Flat Connector Lever Mechanism for Jam-Free Socket Removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing comfort flat plugs for household and workshop equipment technology in a flat design, especially those designed for multiple socket outlets, face challenges with ease of use due to large connector housings, difficult cable handling, and issues with separating the plug from the socket, often resulting in jamming or damage to the cable or socket.
Innovation Solution
A comfort flat plug design featuring a horseshoe-shaped, rotatably mounted bracket with a recessed grip and lever effect, allowing for easy removal by pulling against the cover frame, and a snap-connected plug base for country-specific adaptations, ensuring compatibility and safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the connector housing is made large to accommodate contact distances and protective conductor requirements, then electrical safety and compliance are improved, but the plug protrudes excessively from the socket and handling becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The connector housing is divided into two separate parts: a compact plug body that fits within the socket, and a separate cable connection housing that contains the cable entry and strain relief. This segmentation allows the plug body to be small enough for easy handling while the separate cable housing accommodates the necessary electrical safety distances and protective conductor requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable connection housing is designed to extend in a direction perpendicular to the plug insertion direction, utilizing the depth dimension of the socket rather than increasing the lateral dimensions. This allows the cable entry and strain relief to be positioned without increasing the plug's protrusion from the socket wall.
2Volume of moving object
If the connector housing is minimized to reduce protrusion, then space requirements are improved, but cable connection handling becomes difficult and plug removal is problematic
Solution Approach 1:
The connector housing is divided into two separate parts: a compact plug body that fits within the socket, and a separate cable connection housing that contains the cable entry and strain relief. This segmentation allows the plug body to be small enough for easy handling while the separate cable housing accommodates the necessary electrical safety distances and protective conductor requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
A lever mechanism is introduced as an intermediary tool to facilitate plug removal. The lever engages with a corresponding element on the plug body, providing mechanical advantage to overcome the friction and mechanical lock between the plug and socket, enabling easy removal without requiring excessive force or damaging the cable.
3Ease of operation
If a lever mechanism is added to facilitate plug removal, then ease of removal is improved, but force components perpendicular to contact pins increase causing tilting and jamming
Solution Approach 1:
The lever mechanism is designed with asymmetric geometry where the lever arm is positioned and dimensioned to create a force application point that is offset from the plug's centerline. This asymmetric design ensures that the removal force is applied in a direction that aligns with the plug's insertion axis, preventing tilting and jamming while still providing mechanical advantage for easy removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The lever mechanism incorporates a fulcrum point and arm length ratio that optimizes the mechanical advantage while controlling the direction and magnitude of force components. By carefully selecting the lever's geometric parameters (arm lengths, pivot position), the design ensures that perpendicular force components remain within acceptable limits to prevent contact pin tilting and socket frame deformation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design allows for easy and safe handling of the plug, reduces the need for a high structure above the plug body as a handle, and maintains compatibility with various socket arrangements, ensuring efficient and secure plug removal without damaging the cable or socket.
Implementation Method 1
horseshoe-shaped, rotatably mounted bracket with a recessed grip and lever effect, allowing for easy removal by pulling against the cover frame
Implementation Method 2
snap-connected plug base for country-specific adaptations, ensuring compatibility and safety
Data Source
Figure 1a~1b
Figure 2a~2b
Figure 3
AI summary
This article introduces a convenient flat plug – specifically, a flat mains plug for household and workshop equipment, designed for ease of use and suitable for use with multiple sockets. Mains plugs of this type are known as Europlugs (without protective earth), contour plugs (without protective earth), safety plugs (with protective earth), and combination plugs (with protective earth). They allow devices of protection class I (with protective earth connection) and protection class II (without protective earth connection) to be connected to the predominantly 240 V (-10% ... +5%)/50 Hz power grid. Non-reconnectable plugs are fully encased in the connecting cable; reconnectable plugs typically have a hollow cylindrical insulating housing with screw or spring-loaded terminal connections for the live, neutral, and, if applicable, protective earth connections, and feature pronounced strain relief for the connecting cable.The connecting cables are usually routed axially from the plug housing parallel to the plug contacts; however, plugs with a lateral, radially oriented cable entry are also available on the market. When plugged in, part of the plug housing is inserted into the socket's receptacle, but a large part of the plug or plug housing protrudes from the socket, regardless of whether the cable is axially or radially routed. With axial cable entry, even more clearance is required around the socket, as the bending radius of the connecting cable is added to the distance to the wall. The comfort flat plug according to the invention does not extend beyond the dimensions of the cover frames or the grid dimensions of multi-socket arrangements, so that any socket in a combination can be connected to the plug. Likewise, the plug's insertion direction is optional.When mounted vertically, the flat plug has a cable outlet facing three directions, ensuring that the connecting cable is guided without kinks even when the socket is rotated 90° or mounted at an angle. For ease of use, the flat plug features a horseshoe-shaped, rotatable lever that extends beyond the plug housing. This lever has a grip recess at the top and a lever action: by pulling the lever away from the wall, the protruding ends of the lever, which extend below the axis of rotation, press against the cover frame of the flush-mounted socket, thus disengaging the plug from its final position.