GB2487237A

GB2487237A - An electrical back-box spacer

Info

Publication number: GB2487237A
Application number: GB1100681.4A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Keith Bicknell
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2011-01-17
Filing date: 2011-01-17
Publication date: 2012-07-18
Anticipated expiration: 2031-01-17
Also published as: GB2487237B; GB201100681D0

Abstract

There is provided an electrical back-box spacer 100 for fixing the relative position of first and second electrical back-boxes 201, 202. The electrical back-box spacer comprises a spacer portion 102 and four legs 111, 112, 113, 114 extending from the spacer portion. Each leg has a slot 120 for receiving a wall of an electrical back-box. Two of the legs 111, 112 are on a first side of the spacer portion for engaging with the first electrical back-box, and two of the legs 113, 114 are on a second side of the spacer portion for engaging with the second electrical back-box. The spacer portion may be in the form of a plate 102 with a roughened surface 150 with slightly raised edges 160, or a plate with holes (310, Fig 3) to receive a front panel (400, Fig 4).

Description

AN ELECTRICAL BACK-BOX SPACER

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a spacer for spacing electrical back-boxes apart from one another.

Electrical back-boxes are commonly used to install plug sockets, Telephone & Data boxes, Co-axial points, Light Switches and the like into the walls of buildings. Typically, a supply cable embedded within the wall is fed into the back-box, and the plug socket is fitted to the front of the back-box. Some back-boxes are designed to receive more than one plug socket, for example two plug sockets fed from a common supply cable within the wall.

Back-boxes frequently need to be installed fairly closely to one another, for example, when there are multiple requirements for Electrical sockets, and or Telephone & Data points, Light switches, Ariel outlets etc within the same location which are embedded within a wall. Furthermore, it may be desired to add additional outlets etc to an existing installation. In these situations, two or more back-boxes are installed in fairly close proximity to one another.

The installation of separate electrical back-boxes in close proximity to one another presents a problem in that it is very difficult to ensure the back-boxes are correctly aligned, spaced evenly, level, and have the correct rotational orientation with respect to one another. The required positions for back-boxes can be very carefully measured, but the back-boxes still may move from the intended position whilst setting them into the wall or fixing them in place, and even slight differences in alignment or rotational orientation between two closely spaced back-boxes can give a very untidy and un-professional appearance to the final installation.

It is therefore an aim of the invention to address the above problem.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an electrical back-box spacer for fixing the relative position of first and second electrical back-boxes, the electrical back-box spacer comprising a spacer portion and four legs extending from the spacer portion, each leg comprising a slot for receiving a wall of an electrical back-box, wherein two of the legs are on a first side of the spacer portion for engaging with the first electrical back-box, and wherein two of the legs are on a second side of the spacer portion for engaging with the second electrical back-box.

Advantageously, the receipt of the walls of the electrical back-boxes into the slots of the legs of the electrical back-box spacer enables the relative positioning of the electrical back-boxes to be securely maintained during the fixing of the back-boxes into place, for example into a wall of a building.

Preferably, each slot comprises an open end in to which the wall of the electrical back-box can be inserted, and a closed end against which the top of the wall of the electrical back-box can abut after insertion. Furthermore, the width of the slot may be narrower at the open end of the slot than at the closed end of the slot, to aid gripping of the wall of the electrical back-box by the slot.

The use of four separate legs provides space in between the legs for routing of cables, for example cables running between the electrical back-boxes or cables running within the wall and into the electrical back-boxes. Further legs in addition to the four separate legs may also be provided in some embodiments.

The spacer portion may be in the form of a plate, which may help provide mechanical protection to any circuitry present beneath the plate. The plate may have a roughened surface to aid adhesion to it, for example adhesion of plaster, or the plate may have holes for receiving a front panel.

Advantageously, the electrical back-box spacer 100 may be used to secure the placement of first and second electrical back-boxes without interfering with the functionality of the electrical back-boxes.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of installing electrical back-boxes, comprising fitting the electrical back-box spacer of the first aspect between two or more electrical back-boxes to fix the relative position of the two or more electrical back-boxes, and fixing the electrical back-boxes into a wall.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a schematic perspective diagram of an electrical back-box spacer according to a first embodiment of the invention; Figs. 2a and 2b show schematic perspective diagrams of the electrical back-box spacer of Fig.1 being used to fix the relative positions of electrical back-boxes; Fig.3 shows a schematic perspective diagram of an electrical back-box spacer according to a second embodiment of the invention; Fig.4 shows a schematic perspective diagram of a front panel for use with the electrical back-box spacer of Fig.3; and Fig. 5 shows a plan diagram of two electrical back-boxes having been spaced apart by the electrical back-box spacer of Fig.3, and having the front panel of Fig.4 and two double-plug sockets applied to them.

