DE29811503U1 - Childproof lock for electrical sockets - Google Patents

Description

Applicant:

Dipl.-Ing.
Hans-Dieter Ernicke Sanderstrasse 48 8 6161 Augbsurg

Representative:

Patent attorneys
Dipl.-Ing. H.-D. Ernicke Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Ernicke Schwibbogenplatz 2b D-86153 Augsburg

Date:

File:

26.06.1998
352-311 ern/ha

: tv

DESCRIPTION Child safety lock for electrical sockets

The invention relates to a child safety device for electrical sockets with a thin locking disc made of plastic which is guided in a spring-loaded manner in the socket housing and which has two recesses for receiving the plug contacts of a plug, which are covered at the back by a base disc made of plastic which is held stationary in the socket housing and which in turn has offset recesses for the plug contacts to pass through, which are aligned with the recesses of the locking disc when the latter is rotated or moved.

In the current state of the art, the child safety lock is made up of two housing-forming discs that are held together in a fixed position in the socket housing and secured against twisting. The housing facing outwards has curved slots that limit the path that the plug contacts of a plug travel when the child safety lock is turned. The other housing part has two recesses at the same distance as the plug contacts of a plug. Between the two housing parts there is a rotating disc that is guided in one housing part and is connected to the other housing part via an inserted S-shaped spring. This rotating disc has two recesses for inserting the plug contacts of the plug.

Such a child safety lock design is very complex and costly due to the three plastic parts and the S-shaped spring used, which is particularly due to the complicated assembly of the individual parts.

The invention is therefore based on the object of developing a child safety lock that requires fewer parts, is very easy to assemble and is therefore cost-effective to manufacture and sell.

According to the invention, this object is achieved in that the base disc and the locking disc have interlocking, partly rigid, partly resilient webs made of molded-on material on their mutually facing sides.

In the subject matter of the invention, only two plastic parts are needed to achieve the child safety lock. One component, the base disc, is held in place in the socket housing and secured against rotation. The second part, the locking disc, is guided so that it can rotate on this base disc. When these two plastic parts are placed on top of each other, the stationary webs of one part engage between the spring webs of the other part and thus form a spring-loaded arrangement of the locking disc.

It has proven to be useful if the base disc has a radially extending opening into which two curved, molded spring bars arranged in opposite directions protrude, with the rigid bars of the locking disc engaging between the spring bars of the base disc and supporting themselves on the edge of the opening. It is advantageous if the rigid bars of the locking disc form a physical unit with the locking disc.

According to the invention, the rigid webs of the locking disc have a diagonally extending central web and adjacent, curved guide webs, which are connected to a hollow groove-shaped bulge of the opening edge of the base disc

The purpose of supporting the curved guide bars on the concave recesses of the opening edge is to give the relatively thin-walled guide bars sufficient guidance and support so that they can easily bend the spring bars when the locking disc is turned, which then results in the recesses in the locking disc becoming congruent with the recesses in the base disc. If the plug is pulled out of the socket, the restoring force of the spring bars is so great that the locking disc returns to its original position, covering the recesses.

IV

— 4 — ·· ·· «&bgr;_#

Details of the invention are shown schematically and by way of example in the drawing. They show:

Figure 1: a plan view of a

Socket housing fixed base plate,

Figure 2: a plan view of a locking disc that can be connected to the base disc,

Figure 3: a top view of the child safety lock in the

assembled state of base disc and locking disc and

Figure 4: a rear view of the child safety lock of

Figure 3.

The child safety lock shown in the drawing consists of two flat plastic parts, namely a base disc (4) according to Figure 1 and a locking disc (2) according to Figure 2. The locking disc (4) has a circular step (14) whose diameter corresponds to the diameter of the locking disc (2). As will be shown later, the locking disc (2) is inserted in a position (reverse to Figure 2) into the circular step (14) of the base disc (4).

The base plate (4) has two recesses (5) that are congruent with the contacts in the socket. The locking plate (2) also has two recesses (3) that are open towards the edge and, when the locking plate (2) is inserted into the circular step (14) of the cover plate (4), are positioned in such a way that the recesses (5) of the base plate (4) are covered by the locking plate (2).

