Stackable Electrical Work Boxes With Pull Tab and Easy Wall Insertion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical work boxes lack efficient nesting and stacking configurations, with protrusions and recesses that do not facilitate smooth stacking, and lack a convenient means to prevent dropping during installation.
Innovation Solution
The electrical work boxes are geometrically modified to nest within each other, featuring a curved radius or mitered corner for easy insertion and a slidable finger pull handle tab to secure the box during installation, along with setback features for stacking and a removable leveling wedge for alignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional electrical work boxes are designed with simple geometric shapes, then they are easy to manufacture, but they cannot nest within each other efficiently for transport and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies nesting by designing the electrical work box with an interior recess that receives a protrusion from an adjacent box, allowing multiple boxes to be stacked vertically. The first electrical work box has a protrusion extending from its rearward face, while the second box has a corresponding recess in its forward face, enabling the protrusion to engage with the recess and secure the stacked configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the box structure into distinct functional elements: a main box body, a protrusion element, and a recess element. This segmentation allows the protrusion and recess to be positioned independently to optimize both manufacturing simplicity and stacking efficiency, with the protrusion extending from one box to engage with the recess in the adjacent box.
2Productivity
If electrical work boxes are designed with protrusions and recesses for stacking, then they can nest within each other, but the corners become difficult to insert into wall cutouts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies curvature by rounding the corner portions of the electrical work box. Specifically, the corner portions of the box are rounded to radii between 0.0625 inches and 0.125 inches, which allows the box to be easily inserted into wall cutouts while maintaining the protrusion and recess features for stacking capability.
3Device complexity
If electrical work boxes lack interior geometric features, then they are easy to stack, but there is no means to prevent dropping during installation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an extendable tab as an intermediary element that serves as a finger pull handle. The tab extends from the top surface of the box, allowing installers to grasp and control the box during installation, preventing accidental dropping. The tab can be extended beyond the box perimeter by at least 0.25 inches and includes a finger recess for ergonomic gripping.
4Ease of operation
If electrical work boxes have fixed handle tabs, then they provide grip during installation, but they interfere with nesting and stacking configurations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the tab extendable rather than fixed. The tab can extend beyond the box perimeter when needed for handling during installation, and can be retracted or positioned to allow proper nesting and stacking configurations. This dynamic extendability resolves the conflict between providing grip and enabling nesting.
Data Source
AI summary
Stackable electrical work boxes nest within each other, whereby the back of a work box, which protrudes outward, can nest inward into a front opening of another work box. Steps inside the work box are geometrically manipulated to fit in the recesses an adjacent work box, which has also been geometrically manipulated. The work box includes a slidable finger pull handle tab provided between parallel tracks on a side of the work box to slide outward at the user's convenience to hold the work box while inserting the work box into a wall panel hole. A corner of the box has a curved radius or mitered surface so that the box can pivot like a seesaw when being inserted into a cut-out in the wall panel.