Adaptable Toggle Electrical Work Boxes with Removable Pilot Pins
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing old work electrical boxes lack the option for internal fasteners to mount to a stud and toggles to attach to a wall board without a nearby stud, and often require precise stud location, which can be challenging in installations.
Innovation Solution
The development of adaptable toggle electrical work boxes with a built-in fastener assembly for stud attachment and external pivoting toggles, along with removable pilot guide pins for accurate placement and arcuate flanges for easy handling and marking, allowing for secure attachment to either a stud or wall board without a stud.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If old work electrical boxes are designed with only external toggles for wall board attachment, then installation without nearby studs is enabled, but weight capacity and attachment security are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines both internal fasteners for stud attachment and external toggles for wall board attachment into a single electrical box assembly. This merging allows the box to utilize either attachment method or both simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between installation flexibility and weight capacity by providing multiple attachment pathways within one integrated design.
Solution Approach 2:
The electrical box is designed with multi-functional attachment capabilities, serving as both a stud-mounted box and a toggle-mounted box. The internal fasteners provide secure stud attachment while external toggles enable wall board mounting, making the single product universally applicable to various installation scenarios regardless of stud availability.
2Strength
If old work electrical boxes require precise stud location for secure attachment, then weight capacity is improved, but installation complexity and difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces removable pilot guide pins as intermediary marking tools that facilitate precise box placement relative to studs. These pins extend through the wall board to mark stud locations and box positioning, making the stud-finding and placement process simpler and more accurate, thereby improving installation ease while maintaining attachment security.
Solution Approach 2:
The pilot guide pins perform preliminary marking and positioning actions before the actual box installation. By pre-marking stud locations and box center points, the pins enable installers to accurately position the box without requiring complex measurement or guessing, simplifying the installation process while ensuring secure stud attachment.
3Measurement precision
If removable pilot guide pins are added for accurate box placement marking, then installation precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pilot guide pins are designed as removable, separate components that can be extracted from the electrical box after serving their marking purpose. This extraction principle allows the pins to be used during installation for precise positioning, then removed and discarded, adding minimal permanent complexity to the box while providing significant placement accuracy benefits during the installation process.
Data Source
AI summary
An adaptable toggle electrical work boxes with removable locators are provided as electrical old work boxes which can be used as “stud no stud” boxes, with one or more built-in fastener assemblies for attachment to a stud or a pair of external pivoting toggle fasteners which can attach the box to a wall board even if the location is not adjacent to an interior wall stud. The round electrical work box with flanges for holding the box against a wall board, but also where the flanges are a plurality of arcuate flanges separated from each other, providing hand gripping spaces for gripping the electrical box for rotating it so that removable burs or pointed members can etch into the wall board along the circumference of the open edge of the round electrical work box.