Patent ID: 7361854

Claim:
A rotary/pushbutton actuator, comprising: a housing; a pot-shaped guide element arranged in said housing; an annular rotary encoder having an inner ring and a rotary ring arranged in said pot-shaped guide element and defining an interior space, said rotary ring being rotatable about an axis of rotation and having a dial, said inner ring being arranged on said pot-shaped guide element so that said inner ring is fixed with respect to rotation relative to said pot-shaped guide element, said pot-shaped guide element and said annular rotary encoder being movable together linearly in a direction of said axis of rotation; an inner part arranged in said interior space and movable with the annular rotary encoder in the direction of said axis of rotation relative to said housing; and a momentary contact switch arranged in said housing and actuatable by said pot-shaped guide element in response to movement of at least one of said dial or said inner part in the direction of said axis of rotation.