Patent ID: 8916787

Claim:
A switching mechanism, comprising: a housing including a first end and a second end; an actuator comprising an actuation element retained at the first end of the housing, wherein at least a portion of the actuation element is positioned externally from the housing for receiving an actuation load; a plunger substantially in contact with at least a portion of the actuation element positioned internally from the housing and operable to translate in a first direction when the actuation load is applied to the externally-positioned portion of the actuation element, the plunger comprising: a plunger body including first and second cylindrical portions, the second cylindrical portion having a hollow cylindrical portion, a sealing element placed around the second cylindrical portion of the plunger and substantially in contact with one or more inner surfaces of the housing, to provide a seal between the first end and the second end of the housing, an actuation spring in contact with the plunger body operable to apply a force to resist translation of the plunger in the first direction by the actuation load, a plunger spring encased in the hollow cylindrical portion of plunger body, and a plunger ball retained by the plunger spring and a second end of the plunger body, and an electrical switching apparatus retained at the second end of the housing, and configured to be actuated by the translation of the plunger, wherein the plunger ball contacts the electrical switching apparatus with the translation of the plunger, and the plunger spring compresses in response to the plunger ball contacting the electrical switching apparatus such that the load applied to the electrical switching apparatus by the plunger ball is reduced from the actuation load.