Patent Application
20140148024
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an outdoor power socket having protective lid structure; in particular, the present invention relates to a protective lid structure specifically installed on an outdoor power socket thereby preventing raindrops or other foreign objects from entering into the power socket.
2. Description of Related Art
Extension line electric power sockets are comprehensively used in people's daily lives because they can solve the issue about insufficient number of power sockets in a house or office which may be annoying for electrical devices applications, thus that such extension line electric power sockets can be found almost everywhere.
Taking the outdoor lighting as an example, since the extension line power socket may be required to be placed outdoor in order to provide outdoor illumination devices with electric power, for users needing long-term outdoor power supply, the extension line power socket would be inevitably disposed outdoor for a long duration of time. However, because general extension line power sockets do not provide the water-proof feature, especially for outdoor utilizations, it is hence for sure that weather factors will definitely cause adverse consequences thereon. Therefore long-term exposures to sunlight or rainfall may easy lead to malfunctions in such extension line power sockets.
Accordingly, a common solution for this situation is to immediately unplug the extension line power socket upon completion of use and store it indoor; when it is needed to be used again, retrieve and install it in place as demand. Certainly, this approach will cause inconvenience in operation, and the extension line power socket may still become unusable if it is not taken back in time but rather left exposed to outdoor environment.
As a result, it would be an optimal solution suppose it is possible to configure a protective structure on the power socket such that, when needed, the user is allowed to open the power socket; on the other hand, upon completion of use, the power socket can be shielded thereby effectively preventing malfunction conditions caused by weather factors due to long-term exposures to outdoor environment.
As such, the present invention intends to provide an outdoor power socket having protective lid structure, in which a protective structure is configured on the power socket such that, when needed, the user is allowed to open the power socket; on the other hand, upon completion of use, the power socket can be shielded thereby effectively preventing malfunction conditions caused by weather factors due to long-term exposures to outdoor environment.
An outdoor power socket having protective lid structure according to the present invention can achieve the aforementioned objectives, comprising: a socket body, in which the upper end thereof is formed by the combination of a front case and a rear case, a plurality of power sockets are installed on the front case and one side of the power sockets has a recessed combination part, and in which a positioning part is at least installed on the combination part and at least a side of the positioning part is configured with a fixation hole; a connection element, whose left and right sides are configured in protrusion with a first connection part and a second connection part, in which the first connection part and the second connection part respectively includes an open hole and an axial rod laterally extends from an end of the first connection part toward the second connection part, which axial rod having a through hole penetrating to the open hole in the first connection part, and in which a positioning pillar at least extends from the bottom of the connection element and a fixation pillar extends from at least a side of the positioning pillar; a protective lid, whose bottom is configured with an accommodation part, in which the left and the right sides of the accommodation part respectively includes a pivotal hole such that the first connection part and the second connection part of the connection element can be received between the two pivotal holes of the accommodation part, and the positions of the open holes in the first connection part and the second connection part correspond to the pivotal hole of the accommodation part; a pivotal axle, which penetrates the two pivotal holes of the protective lid, the open holes of the first connection part and the second connection part as well as the through hole of the axial rod such that the protective lid and connection element can be combined and the protective lid can be flipped over the connection element; and a torsion spring, which is sleeve installed on the axial rod and includes two endpoints, in which one of the endpoints is fixed to the connection element and the other one is fixed onto the accommodation part of the protective lid such that the protective lid enables an auto-restoration feature.
In accordance with the present invention, the positioning pillar of the connection element can be combined into the positioning part of the front case of the socket body such that the fixation pillar on the connection element can penetrate the fixation hole of the combination part thereby allowing the protective lid to cover or open the power socket.
More specifically, the bottom of the aforementioned socket body is combined with a cone through which the socket body can be fixed to outdoor ground.
More specifically, the positioning part of the aforementioned socket body is a notch and a hole is configured at the bottom surface of the notch, in which a screw hole is configured in the positioning pillar of the connection element such that the positioning pillar can be received within the notch and the screw hole of the positioning pillar corresponds to the hole in the notch so that the connection element can be fixed into the combination part on one side of the socket body by means of through screw fixations.
More specifically, the depth of the aforementioned notch determines the insertion distance of the fixation pillar of the connection element into the socket body.
More specifically, the two sides on the positioning part of the aforementioned socket body are respectively configured with a fixation hole and the two sides on the positioning pillar of the connection element are respectively configured with a fixation pillar such that, upon combining the positioning pillar with the positioning part, the fixation pillar penetrates and closes the fixation hole thereby firmly combining the connection element into the combination part.
More specifically, the aforementioned pivotal axle includes a cap part and an axle part, in which the axle part extends from the cap part so the cross-section of the pivotal axle generally demonstrates a “T” shape, and the axle part penetrates the two pivotal holes of the protective lid, the open holes of the first connection part and the second connection part as well as the through hole of the axial rod such that the protective lid and connection element can be combined and the protective lid can be flipped over the connection element.
The aforementioned and other technical contents, aspects and effects in relation with the present invention can be clearly appreciated through the detailed descriptions concerning the preferred embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the appended drawings.
Refer first to
Also, from
Meanwhile, the connection element 21 can be combined with the protective lid 22 by means of a pivotal axle 23, as shown in
Furthermore, the pivotal axle 23 includes a cap part 231 and an axle part 232, in which the axle part 232 extends from the cap part 231 so the cross-section of the pivotal axle 23 generally demonstrates a “T” shape, as shown in
In this way, by means of the torsion spring 24, the protective lid 22 enables an auto-restoration feature, so the protective lid 22 can be flipped over the connection element 21 thereby allowing the protective lid 22 to cover or open the power socket 111.
Compared with other conventional technologies, the outdoor power socket having protective lid structure provided by the present invention further offers the following advantages:
the present invention allows to install a protective structure on the power socket so that, when needed, the user can flip up the protective lid to open the power socket; on the other hand, after completion of use, it can be unplugged so the protective lid can automatically flip to cover the power socket thereby effectively preventing malfunction conditions caused by weather factors due to long-term exposures to outdoor environment.
Through the aforementioned detailed descriptions for the preferred embodiments according to the present invention, it is intended to better illustrate the characteristics and spirit of the present invention rather than restricting the scope of the present invention to the preferred embodiments disclosed in the previous texts. On the contrary, the objective is to encompass all changes and effectively equivalent arrangements within the scope of the present invention as delineated in the following claims of the present application.
