Lever switch

A switch device includes an insulating base formed of a plastics material which defines upper and lower switch operation spaces, a pair of confronting hinge bosses interposed between the upper and lower switch operating spaces, and a lamp-mounting space. An operation lever having upper and lower ends is pivotally coupled to the hinge bosses such that the upper end extends into the upper switch operation space and a lower end extends into the lower switch operating space. In this manner, the operation lever may be pivotally moved between first and second states. The lower end of the operation lever includes a bridge portion which establishes a hole such that an an opposed pair of resilient contact members associated with a U-shaped movable contact are disposed adjacent to the hole and are thereby capable of being resiliently displaced therewithin. A lamp-holding connector is mounted to the base for holding a lamp within a lamp-mounting space. First and second fixed contacts form an electrical circuit through the lamp held by the lamp-holding connector and are disposed within the lower switch operating space such that the resilient contact members of the U-shaped movable contact makes electrical contact with the first and second fixed contacts when the operation lever is in the first state, and breaks electrical contact between the first and second fixed contacts when the operation lever is in the second state. As such, an electrical circuit is made and broken to turn a lamp held by the lamp-holding connector on and off, respectively.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a lever switch for use in switching 
interior automotive lamps or the like. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Lamps equipped with a lever switch have been disclosed, for example, in 
Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-22633. The conventional switch lamp 
structure disclosed therein generally includes a pair of sockets formed by 
bending a plate in such a manner that the central portion of the plate 
becomes the bottom. The socket has a pair of confronting fastening members 
each of which has a fastening hole. The base has socket-insertion holes 
formed at predetermined intervals, each of which has a projection formed 
its confronting inner surfaces which can be fitted within the fastening 
hole formed in each of the pair of fastening members. A switch lever is 
fastened to the base and an elastic member constituting a switch mechanism 
is structured in such a manner that an end portion thereof is secured to 
the base at a position between either of the sockets and the switch lever. 
Another end portion of the elastic member is arranged to be brought into 
selected contact with the fastening members of either of the sockets. 
The conventional switch structure described above has been developed so as 
to be used mainly as an interior automotive lamp. However, since the 
switch lever projects horizontally over the base (which is formed flat so 
that a lamp may be mounted thereto), the switch lever must be moved 
parallel to the flat base surface. Therefore, handling of the switch lever 
has been inefficient. What is even worse, however, is that the supporting 
shaft mechanism portion of the lever can be easily worn after it has been 
used frequently for a prolonged period of time, especially in the case 
where the supporting shaft mechanism is made of a plastics material. 
Therefore, manufacturing the conventional switch described above has been 
relatively complicated since the lever must be caulked and/or deformed in 
order to prevent separation of the lever. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to improve the handling 
and assembling of automotive switches by employing a structure arranged in 
such a manner that the operation lever of the switch is oriented 
substantially perpendicularly to the switch base. 
This object can be achieved by a base formed of a plastics material and 
having insulating characteristics, and hinge bosses confronting each other 
which are disposed between upper and lower spaced formed in the base. An 
operation lever is pivotally fastened in such a manner that the hinges are 
elastically inserted into holes (recessed positions) formed in hinged 
members which are positioned in confronting relationship to the hinge 
bosses. A bridge member connects the lower portions of a hole (recessed 
portion) formed in the lower portion of the operation lever. A 
substantially U-shaped movable contact is pivotally fastened to the bridge 
member and is equipped with a pair of contacts confronting the hole 
(recessed portion) formed in the operation lever. First and second fixed 
contacts are fastened to the base with the movable contact being 
positioned therebetween. A lamp-holding connector includes a female 
connection portion from which the first fixed contact integrally projects 
or into which a portion of the first fixed contact is inserted. A securing 
portion is disposed in the base so as to securely mount the lamp-holding 
connector. 
The common operation of the lever switch devices according to the present 
invention is such that when the operation lever is pivoted with respect to 
the base and relative to the hinge boss as the supporting point, the first 
and the second fixed contacts can be electrically connected to 
disconnected (so as to make and break an electrical circuit, respectively) 
by the movable contact inserted into the bridge member of the operation 
lever. Any undesirable vertical or horizontal movements of the operation 
lever can therefore be prevented. 
The first and second fixed contacts may be coupled electrically to 
electrodes of a power source via above-described lamp-holding connector. 
Thus, the first and the second fixed contacts can be electrically 
connected and disconnected from each other by the movable contact so that 
a straight lamp or the like electrically coupled to the fastening 
connection can be switched on/off. 
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become 
more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed 
description of the preferred embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 
The basic components of a lever switch device according to the present 
invention are shown in FIGS. 1(a)-1(b), 3(a)-3(b), 4(a)-4(b) and 5(a)-5(b) 
which are cross-sectional views illustrating the order of assembly of 
several respective switch embodiments of this invention, as well as FIGS. 
2(a)-2(b) which illustrate a perspective view of preferred embodiments of 
an operation lever portion that may be associated operatively with the 
various embodiments. 
Referring to FIGS. 1(a)-1(b) and 2(a)-2(b) illustrating exploded views of 
each of the components, the lever switch device of this invention 
generally includes an insulating plastic base 1 and hinge bosses 41 
confronting each other, disposed between upper and lower spaces 2 and 3 
formed in the base 1. 
