GB2436173A

GB2436173A - Electrical connection box for motor installation

Info

Publication number: GB2436173A
Application number: GB0603161A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Gary Ryecroft
Original assignee: P D TECHNOLOGY Ltd
Current assignee: P D TECHNOLOGY Ltd
Priority date: 2006-02-17
Filing date: 2006-02-17
Publication date: 2007-09-19
Also published as: GB0603161D0

Abstract

An electrical connector box for a motor installation, such as a tubular motor in a roller shutter garage door opener, has a motor connection section 34, a switch connection section 32 and a power supply connection section 38. There may also be an earth section 36. Suitable electrical connections are provided between the sections, for example by a printed circuit. This allows the connection box to be wired up by an unqualified fitter, without requiring a qualified electrician. The connection box may include a fuse 40 and a neon indicator 42. The connection sections may connect to terminal blocks on the incoming cables.

Description

Electrical Connector This invention relates to an electrical connector,

particularly, but not limited to, an electrical connector for use in the fitting of a tubular motor.

Roller shutter doors using tubular motors are popular for use in domestic situations as garage doors. The fitting of such roller shutter doors, whilst not particularly difficult, requires some technical knowledge. It is undesirably expensive to arrange for a mechanical fitter to put the mechanical parts of a roller shutter door in place to be followed by an electrically qualified fitter to arrange the electrical connection.

It is an object of the present invention to address the above mentioned disadvantage.

:. According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an electrical connector box for a motor installation, the electrical connector box having a motor : ,* connection section, a switch connection section and a

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power supply connection section, wherein suitable electrical connections are provided between the motor, SI *s* * : 25 switch and power supply connection sections and the *:*. connection sections are adapted to receive wires from a power supply, a switch and a motor.

The motor may be a tubular motor.

The connector box may include an earth connection section.

Electrical connections are preferably provided between the earth section and at least one other connection section.

Preferably, the electrical connections between the connection sections are formed on a printed circuit board.

Preferably, at least one of the connection sections is adapted to receive a connector block for at least one of a power supply, a tubular motor or a switch for the tubular motor. Preferably, the or each connection block is attached to wiring for the power supply, tubular motor or switch for easy connection to the relevant connection section. Preferably, the switch, motor and power supply connections are all adapted to receive a connector block for the relevant connection.

Preferably, a neon indicator is provided to show integrity of a supply and/or fuse.

Preferably, the electrical connector box is adapted to be mounted on a suitable surface, such as a wall. A rear 20 section of the connector box may have at least one opening S.' therein to receive fixings. A front section of the connector box may be provided as a cover. A front section of the electrical connector box may incorporate at least one opening, through which an electrical wire for the S. SSS.

power supply, switch and/or motor may be received.

*..: Preferably, an opening is provided for each of the power supply, switch and motor connections.

The opening(s) and/or connection sections and/or neon indicator are preferably attached to/formed in the rear section.

The tubular motor may be a tubular motor for a closure device, which may be a roller shutter.

The invention extends to a tubular motor system incorporating a tubular motor for driving, a closure device, a switch and an electrical connector box as described above.

All of the features described herein may be combined with any of the above aspects, in any combination.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how embodiments of the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic wiring diagram for a switched tubular motor circuit; S. * . * .5S Figure 2 is a schematic wiring diagram for a key switched * S *5S tubular motor circuit; * S. * S S S.. 5 *. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an electrical connection box without internal connections for use with **SS..

* * 25 the fitting of an electrical tubular motor installation; IS * * I S * S. Figure 4 is a view similar to that of Figure 3 except showing the internal electrical connections, together with external connections to switch, tubular motor and power supply; and Figure 5 is a schematic perspective view of a rear portion of the electrical connection box shown in Figures 3 and 4.

In order to provide the wiring for a roller shutter door driven typically by a tubular motor, a fitter, who would not normally be electrically qualified, has to obtain connection blocks and to wire up a power supply, motor, switch and connect those parts together properly using his technical knowledge of the electrical connections

required. As referred to in the introduction, such

technical expertise is not always readily available, or is expensive to employ. Consequently, an electrical connection box is described below that provides considerably easier connection of a tubular motor for a roller shutter door, a switch therefore and a power supply.

Figures 1 and 2 show the electrical connections that are required without the electrical connection box. An electrical supply 10 is wired to a tubular motor 12, as well as a switch 14. Similarly, in Figure 2, the electrical connections for a roller shutter door driven by a tubular motor 12 but operated with a key switch 16 and powered by an electrical supply 10 are shown. In Figures 1 and 2 the earth, neutral and live parts of the power supply are shown by 18, 20 and 22 respectively. The open and closed contacts of the switch 14 and the key switch 16 in relevant figures are shown at 24 and 26 respectively.

Figure 3 shows the physical parts of an electrical connection box 30. For clarity, the electrical connections between the various parts are not shown in Figure 3, but are shown in Figure 4. In Figure 3 a switch connector block has terminals Tb, T11 and Tl2 which are provided for connection to an open, feed and close connections of a switch 14 or 16 as shown in Figure 1 or 2.

