Electrical Outlet Cover with Torsion Spring and Retaining Means
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current electrical outlets with movable covers face issues of dust accumulation and safety concerns due to direct access to connection terminals, leading to reduced service life and unsuitable stress conditions for connection terminals during plug insertion and removal.
Innovation Solution
An electrical outlet design featuring a hook and torsion spring mechanism that ensures the cover moves to block access to connection terminals only when necessary, using aligning and retaining means to manage the cover's movement and prevent unwanted dislodging of metal pins, thus maintaining a safe and stable electrical connection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a movable cover is used to block access to the cavity, then safety is improved and dust accumulation is prevented, but the service life is reduced due to unsuitable stress conditions on connection terminals
Solution Approach 1:
The cover is designed to be movable rather than fixed, allowing it to transition between blocking and non-blocking positions. The spring mechanism provides dynamic force to automatically return the cover to its blocking position after plug insertion, ensuring continuous safety while allowing temporary access during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The cover performs periodic movement between blocked and open states synchronized with plug insertion and removal cycles. The spring ensures the cover returns to its original blocking position after each insertion event, creating a rhythmic pattern of protection that maintains safety throughout the outlet's service life.
2Ease of operation
If the cover is made axially movable through the cavity, then plug insertion is enabled, but stress is applied to connection terminals that reduces service life
Solution Approach 1:
The spring acts as an intermediary element between the cover and the cavity structure. It absorbs and manages the forces generated during cover movement and plug insertion, preventing these forces from being directly transmitted to the connection terminals, thereby protecting them from damaging stress while still enabling operational movement.
3Reliability
If a cylindrical spring is used to return the cover to extended position, then safety is maintained, but manufacturing complexity increases due to tolerance and material requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The spring is designed to be self-aligning through its elastic properties, automatically returning to its neutral position and guiding the cover back to the correct extended position without requiring precision alignment features or complex adjustment mechanisms. This self-service capability simplifies manufacturing by reducing tolerance requirements.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If the cover blocks access to the cavity, then dust accumulation is prevented, but cleaning access is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The cover's ability to move axially through the cavity creates temporary open access states that allow cleaning operations. When the cover is pushed down during cleaning, it moves away from its blocking position, exposing the cavity for maintenance while maintaining safety during normal operation when the cover is in its extended blocking position.
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
This design prolongs the service life of electrical outlets by preventing dust accumulation and reducing stress on connection terminals, ensuring a secure and stable electrical connection while minimizing the risk of metal pin dislodgment.
Implementation Method 1
European patent application publication EP 2 385 588 A1, disclosing an outlet with a cover whose upward movement, after the plug has been pushed down into the outlet, is limited by a lower stopper of a guide, and is released by pressing the plug again into the outlet.
Implementation Method 2
A projection partially traverses the cylindrical spring to keep one end thereof fixed and thus enable a rectilinear position to be maintained in the compression and decompression of said spring as a result of the longitudinal movements of the cover through the cavity.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2
Figure 3~5
AI summary
The invention relates to an electrical outlet, which comprises a side wall (2.1) demarcating a cavity; a bottom (2.2) at a first longitudinal end of the cavity; a cover (5) comprising at least two orifices (5.1), with the cover being (5) arranged so it is movable with respect to the bottom (2.2); and return means (7) for returning the cover (5) to a second longitudinal end of the cavity opposite the first longitudinal end. The electrical outlet additionally comprises retaining means (13, 14) that can be actuated to retain the cover (5), the cover (5) being moved with respect to the second longitudinal end, such that the return of the cover (5) by the action of the return means (7) is prevented.