This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 101142272, filed Nov. 13, 2012. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure generally relates to a socket and a safety gate mechanism thereof, and more particularly, to a power socket and a safety gate mechanism thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical power has provided the modern family with a convenient and stable energy, but because the “electricity” is something invisible, an inadvertence may cause an electrical induction or a current leakage accident and then harm life and property. Especially in a family having preschoolers or little kids, in general, people must pay more attention to the safety of the electricity.
Children often insert a conductive object such as metallic utensil into a power outlet due to their curiosity nature. Such a power outlet can be, for example, a 110V/220V utility power socket, a power line communication socket (PLC socket) or other various types of power sockets. When the inadvertence occurs, the power socket get short circuit to damage the socket even brings up electricity risk of an electric shock. All these are very dangerous and people must pay great attention. Therefore, how to design an appropriate safety mechanism disposed in a power socket to avoid the user from mistakenly inserting a conductive object into the socket and from short circuit is an important issue in the design of power socket.
Accordingly, the disclosure is directed to a power socket, in which a safety gate mechanism thereof can effectively avoid a conductive object from inserting into a socket main body.
The disclosure is also directed to a safety gate mechanism able to effectively avoid a conductive object from inserting into a socket main body.
The disclosure provides a power socket, which includes a socket main body, a front cover and a safety gate mechanism. The front cover has two openings. The safety gate mechanism includes a casing and a safety gate. The casing is disposed between the socket main body and the front cover and has two inserted holes and at least one protrusion, in which the two inserted holes are disposed correspondingly to the socket main body and respectively aligned with the two openings. The safety gate is slidably disposed at the casing and dislocated from the protrusion, in which when the safety gate is located at a first position, the safety gate blocks the two inserted holes, and two terminals of a plug push the safety gate through the two openings to make the safety gate slide to a second position to expose the two inserted holes; when an object pushes the safety gate through one of the two openings, the safety gate rotates to drive a part of the safety gate to be aligned with the protrusion so as to avoid exposing the two inserted holes.
The disclosure provides a safety gate mechanism suitable for a power socket, in which the power socket includes a socket main body and a front cover. The front cover has two openings. The safety gate mechanism includes a casing and a safety gate. The casing is disposed between the socket main body and the front cover and has two inserted holes and at least one protrusion, in which the two inserted holes are disposed correspondingly to the socket main body and respectively aligned with the two openings. The safety gate is slidably disposed at the casing and dislocated from the protrusion, in which when the safety gate is located at a first position, the safety gate blocks the two inserted holes, and two terminals of a plug push the safety gate through the two openings to make the safety gate slide to a second position to expose the two inserted holes; when an object pushes the safety gate through one of the two openings, the safety gate rotates to drive a part of the safety gate to be aligned with the protrusion so as to avoid exposing the two inserted holes.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the safety gate mechanism further includes an elastic member, the elastic member is disposed between the safety gate and the casing, and the safety gate is configured to position-resume to the first position from the second position by means of elastic force of the elastic member.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the safety gate has two sloped surfaces, the two terminals push the two sloped surfaces to drive the safety gate sliding to the second position from the first position.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, each of the terminals has a sloped surface and the terminal is configured to push the safety gate by the sloped surface so as to drive the safety gate sliding to the second position from the first position.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the safety gate includes a pillaret, a first side portion and a second side portion. The pillaret is slidably disposed at the casing, in which the safety gate rotates around the pillaret. The first side portion and the second side portion are respectively connected to opposite two sides of the pillaret, in which when the safety gate is located at the first position, the first side portion and the second side portion are respectively aligned with the two openings, and the two terminals of the plug push the first side portion and the second side portion through the two openings so as to make the safety gate slide to the second position.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the quantity of the at least one protrusion is two and the protrusions include a first protrusion and a second protrusion, when the object pushes the safety gate through one of the two inserted holes, the safety gate rotates to drive the first side portion to be aligned with the first protrusion or drive the second side portion to be aligned with the second protrusion.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the casing has opposite two side walls, the safety gate is disposed between the two side walls, and the first protrusion and the second protrusion are respectively disposed at the two side walls.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the casing has a bottom wall, a gap between the protrusion and the bottom wall is greater than a thickness of the safety gate, when the safety gate is located at the first position and dislocated from the protrusion, the safety gate is configured to slide to the second position by passing the gap.
