Pressure responsive electric switch assembly and method for making

摘要

As assembly of normally open pressure responsive electric switches (10a-10e) is provided using a single lead frame (8) for forming respective discontinuous annuli (12) to serve as contact surfaces for pressure responsive discs (42) and a center contact (14) for each respective discontinuous annulus. The lead frame is overmolded with electrically insulative plastic and the circuit paths are electrically separated from one another by severing selected interconnecting runners (40). Each switching station has a disc (42) sealed by a flexible layer (47) and an O-ring (48). A separate lead (26) can be provided for adding switches of an opposite logic, i.e., normally closed, and a thermistor (38) can be included, if desired. The normally closed switches can be modular or the switches (100, 200) can have contacts formed from the lead frame (89).