A motor connection block 34 has terminals T7, T8 and T9 for connection to neutral, close and open terminals respectively of the tubular motor 12 shown in Figures 1 and 2.

An earth connection block 36 has terminals T4, T5 and T6, all for connection to earth.

A supply connection block has terminals Tl, T2 and T3 for connection to live, neutral and earth terminals of the electrical supply 10 shown in Figures 1 and 2. The electrical connection box 30 also incorporates a 6.3 Amp fuse 40 and a neon indicator 42.

Figure 4 shows the electrical connections between the connection blocks 32 to 38. The switch connection block * * * 20 32 has electrical connections at terminals T10 to Tl2 to * * *SS.

the switch 14/16. The open, feed and close terminals on the switch connection block 32 are connected to the open, feed and close wiring of the switch 14/16. The motor *....: connection block 34 is connected to the open, close and * . 25 neutral wiring of the motor 12. The earth connection S. 5 block 36 has connections to the required earthing for the switch 14/16 and motor 12.

The electrical connections between the connection blocks 32 to 38 are made by use of the printed circuit 44 (see Figure 5) on which the connection blocks 32 to 38 are located.

Figure 5 shows a rear plate of the electrical connection box 30, on which the printed circuit board 44 and connection blocks 32 to 38 are located. As shown in Figure 5, the connection blocks 32 to 38 have a pluggable terminal block to which wired connectors for the electrical supply 10, motor 12 and switch 14/16 can be connected. The rear section of the electrical connection box 30 also includes three grommets 46a,b and c, through which electrical cables(not shown) for the switch, motor and electrical supply respectively are inserted.

Connector blocks on the end of these cables are then inserted into the switch connector block 32, the motor connector block 34 and the supply connector block 38 respectively.

All that is required of a fitter using the electrical connection box 30 described above is to take the cables from the electrical supply 10, the motor 12 and the switch 14/16, to thread those cables through their respective *,, 20 grommets 46a, 46b and 46c, attach a connector to those

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cables and then insert that connector into the relevant : .". connection block 32, 34 or 38. It is not necessary to 5S 5 provide connections between relevant electrical connector blocks, because those connections are already provided on S. * * 25 the printed circuit board 44. Thus, a fully qualified *S 5 * S S * *. electrician is not needed to complete the wiring for such a tubular motor.

The electrical connection box 30 described herein is particular advantageous in the field of roller shutter doors, which use tubular motors, because those doors are typically fitted by a mechanically skilled operative who does not have electrical training. Thus, the surprising insight of the invention described herein is that a mechanically trained fitter with no electrical training can advantageously fit both the mechanical parts for a roller shutter door or other tubular motor operated device and he can also complete the electrical connections required using the electrical connection box 30 described above. The tubular motors used would typically be single phase, would typically use switches or key switches and have forward/reverse centering.

The electrical connection box 30 described above provides significant safety advantages, because the fitter of the mechanical parts is not required to have an electrical training beyond a minimal amount, which is considerably less than would have been the case if no electrical connection box had been provided.

The electrical connection box 30 can be provided with an electrical cable already pre-inserted into the grommet 46c 20 with the wiring to the supply already connected. The other end of this cable could have a standard electrical plug on it, it could be pre-wired with a resettable RCD device incorporated into a standard plug.

Attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

Fach feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s) . The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features

disclosed in this specification (including any

accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed * * S. * S * S.. * *.S

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S. 55s* * S I. * S * * S *S

Claims

Claims: 1. An electrical connector box for a motor installation, the

electrical connector box having a motor connection section, a switch connection section and a power supply connection section, wherein suitable electrical connections are provided between the motor, switch and power supply connection sections and the connection sections are adapted to receive wires from a power supply, a switch and a motor.

2. The electrical connector box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motor is a tubular motor.

3. The electrical connector box as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the connector box includes an earth connection section.

4. The electrical connector box as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein electrical connections are provided between the earth section and at least one other connection section.

5. The electrical connector box as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the electrical connections between the connection sections are formed on a printed circuit board.

6. The electrical connector box as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein at least one of the connection sections is adapted to receive a connector block for at least one of a power supply, a tubular motor or a switch for the tubular motor.

7. The electrical connector box as claimed in claim 6, wherein the or each connection block is attached to wiring for the power supply, tubular motor or switch for easy connection to the relevant connection section.

8. The electrical connector box as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the switch, motor and power supply connections are all adapted to receive a connector block for the relevant connection.

9. The electrical connector box as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a neon indicator is provided to show integrity of a supply and/or fuse.

10. The electrical connector box as claimed in any of claims 2 to 9, wherein the tubular motor is a tubular motor for a closure device.

11. A tubular motor system incorporating a tubular motor for driving a closure device, a switch and an electrical connector box as claimed in any of claims 1-10.