Wall socket

Details Wall socket Wall socket

1996-11-25

1998-05-12

Tolin, Gerald P.

Electricity: electrical systems and devices

Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...

For electrical power distribution systems and devices

363146, 361690, 439535, H02B 110, H02B 118

Patent

active

057515425

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention generally concerns a wall socket adapted to be flush-mounted in a wall terminal box, as set forth in the preamble to appended claim 1.
Many electronic appliances, such as CD players, telephones, tape recorders and medical apparatus, are designed to be operated at a fairly low direct voltage, such as 6V, 9V and 12V. Normally, this direct voltage can be supplied either from batteries or from a suitable transformer and rectifier element connected to an existing alternating-current mains of e.g. 220V. In most cases, the transformer and rectifier element is arranged in a compact housing or cover along with any additional electronic components, such as a smoothing capacitor, in order to form a separate adapter. The primary side of the transformer is electrically connected to contact pins projecting from the adapter housing and enabling the adapter to be connected to an ordinary 220V wall socket like a plug. The rectified low voltage on the secondary side of the transformer is connected to a power supply line for the apparatus to be operated. Prior-art adapters may further comprise a thermal fuse and, optionally, a switch for different output voltages.
However, such known adapters suffer from a number of drawbacks. First, each adapter is often designed to suit a specific apparatus, there being no standards. It goes without saying that this entails undesirably high costs as well as low flexibility, since a new adapter has to be acquired for each new apparatus.
Second, most adapters have such large physical dimensions as to block not only the respective sockets to which they are connected, but also one or more adjoining sockets, which thus cannot be used for ordinary plugs.
Third, the individual adapter has to be removed from the wall socket in order to accompany the apparatus every time this is moved, which not only is inconvenient but entails a risk of the adapter being lost.
It has previously been suggested, for instance in EP-A2-0,493,080 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,406, to design an adapter essentially in the form of a conventional, albeit slightly enlarged, plug so that the adapter will not block any adjoining sockets when put to use. It is true that this known adapter obviates one of the drawbacks mentioned above, but this prior-art solution with an adapter integrated with a plug still involves an undesirable extra cost when new apparatus are acquired and actually mates it even more difficult to use existing adapters with new apparatus, since such plugs with integrated adapters normally are fixedly connected to the respective apparatus by a wire.
This invention aims at obviating the above drawbacks of the prior-art technique and, to this end, provides a completely new type of wall socket as set forth in appended claim 1.
The invention thus provides a wall socket which is adapted to be flush-mounted in a wall terminal box and which, when mounted, in known manner comprises a cover located outside the wall terminal box and a base located inside the wall terminal box and supporting at least one pair of connector terminals for receiving a plug via openings in the cover and for connection to an alternating voltage available in the wall terminal box. The wall socket according to the invention is characterised in that the base, apart from the base portion flush-mounted in the wall terminal box and supporting the connector terminals for the alternating voltage, comprises a surface-mounted base portion which is located outside, and is laterally offset in relation to, the opening of the wall terminal box facing the cover and which supports at least one low-voltage socket for a direct voltage. The surface-mounted cover has such an extent as to enclose the opening of the wall terminal box as well as the laterally-offset, surface-mounted base portion, and further is formed with one or more openings giving access to the low-voltage socket. Furthermore, the wall socket comprises a transformer and rectifier element which is dish posed in the wall terminal box and is connected to the flush-mounted base portion and

REFERENCES:
patent: 3813579 (1974-05-01), Doyle
patent: 4273406 (1981-06-01), Okagami
patent: 4843298 (1989-06-01), Brauch
patent: 5159545 (1992-10-01), Lee
patent: 5281154 (1994-01-01), Comerci et al.
patent: 5301494 (1994-04-01), Peot

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