed in
continuous belts from clad board 6. Contact 2a in open-terminal
strip 2 and contact 3a in close-terminal strip 3 are set so that they
are in opposition. Open-terminal strip 2 and close-terminal strip 3
have been punched from the precious metal inlay in clad board 6. In
other words, precious metal section 8 is located at the upper termi-
nal insulating section of open-terminal strip 2 which is punched from
clad board 6 and the lower insulating section of the upper terminal
of close-terminal strip 3 is punched from the same board.
Figure 2(B) shows that unit terminals 1, 2 and 3 have bt^en given
an angular shape in the press, the tips of open-terminal strip 2 and 	
^4
close-terminal strip 3, are shaped at an appropriate angle and sup-
port section la is formed at the top of common terminal 1.
Figure 2(C) shows that terminals 1, 2 and 3 are inserted into
and fixed to base 4. Continuous contact strip 9 is cut off and ter-
minal strips 1, 2 and 3 are separated by inser ,:ion. It should be	
i
noted that continuous strip 9 can be cut off after resin molding or
continuous contact strip 9 can be cut off while terminals strips 1, 2
and 3 are set in a forming die and the resin is molded. In either 	
i
case the locations of base 4 and terminals 1, 2 and 3 will be ex-
tremely precise.
s
As Figure 1 shows, when movable strip 5 is fastened to common
terminal strip 1, movable contact 5 is located between the angled
tips of open terminal 2 and close-terminal 3. The precious metal
inlaid section edges of terminal 2 and 3 are in opposition to movable
contact 5b and those edge sections become contact sections 2a and 3a.
It should be noted that in the example prototype in Figure 1,
straight line contacts 2a and 3a, formed at the tip of precious metal
inlay section 8, are located so that they are in opposition directly
across movable contact 5 which is also set in a straight line. This
forms the so-called cross-bar contact.
4
It should also be noted that it would, of course, be acceptable
to locate precious metal, inlay section 8 at contacts 2a and 3a of
terminal strips 2 and 3, the latter having been punched from clad
board 6. The location and formation of terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the
location of inlay section 8 in regard to board 7, is not limited to
those shown in Figure 2. For example, as Figure 3 shows, the unified
bodies of terminal strips 1, 2 and 3 may be sequentially formed from
clad board 6. We are also not limited to the example prototype shown
in the chart for the processing of forming the angles terminals 2 and
3. And the edge of precious metal inlaid section 8 in terminal
strips 2 and 3 does not have to be in opposition to ,:lovable contact
5b.
As the above explanation shows, the technique for manufacturing
microswitches provided by this invention consists of fiva separate
processing steps. In the first st.*ip, a clad board is inlaid with a
precious metal. The board is then pressed. The press forms a unit
body which has a series of alternating contact strips. There is at
least onZterminal strip on the side of the fixed contact. The strip
or strips are arranged along one edge of the section inlaid with prc,-
cious metal. The precious metal section becomes a fixed contact.
There are also terminal strips on the movable strip side and these
form the support section of the movable strip. The movable strip has
movable contacts. The movable strip moves back and forth between the
fixed strips. In the second processing step, one end of the fixed
contact, containing a precious metal inlay section, is curved and 	 /5
this edge of the precious metal inlay section becomes a fixed con-
tact. In the third processing step, inserts are formed in the unit
body and the terminal strips are placed through the tops and bottom
of the base and held. The base is made from a synthetic resin in-
sulating material. In the fourth step of the process, the unit body
is held by the base and the sequential contact strips are cut off.
This separates each of the terminal strips. In the fifth step of the
process, movable strips are attached to the support section of the
terminal strips on the movable side and the movable contacts are
placed in opposition to the fixed contacts. By means of this in-
vention, we eliminate the extremely difficult and time-consuming
5
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a	
a
process of attaching the contact section material to the terminal
strips. This greatly simplifies the manufacturing process. It al-
lows us to very precisely locate the positions between terminal
strips. Highly precise location of the fixed contacts made from the
precious metal section is easily performed by press processing. The
invention is able to produce an extremely high-reliability micro-
switch in which connections between terminal strips and precious met- 	 /6
al section remain stable. Also, since, the fixed contact is placed on
a. slant in order to locate the movable contact in opposition to it,
stability between contacts is upgraded and an even more reliable mi-
croswitch is attained.
Simplified Explanation of Charts
Figure 1 is a sketch showing one microswitch, in perspective,
that was produced by the technique in this invention. Figure 2 is a
diagram to explain the process of manufacturing the essentials to the
invention. Figure 3 is a diagram explaining another ea.^ample proto-
type of the invention.
1 ... common-terminal strip`
2 ... open-term,:-.nal strip
3 ... close-terminal strip
3a..contact section
4 ... base	 h
5 ... movable strip 	 4'"
5b..movable contact
6 ... clad board
8 ... precious metal inlay section 	 a°
Figure 1
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Figure 2
Figure 3
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