Based on the description above, the power socket of the disclosure disposes a safety gate mechanism between the front cover and the socket main body thereof. When the user inserts two terminals of a plug into the power socket through the two openings of the front cover, the two terminals of the plug would push the safety gate of the safety gate mechanism to make the safety gate away from the two inserted holes on the casing of the safety gate mechanism, so that the two terminals can be inserted into the socket main body through the two inserted holes and the disposing of the safety gate mechanism would not hinder the connection between the plug and the power socket. On the other hand, the casing of the safety gate mechanism has protrusions, and when the user inserts an object (such as metallic utensil) into the power socket through one of the two openings of the front cover, the object would push the safety gate to rotate to make the safety gate aligned with the protrusions of the casing, so that the safety gate can be avoided to be pushed away from the inserted holes of the casing by the object by means of the blocking of the protrusions against the safety gate, and it can prevent the object from entering the socket main body to damage the power socket by short circuit. In this way, the disclosure can advance the operation safety of the power socket.
In order to make the features and advantages of the present disclosure more comprehensible, the present disclosure is further described in detail in the following with reference to the embodiments and the accompanying drawings.
The safety gate mechanism 130 includes a casing 132 and a safety gate 134. The casing 132 is disposed between the socket main body 110 and the front cover 120 and has two inserted holes 132a and at least one protrusion (in the figures, a first protrusion 132b and a second protrusion 132b′ are shown). The two inserted holes 132a are disposed correspondingly to the socket main body 110 and respectively aligned with the two openings 122. The safety gate 134 is slidably disposed at the casing 132 and dislocated from the first protrusion 132b and the second protrusion 132b′.
Under the above-mentioned layout, when the user insert the two terminals 52 of the plug 50 into the power socket 100 through the two openings 122 of the front cover 120, the two terminals 52 of the plug 50 would push the safety gate 134 of the safety gate mechanism 130 to move away the safety gate 134 from the two inserted holes 132a on the casing 132 of the safety gate mechanism 130 to allow the two terminals 52 insert the socket main body 110 through the two inserted holes 132a. In this way, the disposing of the safety gate mechanism 130 does not hinder the plug 50 from connecting the power socket 100. On the other hand, the casing 132 of the safety gate mechanism 130 has a protrusion 132b, when the user inserts an object 60 (such as metallic utensil) into the power socket 100 through one of the two openings 122 of the front cover 120, the object 60 pushes the safety gate 134 for rotating, so that the safety gate 134 is aligned with the first protrusion 132b or the second protrusion 132b′ of the casing 132. By using the blocking of the first protrusion 132b and the second protrusion 132b′ against the safety gate 134, the safety gate 134 is avoided to be pushed away from the inserted holes 132a of the casing 132 by the object 60, which can prevent the object 60 from entering the socket main body 110 to produce short circuit and damage the power socket 100 and thus the operation safety of the power socket 100 is advanced.
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In summary, the power socket of the disclosure disposes a safety gate mechanism between the front cover and the socket main body thereof. When the user inserts two terminals of a plug into the power socket through the two openings of the front cover, the two terminals of the plug would push the safety gate of the safety gate mechanism to make the safety gate away from the two inserted holes on the casing of the safety gate mechanism, so that the two terminals can be inserted into the socket main body through the two inserted holes and the disposing the safety gate mechanism would not hinder the connection between the plug and the power socket. On the other hand, the casing of the safety gate mechanism has protrusions, and when the user inserts an object (such as metallic utensil) into the power socket through one of the two openings of the front cover, the object would push the safety gate to rotate to make the safety gate aligned with the protrusions of the casing so that the safety gate can be avoided to be pushed away from the inserted holes of the casing by the object by means of the blocking of the protrusions against the safety gate and it can prevent the object from entering the socket main body to damage the power socket by short circuit. In this way, the disclosure can advance the operation safety of the power socket. In addition, in addition to blocking the two inserted holes of the casing, the first side portion and the second side portion of the safety gate can be blocked by the protrusions on the casing. As a result, during fabricating the safety gate mechanism, there is no need to additionally form structure feature corresponding to the first protrusion and the second protrusion, but the safety gate is still able to be blocked by the protrusions, which simplifies the process of the safety gate mechanism.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the descriptions above are several preferred embodiments of the disclosure only, which does not limit the implementing range of the disclosure. Various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. The claim scope of the disclosure is defined by the claims hereinafter.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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101142272 | Nov 2012 | TW | national |