Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-09
2001-10-16
Patel, Tulsidas (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
C439S022000, C439S687000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06302743
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electric outlets and, more particularly, to an electric outlet assembly, which comprises a plurality of rotary receptacles adapted to receive electric plugs in different directions
Regular electric home appliances, such as refrigerator, washing machine, television, electric fan, electric hair dryer, and etc., must be connected to an electric outlet to obtain the necessary working voltage. Regular electric outlets include fixed type fixedly installed in the wall, and movable type equipped with an electric extension cable. An electric outlet with an electric extension cable has multiple receptacles, each receptacle having two or three plugholes for receiving the metal blades of an electric plug. Because the receptacles of an electric outlet are not rotatable, the installation direction of electric plugs is limited. When pulling the electric extension cable of an electric plug installed in one receptacle, the conductors of the electric extension cable or the connections between the conductors and respective metal blades of the electric plug may be broken. There is known an electric outlet means of which the receptacle means can be turned within 90° between the “on” position and the “of” position. This structure of electric outlet means does not eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks.
The present invention has been accomplished to provide an electric outlet assembly, which eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks. It is the main object of the present invention to provide an electric outlet assembly, which is equipped with rotary receptacles adapted to receive electric plugs in different directions. It is another object of the present invention to provide an electric outlet assembly, which prevent damage when the power cord of each electric plug installed therein is stretched. According to one aspect of the present invention, the electric outlet assembly comprises multiple receptacle and contact holder sets mounted in a housing formed of a bottom shell and a top cover shell and adapted to receive electric plugs, the receptacle and contact holder sets each comprising a contact holder mounted in the bottom shell, three annular metal contact plates concentrically mounted on the contact holder and respectively connected to respective metal contact strips in the bottom shell, and a rotary receptacle mounted in a respective hole on the top cover shell corresponding to the contact holder and rotatable relative to the contact holder, the rotary receptacle having three plug holes, and three metal contact terminals respectively mounted in the plug holes at a bottom side and disposed in contact with the annular contact plates, the metal contact terminals being maintained in contact with the annular metal contacts upon rotary motion of the rotary receptacle relative to the contact holder. According to another aspect of the present invention, the contact holder has three bottom positioning rods respectively inserted into a respective positioning hole on a respective locating block in the bottom shell, and compression springs are respectively mounted around the bottom positioning rods and supported on the locating blocks of the bottom shell to impart an upward pressure to the contact holder, keeping the annular contact plates of the contact holder in positive contact with the respective metal contact terminals of the rotary receptacle.
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patent: 6086397 (2000-07-01), Chapman et al.
Chiu Pen-Fu
Chiu Pen-Li
Patel Tulsidas
Varndell & Varndnell, PLLC
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