·

In the embodiment of the invention, the base disk (4) has spring bars (6) and the locking disk (2) has rigid bars (7). When the locking disk (2) and base disk (4) are assembled, the rigid bars (7) should engage between the spring bars (6), as shown in Figure 3, whereby the locking disk (2) in the base disk (4) can be rotated against spring force.

In order to achieve this reset function, a radial opening (8) is provided in the base disc (4), into which project curved spring bars (9) which extend from the edge of the opening (8), i.e. are molded on and have spring properties due to their release. The opening edge (10) also has concave-shaped bulges (13), the function of which will be described later.

The rigid webs (7) of the locking disc (2) are also molded onto the locking disc (2), but do not have any spring properties. Rather, they extend in a raised manner over one end face of the locking disc (2). The rigid webs (7) are formed by a diagonal center web (11) with curved guide webs (12) connected to it. The center web (11) and guide webs (12) together form the shape of an S.

When inserting the locking disc (2) into the circular step (14) of the base disc (4), it is only necessary to ensure that the diagonal middle bar (11) is positioned between the ends of the spring bars (6,9) . As shown in Figure 3, the curved guide bars (12) are centered on the concave recesses (13) of the opening edge (10) of the base disc (5). If the locking disc (2) is inserted using the plug contacts

of a plug is twisted, the curved guide webs (12) slide along the concave recesses (13), while the diagonal center web (11) bends the spring webs (6,9) slightly, which ensures that the locking disk (2) can be twisted in the base disk (4) until the recesses (3) in the locking disk (2) are aligned with the recesses (5) in the base disk (4). Only now can the plug be inserted into the socket housing.

Figure 3 shows the outer surface of the locking disc (2) and base disc (4) which is located on the inside of the socket housing and is therefore not visible from the outside. Figure 4, on the other hand, shows the rear side, i.e. the side of the locking disc (2) and base disc (4) which is visible from the outside, from which it can be seen that only the covered recesses (3) of the locking disc (2) are visible.

(15) shows locking recesses in the base plate (4) through which the spring-loaded neutral contacts of the socket engage. (16) shows rotation locking projections on the base plate (4) which are intended for rotationally locking anchoring of the base plate (4) in the socket housing.

PARTS LIST

1 Parental controls

2 Locking disc 3 Recess

4 Base disc

5 Recess

6 Spring bar

7 rigid web &iacgr;&ogr; 8 breakthrough

9 curved spring bar

10 Breakthrough edge

11 diagonal center bar

12 curved guide bar

13 concave bulge

14 circular steps

15 Locking recess

16 Turn lock attachment

Claims (4)

1. Child safety lock ( 1 ) for electrical sockets with a thin locking disk ( 12 ) made of plastic which is guided in a spring-loaded manner in the socket housing and which has two recesses ( 3 ) for receiving the plug contacts of a plug, which are covered at the back by a base disk ( 4 ) made of plastic which is held stationary in the socket housing and which in turn has offset recesses ( 5 ) for the plug contacts to pass through, which are aligned with the recesses ( 3 ) of the locking disk ( 2 ) when it is rotated or moved, characterized in that the base disk ( 4 ) and the locking disk ( 2 ) have interlocking, partly rigid ( 7 ), partly resilient webs ( 6 ) made of molded-on material on their sides facing one another. 2. Child safety lock according to claim 1, characterized in that the base disc ( 4 ) has a radially extending opening ( 8 ) into which two curved and oppositely arranged molded spring bars ( 6 ) protrude, and that the rigid bars ( 7 ) of the locking disc ( 2 ) engage between the spring bars ( 6 ) of the base disc ( 4 ) and are supported on the opening edge ( 10 ). 3. Child safety lock according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the rigid webs ( 7 ) of the locking disc ( 2 ) form a physical unit with the locking disc ( 2 ). 4. Child safety lock according to claim 3, characterized in that the rigid webs ( 7 ) of the locking disc ( 2 ) have a diagonally extending central web ( 11 ) and curved guide webs ( 12 ) adjoining thereto, which interact with a concave bulge ( 13 ) of the opening edge ( 10 ) of the base disc ( 4 ).