The Microswitch: History, Types, and Parts Ranges

1. THE MICROSWITCH History Types Troubleshooting Parts Ranges

2. History The first micro switch was invented by Peter McGall in 1932 in Freeport, Illinois. McGall was an employee of the Burgess Battery Company at the time. In 1937 he started the company MICRO SWITCH, which still exists as of 2008. It is now owned by Honeywell Sensing and Control. The MICRO SWITCH was one of the first components to supercharge the race to miniaturization and high performance in electronics. Prior to its debut, no switching mechanism had its strength, repeatability, reliability, high current capacity, small size or weight, according the company. While modern technology has improved some of the materials used in the MICRO SWITCH, most of the initial design has remained unchanged, enabling the advancement and affordability of many of today's modern machines and appliances. "We began using MICRO SWITCH technology in the 1930s, and Honeywell has gained our trust through decades of dependable service," says Cheryl O'Connell, director of materials of United Electric Controls. "The superiority of the MICRO SWITCH truly lies in its quality and reliability. With 80 percent of our mechanical products using the technology, we know we can depend upon the MICRO SWITCH to exceed the performance requirements of our customers."

3. The first MICRO SWITCH known as the Large Basicwas used to control the temperature of chicken brooders. From those humble beginnings, the MICRO SWITCH today has become the industry standard in electromechanical control, used in millions of products from smoke alarms and dishwashers to computer products and airplane landing gear. In 1972, a WWII Hurricane bomber was recovered from a Canadian swamp. While the aircraft had been submerged under water for 30 years, a Honeywell MICRO SWITCH in the cockpit was still intact, sealed and functioning. In 1975, a Honeywell MICRO SWITCH survived the 505 million-mile journey to Mars aboard NASA's Viking Mars Lander. The switch, used in the retractable surface sampler, helped scoop up Martian soil and deliver it safely back to the biological laboratory. Today, Honeywell manufactures more than 120 million MICRO SWITCHES annually for aerospace and defense, industrial, off-highway and medical applications. Honeywell's portfolio of MICRO SWITCH technologies include subminiature switches, miniature switches, limits and enclosed basic switches, toggle switches and rocker switches, among others.

4. Types Of Microswitches Microshitches of lever Microshitches specific for high temperatures Level sensors microswitches (liquid-resistant microswitches)

5. Posible initial status: NC: Normally Closed, it means that the microwitch initially permit to the current through the component when the switch isnt activated NO: Normally Open, it means that the microwitch initially doesnt permit to the current through the component when the switch isnt activated WHAT IS A MICROSWITCH: Microswitch is a very small component witch mission is to allow or not to allow the electrical current in specific mechanical situations. Electrical equivalences

6. INTERNAL PARTS Ground Phase Hitter Plastic Switch Spring Hitter Arm Phase

7. This component is a highly reliable due to its simply mechanical internal parts, but for this not less important than other components, his utility is more extended than we think, for example, automatic doors or industry machines. Also this device can opertate on Direct Current (DC), or Alternate Current (AC) Possible Problems : This component have many few problems. The manufacturer reconmmend us review the terminals if we have some problem. It have very long life-time, up to 100,000 operations( for Standard Microswitch ).

8. Maximum Values Maximum Values Current ranges Voltage ranges Temperature ranges If a microswitch has a current, voltage or temperature highest than the maximum and minimum values, the device will be destroy.

9. Current Ranges Current Ranges The current ranges depends on the microswitch size in some models. This current can change. For example, in the model S Serie Snap Action , we can see this change of range: The model Ultraminiature can support between 0.1 A and 3 A The model General can support between 0.1 A and 15 A In general, the current range is between 0.1 A and 15 A

10. Voltage Ranges Voltage Ranges The voltage range depends on the model, if the device works with AC, the voltage ranges can be between 22 V and 250 V. Temperature Ranges Temperature Ranges The temperature range is the minimum and maximum temperature that a device can work. The temperature range in microswitches is about -30 and 80.