Patent Application
20070117474
The present invention relates to a signal pin of switches and particularly to a bending technique to bend signal pins of switches to facilitate insertion of the signal pins in a circuit board or performing of SMD process.
With advance of technology, the size of electronic devices (such as mouse) becomes smaller. The electronic elements used on those smaller electronic devices also have to be miniaturized. A great portion of these electronic elements are switches. While micro switches are available now, to achieve a desired connection click during depressing is still difficult for the present techniques of fabricating the micro switches.
Beside the click, design of the signal pin also is one of the factors affecting accurate signal output of the switch. In the conventional switch design, the signal pin is mostly exposed vertically from the bottom of the switch. The circuit board for holding the switch has a hole corresponding to the signal pin. After the signal pin has been inserted into the corresponding hole, it is anchored by soldering. As the electronic devices are being miniaturized gradually, the interior space is limited. The space available for installing the circuit board also decreases. As a result, interference occurs among the electronic elements due to not sufficient installation space. To mitigate this problem, many switches adopt a vertical installation mode to replace the traditional transverse installation mode to save installation space of the circuit board. This issue is especially keen in the SMD (Surface Mount Device) manufacturing process. The signal pin of the switch usually has a lengthy exposed portion that affects installation of other electronic elements. Hence a bending process is needed for the signal pin. Due to the signal pin is quite fragile, to bend directly by an external force easily breaks or deforms the signal pin at the exposed end. Even if the bending were done smoothly, the bending could still be not sufficient and result in assembling difficulty of the switch.
Therefore the primary object of the present invention is to solve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention provides a signal pin structure that can be bent easily. The signal pin according to the invention is extended outside from the interior of a switch and has a bend surface and a force receiving surface. The bend surface has an indented bend section which has an inner end spot to divide the signal pin into a bracing arm portion and a bending portion. The torque between the inner end spot and the bend surface of the bending portion is greater than the torque between the inner end spot and the bend surface of the bracing arm portion. Due to the torque of the applying force is greater than that of the receiving force, the signal pin can be easily bent to a selected angle by the external force without twisting, deforming or fracturing.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiment of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.
