Magneto-motive bistable switching devices

Claim 1

A magneto-motive bistable relay switch having a switch housing and comprising: means for rigidly mounting at least two permanent magnets within said switch housing so that the poles of one magnet face the poles of the other at a given distance therebetween, said facing poles being of opposite magnetic polarity thus forming a fully closed ring flux field that cannot be demagnetized under a given condition of operation of said switch; contact container means disposed in said switch housing said container means being hermetically sealed and electrically and magnetically non-conductive said contact container means having an interior and exterior wall surface and at least one pair of electrical contact points of opposite polarity spaced apart and mounted on the end-portions of said interior wall surface of the said contact containEr means each of said contact points being electrically connectable exteriorly of said means by a terminal plug-in connector unit; electro-magnetic coil means encircling said hermetically sealed contact container means substantially at its mid-section thereof, one pair of contact terminals of said coil means being electrically connectable exteriorly on said switch housing by a terminal plug-in connector unit said coil means and said contact container means being disposed rigidly parallel between said two permanent magnets, said coil being responsive to an electrical dc trigger pulse which generates a magnetic flux field perpendicular to the air-path of said ring flux field; electrically conductive free floating ferro-magnetic contactor means disposed within said hermetically sealed contact container means said contactor means being operatively responsive to the magnetic flux field generated by said electrical dc pulse in said electro-magnetic coil means whereby said contactor means is magnetically polarized and simultaneously repelled by the like poles of one of said two permanent magnets and attracted by the unlike poles of the other of said two permanent magnets respectively thereby executing a bistable switching operation within said contact container by establishing a bridging relationship between at least one pair of said contact points having opposite polarity.