Linear sensor with concentric slider and housing.

摘要

A linear sensor has a sealed inner housing and a slider located in telescoping relationship. The inner housing has a doughnut shaped coil at one end thereof. The slider has a sensor element/metallic core of varying cross-section and a slide bearing section. The slide bearing section guides the sensor element with respect to the coil so as to vary eddy currents therein to produce an output signal from the coil which varies linearly in accordance with the relative position of the sensor element and the coil. In a preferred embodiment, the slide bearing section is supportingly received by the inner housing. A rigid outer housing has a fixed sealed end connected to the inner housing. A free end on the rigid outer housing is slideably, sealingly engaged with the outer surface of the slider so as to seal the interior of the linear sensor. The outer housing is thereby operative to both seal the interior of the linear sensor and laterally reinforce the linear sensor as it is moved between extended and retracted positions. <IMAGE>