The first snap-action precision switch was developed by Burgess Laboratories in 1932 for temperature control in a chicken brooder. A Burgess employee purchased the electronics division in 1937 and formed MICRO SWITCH Corp., which was acquired by Honeywell International in 1950.
Today, these snap-action switches are used in a variety of applications including HVAC systems, aircraft controls, oil/gas refineries and factory automation. Interestingly, the chicken brooder controller, used to turn a heater on and off based on the temperature, is still in use today. But instead of keeping chickens warm, the snap-action switch has been repurposed for a new application — to increase or decrease the temperature in an environmental test chamber where it's used for temperature-cycling electronics products before shipment.
Inovonics' 30-year-old environmental test chamber is still going strong, using the MICRO SWITCH “chicken brooder controller” to keep temperatures at 50ºC.
MICRO SWITCH is a patented brand name of the original snap-action basic switch. Today, Honeywell Sensing & Control manufactures more than 120 million variations annually of the original MICRO SWITCH. Over the past eighty years, the MICRO SWITCH technologies have expanded to include subminiature, miniature, limit, toggle, pushbutton and rocker switches.
They also include a variety of high-reliability switches including sealed, explosion proof, industrial machinery safety, and high-accuracy switches. All of these product platforms offer a variety of options for actuator type, termination, circuitry, configuration, electrical ratings, contact materials, operating characteristics and sealing.
By providing a variety of switch versions, designers can choose the right switch to fit their applications, ranging from boiler and damper control in HVAC systems to valve position detectors in oil/gas refineries, waste treatment plants and other factory applications.
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