Electricity: conductors and insulators – Covers or face plates – With closure for face plate opening
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-19
2003-07-22
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Covers or face plates
With closure for face plate opening
C439S145000, C439S652000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06596940
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electric outlets and, more specifically, to a shielding cap mounting arrangement for electric outlet, which enables the shielding cap to be moved horizontally to close/open the plugholes.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
illustrates a conventional electric extension cable in which a shielding cap
12
is used and fastened to the vacant socket
1
to keep the respective plugholes
11
from sight, preventing insertion of external objects into the plugholes
11
by a child. The shielding cap
12
has bottom rods corresponding to the plugholes
11
for installation. When in use, the user must remove the corresponding shielding cap
12
from the socket
1
so that the electric plug can be inserted into the socket
1
. After removable of the shielding cap
12
from one socket
1
of electric outlet, the shielding cap
12
must be properly received. Because the shielding cap
12
is a small item, it tends to be lost somewhere after removal from the corresponding socket
1
of the electric outlet. Further, it is inconvenient to mount and dismount the shielding cap
12
frequently.
In order to eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks, various safety electric outlets have been disclosed. These safety electric outlets have a safety structure on the inside, which prevents direct contact of inserted external object(s) with the internal electric contacts. When using these electric outlets, a supplementary device, for example, a push rod, plug pin, spring, etc., is used with the inserted electric plug to open the passage between the plugholes and the corresponding electric contacts in the electric socket, enabling the metal blades of the electric plug to be set into contact with the respective electric contacts in the socket to close the circuit. However, providing a safety structure in an electric socket must change the positioning or structure of the original electric contacts in the electric socket. Further, the installation of the safety structure complicates the fabrication of the electric socket and, may increase the dimensions of the electric socket.
FIGS.
2
A~
2
C illustrates the use of a shielding cap
23
in an electric outlet
2
to close/open the plugholes of an electric socket
21
. As illustrated, each electric socket
21
of the electric outlet
2
has a top recess
22
and two sliding grooves
221
horizontally disposed in the top recess
22
at two sides. The shielding cap
23
is inserted into the top recess
22
, having two protruded coupling portions
231
respectively coupled to the sliding grooves
221
. After installation in the top recess
22
of the electric socket
21
, the shielding cap
23
can be moved horizontally along the sliding grooves
221
back and forth to close/open the plugholes in the top recess
22
. This design still has drawbacks. In order to let the shielding cap
23
be easily coupled to the top recess
22
, the length of the protruded coupling portions
231
is limited. However, the protruded coupling portions
231
tend to be forced out of the sliding grooves
221
when operating the shielding cap
23
.
FIGS.
3
A~
3
C show still another design of electric outlet and shielding cap arrangement according to the prior art. According to this design, each electric socket
31
of the electric outlet
2
has a top recess
32
and two sliding grooves
321
in the top recess
32
; the shielding cap
33
has two bottom hooks
331
respectively hooked in the sliding grooves
321
. After installation, the shielding cap
33
can be moved horizontally in the top recess
32
between two positions to close/open the plugholes in the top recess
32
. This design is still not satisfactory in function. When moving the shielding cap
33
, the bottom hooks
331
tend to be deformed or damaged, thereby causing the shielding cap
33
to be forced out of the top recess
32
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been accomplished to provide a shielding cap mounting arrangement for electric outlet, which eliminates the aforesaid problems. It is one object of the present invention to provide a shielding cap mounting arrangement for electric outlet, which enables the shielding cap to be easily horizontally loaded in the electric outlet and moved horizontally between two positions to close/open the plugholes. It is another object of the present invention to provide a shielding cap mounting arrangement for electric outlet, which has means to indicate the positioning of the shielding cap. According to one aspect of the present invention, the electric outlet has a shell, a top recess in the shell, a set of plugholes in the top recess for receiving an electric plug, two rails at two sides of the top recess, two parallel sliding grooves respectively defined in the rails at two sides of the top recess, and two downward protruding portions downwardly protruded from the rails on the middle at an outer side; the shielding cap is mounted in the top recess between the downward protruding portions and moved along the sliding grooves to close/open the plugholes, having two side wings respectively horizontally inserted into the sliding grooves and suspended below the downward protruding portions to guide movement of the shielding cap in the top recess and to prohibit the shielding cap from escaping out of the top recess. According to another aspect of the present invention, the side wings of the shielding cap have respective front and rear sides disposed in flush with the distal ends of the side rails when the shielding cap moved to the open position to open the plugholes.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5267870 (1993-12-01), Maresh
patent: 5989052 (1999-11-01), Fields et al.
patent: 6283787 (2001-09-01), Chou
patent: 6406308 (2002-06-01), Wang
Lee Jinhee J
Reichard Dean A.
Rosenberg , Klein & Lee
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