This invention concerns a wall plate that mounts about a hole in a wall structure for passing electrical wiring from the wall into a room. The wall plate has an opening therein for the passage of a low voltage communication cable of the type that is to connect to a home theater, a stereo system and other communication devices. The wall plate also includes a high voltage plug receptacle for powering the communication device.
When communications devices such as stereo systems, televisions, computers, home theaters, etc. are to be placed in a room of a building structure, it is desirable to have the communication cable(s) leading to the equipment pass interiorly through the hollow wall structure to a position adjacent the equipment and then through an opening in the wall board to the equipment. A wall plate having a cable access opening may be mounted in the wall opening for extending the cable into the room and forming a neater look about the wall opening. This also provides a neater look in the room by avoiding the lengths of cable from being exposed in the room.
In the past, wall plates usually were simply flat plastic plates mountable to the wall over the holes in the walls, and the wall plates had access holes passing the cable(s) into the room. This formed a more “finished look” to the cable entry. However, when the hole in the wall plate was not occupied by a cable, or when the cable occupied less than all the space of the access hole, a person could see through the access hole in the wall plate and possibly see into the wall structure.
Later, wall plates were developed that have a cable support extension or “nose shield” that protrudes from the wall plate into the room, with the nose shield having a vertically facing opening that communicates with the horizontally facing access hole in the wall plate. The cable was extended from the access opening and through the nose shield and into the room for connection to the sound system, etc. This type of wall plate having a nose-shield has met with popular use since the nose-shield provides a visual barrier through the opening in the wall plate.
More recently, some electrical appliances, particularly flat screen televisions, are mounted directly to the wall, so that the protruding nose of a wall plate interferes with mounting the television in flat abutment with the surface of the wall. The wall plate can be displaced laterally or vertically with respect to the flat screen television with the opening of the nose of the wall plate directed toward the television so as to provide the least exposure of the cable. However, this arrangement does not hide the wall plate or the short run of the cable leading to the television set, and usually is considered visually obnoxious.
In addition to the running of communications cable to the communications equipment, a high voltage line that runs from the TV set or other communications equipment to a plug receptacle may be required. This is likely to present a similar visual problem for the home owner. The high voltage power plug receptacle might be displaced from the position of the equipment and the power line is similarly visually exposed.
It is to the above-described matters that this invention is directed.
Briefly described, this invention concerns a dual purpose wall plate for mounting about an opening in a wall structure for operating a communications device such as a flat screen television set, a sound system or other device. The wall plate has an access opening that passes a low voltage communications cable from inside a hollow wall through the wall board to a communications device. Also, the wall plate includes a high voltage plug receptacle for receiving the plug of the electrical supply cord from the communications device.
The wall plate includes a flat support plate having an inner surface for mounting against the wall about the wall opening. An access opening is formed in the support plate for alignment with the wall opening, and a cable support extension or “nose shield” is mounted to the inner surface of the support plate for extending from the support plate and through the wall opening into the wall structure. The cable support extension has an internal sloped wall that is sloped with respect to the wall plate and that defines a cable passage oriented at an angle with respect to the support plate that is in registration with the access opening. The cable support extension extends into the wall structure so that an electrical cable can extend from within the wall structure, along the cable support extension and through the access opening and to the communications device, and the cable support extension forms a sight barrier from outside the wall structure through the access opening.
The support plate is flat and formed so as to be substantially coextensive with the wall to which it is to be mounted, such that substantially no protrusion extends from the outer surface of the support plate into the room. This enables objects such as a flat screen television to be mounted substantially flush with the vertical wall surface.
Preferably, the cable support extension or “nose” extends a distance between 2 and 3-½ inches from the support plate in a direction laterally from the support plate, for projecting into the wall structure. Since most wall structures are formed with wall board of less than one inch thickness that are mounted to vertical studs that are 3-¾ inches wide, the relatively large cable support extension of the wall plate can be accommodated by the typical wall structure.