An operation lever 6 is pivotally fastened in such a manner that the hinge 
bosses 41 are elastically inserted into holes (recessed portions) 51a 
formed in hinge members 51 in confronting relationship to the hinge bosses 
41. A bridge member 6b connects the lower portions of a hole (recessed 
portion) 6a formed, as shown in FIGS. 2(a)-2(b) in the lower portion of 
the operation lever 6. A substantially U-shaped movable contact 9 is 
pivotally fastened to the bridge member 6b and equipped with a pair of 
contacts 9a confronting the holes (recessed portions) 6a formed in the 
operation lever 6. These contacts 9a may thus be resiliently displaced 
with the holes (recessed portions) 6a during operation of the lever 6 
(i.e., pivotal movement of the operation lever between its various 
states). A lamp-holding connector 13 integrally equipped with a first 
fixed contact 10 is inserted into the base 1 in the order as is shown in 
FIGS. 3(a)-3(d) and 5(a)-5(d), respectively. A second fixed contact 11 is 
then fastened to the base 1 as is shown in FIGS. 3(a)-3(b) after it has 
been positioned as is shown in FIG. 1A. A securing portion 15 (see FIG. 
11) cooperates with apertures 13a in the fastening connectors 13 so that 
the connectors 13 may be positioned with space 14 of base 1. 
FIG. 6 is a bottom view of FIG. 5(a) where the same reference numerals 
represent the same or similar elements. In particular, the first and the 
second fixed contacts 10 and 11 are illustrated with cross-hatching for a 
better understanding of the invention. 
Referring to FIGS. 2(a)-2(b), it will be seen that the operation lever 
includes a securing claw (or a securing hole) 6c for securing the movable 
contact 9. Furthermore, it will be seen that the operation lever 6 shown 
in FIG. 2(b) is similar to the operation lever shown in FIG. 2(a) with the 
principal exception being that pivot pins 52 are provided so as to 
hingedly cooperate with recesses 42a formed in the elastically deformable 
hinge bosses 42 (see FIGS. 3(c)-3(d); 4(c)-4(d) and 5(c)-5(d)). 
The operation lever 6 according to the present invention is arranged such 
that it can be pivoted with respect to the base 1 with the hinge boss 41 
serving as a supporting point. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the 
operation lever may be rotated by the hinge action performed by the hinge 
member 5 and the hinge boss 41, the first and the second fixed contacts 10 
and 11 are, as is shown in FIG. 8, electrically connected to each other by 
the movable contact 9 inserted into the bridge member 6b of the operation 
lever 6. As a result, a straight lamp L can be switched to an "on" state. 
On the contrary, when the operation lever 6 is pivoted as is shown in FIG. 
7 so as to break the electrical circuit between the fixed contacts 10 and 
11, the straight lamp L can be switched to an "off" state. 
Any vertical or horizontal movement of the operation lever 6 can be blocked 
by the holes (recessed portions) 51a formed in the hinge members 51 due to 
the pivotal coupling with respect to the hinge bosses 41. Thus, the 
operation lever 6 cannot be separated from the base 1 and the movable 
contact 9 cannot be separated from the operation lever 6 due to its 
elastic force and the elastic contact action which is exerted by the first 
fixed contact 10. 
Since the lamp-holding connector 13 and the first fixed contact 10 are 
integrally formed as a one-piece unit (see, FIGS. 3(a), 3(d), 4(a), 4(d), 
5(a) and 5(d), the fastening of the first fixed contact 10 as well as the 
assembly efficiencies of the overall body of the switch can be improved. 
When the operation lever 6 is pivoted by connecting either of lamp bases L' 
of a straight lamp L which is inserted into the lamp-holding connector 13 
to electrodes of a power source, the first and second fixed contacts 10 
and 11 can be electrically connected or disconnected by means of the 
movable contact 9. As a result, the straight lamp L can be switched 
between on/off states. 
The present invention can be applied to a switch for interior automotive 
lamps as is shown in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 where symbol L represents a lamp, 
L' represents bases of the lamp L, and F represents a transparent hood or 
a lens member. Furthermore, a bus bar B may be coupled operatively to one 
of the lamp-holding connectors 13. Other reference numerals represent the 
same or similar elements shown in FIGS. 1(a), 3(a), 4(a) and 5(a). 
Any undesirable vertical or lateral movements of the operation lever 6 can 
be blocked by the hinge bosses 41 disposed corresponding to the holes or 
the holes (recessed portions) 51a or the hinge bosses 52 disposed 
corresponding to the holes (recessed portions) 42a of the hinge elastic 
members 42. Therefore, the arrangement of each of the components such as 
the operation lever 6 and the movable contact 9 can be reliably maintained 
for a long time. 
In particular, since the inner surfaces of the contact portions 9a of the 
movable contact 9 according to the present invention confront each other 
at the hole (recessed portion) 6a formed in the operation lever 6, the 
elastic resilience force of the contact portions 9a will not be 
deteriorated. Therefore, the fixed contacts 10 and 11 can be 
satisfactorily electrically connected or disconnected with each other even 
if the fixed contacts 10 and 11 are not made of elastic materials. 
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently 
considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be 
understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed 
embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various 
modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and 
scope of the appended claims.