Vehicle-detection apparatus, for installation at highway toll-booth, parking-area, and like sites, includes elongated thin-strip electrical switching sensors disposed near a road surface and oriented transversely to traffic directions, for responses to tire-transmitted loadings, the switching sensors each being in the form of a pair of narrow highly-elongated flat conductive strips, at least the upper one of which is springy and both of which are cartridged in a minutely-spaced substantially parallel relationship within a shallow open-topped flat-bottomed rigid channel member, the minute spacing being maintained by plastic insulating tape sandwiched between the strips only near their edges; the plural sensors are cast into a tough but somewhat flexible plastic mass in side-by-side relationship atop a stiff backing plate, with the upper strip being parted from the mass by a thin plastic sheathing, and the top surface of the cast assembly is rendered non-skidding by way of abrasive particle embedments.
A circuit for controlling an electrically operated garage door comprising a manually operated switch disposed within the garage. By actuating the manually operated switch twice within a prescribed period of time, the garage door is either opened or closed depending on its state. For automatically closing the garage door, a tape switch is disposed on the garage floor in the vicinity of a garage door. The tape switch extends across the garage floor in a direction to be actuated by the front and rear wheels of the vehicle. When a vehicle leaves the garage or has entered the garage, the successive actuations of the tape switch by two sets of wheels complete an operating circuit to close the garage door. The garage door is also opened by the manual operation of a digit selecting switch and a digit sequencing switch which are located outside of the garage. A preselected code is stored in a code circuit by a set of presettable mechanical switches representing the respective digits of the code. The digit selecting switch and the digit sequencing switch are operated to present various digits for comparison with the digits of the preselected code. Should the digits presented by the digit selection switch match the digits of the presented code, the garage door will open.
A safety system, such as for detecting obstructions in a window opening having a motor-slidable window glass (32) and for arresting the window glass in the presence of such an obstruction, comprises a glass-receiving channel (34). The base (48) defines a hollow chamber (60) incorporating a sensor (62). The sensor supports two substantially parallel longitudinally extending force-responsive sensing units (12, 14) each positioned immediately adjacent to a respective one of the side walls (44, 46) of the channel (34). If an obstruction in the window opening is carried upward by the slidable window pane (32), it will apply a force to the distal edge of one or both of the side walls (44, 46) and this force will be transmitted to the respective sensing unit (12, 14). Electrically conductive strips of the relevant sensing unit (12, 14) move into contact to produce an electrical signal which arrests the window glass. A third, similar, sensing unit (13) of the sensor (62) is positioned to produce a corresponding electrical signal when a force is applied to it by the distal edge of the closing window glass. This is used to indicate completion of travel of the window glass.
5231253 - Side impact sensors - Owned by Automotive Technologies, International (Mountain Lakes, NJ) [*] Notice:The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to October 13, 2009 has been disclaimed.
This invention includes crash sensors designed to be used for side impact sensing and the strategies of using these sensors. If is analyzed and shown that velocity sensing or damped sensors are desirable for side impact sensing. Inertially damped sensors, with a damping force proportional to the square of velocity, is most appropriate. Such sensor can be made of plastic and in the shape of short round or rectangular cylinders. It is further concluded that these sensors should be installed on the side door structure of a vehicle. Other sensing strategies include installing sensors on three locations: one at the center of the side door, one just before the A-pillar, and one just after the B-pillar; and Safing (arming) sensors for side impact applications could be crush sensing switches.
A wheel sensing treadle of high sensitivity includes a thin membrane strip having a top non-conductive membrane and a bottom non-conductive membrane, the membranes being generally parallel, spaced apart, and of extended length. A large number of switches are closely positioned along the length of the membranes. Each switch includes two thin conductive contacts formed respectively on each membrane by printing with conductive ink. A similarly-printed electrical lead connects respectively to each the switch contacts. The membrane strip is sandwiched between a rigid base and a resilient cover to form a treadle of extended length. The switch contact leads are connected in an X Y matrix, each switch having one contact connected to an X line and the other contact of the switch connected to a Y line of the matrix whereby each switch in the treadle has a unique X, Y address and can be rapidly an repetitively scanned by a computer.
A mechanical switch having two contacting sliding plates which have conductive parts periodically dispersed in an insulating background in a spatial period and a current assembling member for gathering currents from the conductive parts, and a driving device for reciprocating two sliding plates in parallel to the surface relatively by about half a period. The driving device cuts or leads a current from one sliding plate to the other by displacing the sliding plates. Parallel movement of the plates suppresses the occurrence of arc discharge in shutting a big current. The short stroke of the displacement gives high speed switching to the device.