Preferably, the cable support extension includes, in cross section, a U-shaped wall including opposed side wall segments mounted at the side edges of the support plate access opening and a distal wall segment mounted at one of the end edges of the support plate access opening and joined to the side wall segments and sloped away from the inner surface of the support plate. This U-shaped wall or “nose shield” defines open ends, with one open end in communication with the access opening of the support plate and the opposed inner open end extending into the interior of the wall structure.
The high voltage plug receptacle is mounted side-by-side with the nose of the wall plate. In one embodiment there is a plug receptacle housing supported on the inner surface of the support plate that opens through the support plate, and the plug receptacle is mounted to the outside surface of the back wall of the plug receptacle housing and is displaced from the support plate a distance sufficient to receive a plug within the plug receptacle housing.
When the wall plate is located in a position low in a wall structure, the inner opening of the sloped cable support extension may be installed so that the opening faces upwardly within the hollow wall so that the line of sight for the typical person standing or sitting in the room does not see the inner opening of the cable support extension. Likewise, if the wall plate is to be placed high on the wall, the wall plate can be inverted so that the inner opening of the sloped cable support extension faces downwardly inside the hollow wall so that a person standing or sitting in the room does not see the inner opening of the cable support extension. Thus, the cable support extension forms an interior sight barrier when the wall plate is exposed to view, but the wall plate does not have an extension that projects into the room. When the wall plate is to be placed behind a flat screen television or other wall mounted object, the cable support extension does not protrude outwardly of the support plate and, therefore, does not interfere with placement of the flat screen television, etc. on the wall.
Likewise the recessed plug receptacle is recessed in the wall plate so that it has enough space in front of it to allow the plug of the communications device to be received in the wall plate to avoid protruding from the wall plate.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved wall plate for mounting about a wall opening of a wall structure for the passage of communication cable, with the wall plate being shaped and positioned so as to avoid interference with the mounting of objects directly to the wall at the position of the wall plate and to provide an interior sight barrier to avoid viewing through the opening in the wall.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now in more detail to the drawings, in which like numerals indicate like parts throughout the several views,
When electrical wiring is to be installed in the building structure, it is common that the wiring pass through the hollow spaces between the studs 15 and the sheetrock panels 13 and 14 to accommodate wall plugs, light switches and, in recent years, communications cable for television sets, stereo systems, and home theaters. In some instances, the communications cable is formed in bundles of cables that extend to speaker systems throughout a room or throughout a building, such that the wires from the speakers must all be gathered back to the sound system. This may involve several communications cables in a bundle, with the bundle being of a larger diameter that requires additional space for leading to the source of the sound system. This may require a relatively large low voltage opening formed in the wall plate to accommodate the cables.
In addition, high voltage power such as 110 volts electrical power may be required to operate the communications system at the same position where the low voltage cables are gathered. To accommodate this, an opening 17 (
As shown in
As shown in
The cable support extension is approximately U-shaped in cross section and its inner surface 36 within the hollow wall 12 is sloped away from the support plate 20 at an angle between about 55° and 60°. Cable support extension 32 also includes a hump 37 between the rear sloped surface 36 and the support plate 20 where the cable support extension is joined to the inner surface 22 of the support plate 20 (
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
It will be noted from
It will be noted that the portions of the support plate 20 are larger than the typical double gang support box commonly available for mounting double fixtures. Because of the larger breadth of the wall plate, the single gang mounting box 60 is used to mount the wall plate, with the plug receptacle housing being received in the single gang mounting box. In order to properly mount the other half of the wall plate that includes the cable support extension 32, lock wings 56 and 57 (
The procedure for mounting the wall plate 10 in the wall structure is to mount the single gang mounting box 60 to the single wide opening in the wall panel and extend the opening in the wall panel for receiving the wall plate. Once the single gang support box 60 has been mounted, a template (not shown) is provided to the installer that aligns one side of the template opening with the single gang mounting box, with the other side of the opening of the template extending the proper distance laterally, showing the position and shape of the opening that must be cut into the wall panel. The installer forms the cutout, and this forms the hole of the right size and shape for receiving the wall plate 10.
