Master maker, cartoonist, author, and artist Tim Hunkin spent his pandemic downtime producing a series, “The Secret Life of Components”, to introduce designers and builders to the bits and pieces he uses in his fanciful machines.
Switches are one of the most fundamental electromechanical components, but choosing the right one that will do the job both electrically and mechanically and work reliably over a long time in real-world service can be a complicated business. I have long been and continue to be amazed by the (particularly AC) current ratings of micro switches—they are an extraordinarily clever mechanism, although usually smaller than the one in the title card for this video.