The wall plate 10 as described herein is suitable for mounting communications products flat against the wall, such as a flat screen television. The wall plate provides passage for low voltage communication cable and provides high voltage power to the site of the communications device. The wall plate design is likely to be desirable for connections of other communications equipment since it provides a power and substantially flat surface on the wall panel, with no protrusions extending into the room.
The wall plate may be formed in different sizes and shapes as may be desired, and the cable support extension 32 and it support plate opening 26 may be formed with larger or smaller breadths to accommodate larger or smaller bundles of cable. The side portion that bears the cable support extension 32 may be wider or smaller since this portion of the wall plate does not require a support box. For example, the wall plate 10 may be about 2½ times as wide as a common single gang wall plate. As previously stated, a single gang support box may be used to support the side of the support plate at the plug receptacle housing and a template may be used for extending the wall hole to accommodate virtually any size side opening for the nose shield since the nose shield side of the wall plate has lock wings to connect to the wall board.
Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variations and modifications of the disclosed embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
This is a continuation-in-part of co-pending application Ser. No. 11/355,553 filed in the U.S. Patent Office on Feb. 16, 2006, which is adopted herein in its entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
D126098 | McIntosh | Mar 1941 | S |
D131009 | Leslie | Jan 1942 | S |
D131010 | Leslie | Jan 1942 | S |
D134477 | Leslie | Dec 1942 | S |
2427349 | Boynton | Sep 1947 | A |
4289921 | Gartner et al. | Sep 1981 | A |
D261924 | Donohue | Nov 1981 | S |
4504698 | Greenwood | Mar 1985 | A |
D286739 | Larsson | Nov 1986 | S |
4688747 | Helmsdorfer et al. | Aug 1987 | A |
D301333 | Bongard et al. | May 1989 | S |
D301336 | Copeland | May 1989 | S |
D301872 | Copeland | Jun 1989 | S |
D321557 | Bezick et al. | Nov 1991 | S |
5114365 | Thompson et al. | May 1992 | A |
5218169 | Riceman | Jun 1993 | A |
5243135 | Shotey | Sep 1993 | A |
5257946 | MacMillan et al. | Nov 1993 | A |
D346587 | Herman et al. | May 1994 | S |
D350278 | Figueroa | Sep 1994 | S |
5419716 | Sciammarella et al. | May 1995 | A |
D369953 | Carr | May 1996 | S |
D370890 | Tiberio, Jr. | Jun 1996 | S |
D379797 | Arnett | Jun 1997 | S |
5645449 | Sabo | Jul 1997 | A |
5664955 | Arnett | Sep 1997 | A |
D399829 | Reed | Oct 1998 | S |
D401561 | Brownell et al. | Nov 1998 | S |
D408018 | McNaughton | Apr 1999 | S |
D411734 | Hsiang | Jun 1999 | S |
D430149 | Afshar-Ghochani | Aug 2000 | S |
D449584 | Dinh | Oct 2001 | S |
6297450 | Yu | Oct 2001 | B1 |
D450663 | Smith | Nov 2001 | S |
6520363 | Sullivan | Feb 2003 | B1 |
D495041 | Thomas | Aug 2004 | S |
D495301 | Newell | Aug 2004 | S |
D502386 | Provenzano et al. | Mar 2005 | S |
D503156 | Provenzano | Mar 2005 | S |
6932624 | Hoopes et al. | Aug 2005 | B1 |
7022915 | Galguera | Apr 2006 | B1 |
7067737 | Mallen | Jun 2006 | B2 |
D544475 | Udagawa et al. | Jun 2007 | S |
7247793 | Hinkson et al. | Jul 2007 | B2 |
7271339 | Dinh | Sep 2007 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20070197061 A1 | Aug 2007 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 11355553 | Feb 2006 | US |
Child | 11733527 | US |