A first embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to Fig.1 and Figs 2a and 2b. Fig. I shows a schematic diagram of an example electrical back-box spacer 100. The electrical back-box spacer 100 has a spacer portion in the form of a plate 102 and four legs 111, 112, 113, 114 that extend from the plate 102.

The legs 111 and 112 are on a first side of the plate 102 for connecting to a first electrical back-box 201 (see Fig.2a), and the legs 113 and 114 are on a second side of the plate 102 for connecting to a second electrical back-box 202.

Each leg has a slot 120 cut into it for receiving a wall 205 or 206 of an electrical back-box spacer. Each slot has an open end 122 in to which the wall of the electrical back-box can be inserted, and a closed end 121 against which the top of the wall 205 or 206 of the electrical back-box can abut after insertion.

The width of each slot 120 is tapered along the length of the leg, such that the width is narrower at the open end 122 of the slot than at the closed end 121 of the slot, to provide a more secure fitting to the walls of the electrical back-box. In this embodiment, the electrical back-box spacer 100 is formed of a plastic material, although other materials such as metal may also be used.

The use of slots 120 to secure the electrical back-boxes may enable the electrical back-box spacer to be used with existing electrical back-boxes. In other words, the electrical back-boxes may not require any special features in order for use with the electrical back-box spacer.

The plate 102 comprises a first cut-away 130 extending longitudinally between the two legs 111 and 112 at the first side of the plate 102, and a second cut-away 140 extending longitudinally between the two legs 113 and 114 at the second side of the plate 102. The use of cut-aways within the portions of the plate close to the electrical back-boxes can help prevent the plate from interfering with plug sockets that are attached to the electrical back-boxes. The plug sockets may for example be attached to the electrical back-boxes using the tabs 210.

The plate 102 comprises a roughened surface to assist adhesion to the plate, for example to assist adhesion of plaster to be placed between the plug sockets after the plug sockets have been attached to the tabs 210. In this embodiment, the roughened surface is a keyed surface having grooves 150, although other types of roughened surface are obviously also possible.

The plate 102 also has slightly raised edges 160 along the first and second edges of the plate to assist in adhesion and placement of plaster to the plate.

The schematic diagram of Fig.2a shows the electrical back-box spacer 100 being used to connect two similar electrical back-boxes 201 and 202, although the electrical back-box spacer 100 may also be used to connect dissimilar electrical back-boxes, for example electrical back-boxes 301 and 302 as shown in Fig. 2b.

A second embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to Figs 3 -5. The electrical back-box spacer 300 shown in Fig. 3 is the same as the electrical back-box spacer 100, except for that the plate 305 of the electrical back-box spacer 300 does not have a roughened surface, and instead has an attachment means in the form of holes 310 for securing a front panel. Alternatively, other types of attachment means such as clips may also be used for securing a front panel.

The use of a front panel may be advantageous if the electrical back-boxes are recessed deeply into the surface of the wall, such that the plate 305 would be too far recessed into the wall to simply cover it over with plaster or tiling for example. The front panel can be attached to the holes of the plate 305 to reach a height similar to the surface of the wall.

Various forms of suitable front panel will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and in this particular embodiment, a front panel 400 as shown in the schematic diagram of Fig.4 is used. The front panel 400 comprises a plate 410 with two arms 420 extending from the plate 400, the arms 420 for locating into the holes 310 of the plate 305 of the spacer portion.

The front panel 400 has a front surface 412 for forming the external surface between the plug sockets 500 that are inserted into the electrical back boxes, for example as shown in Fig.5. Alternatively, the front panel may simply form a base upon which plaster or tiling for example can be built up.

The arms 420 of the front panel 400 extend from the opposite side of the plate from the front surface 412, and multiple flanges 425 are encircled around each of the arms. The multiple flanges 425 enable the arms to be held at variable insertion depths within the holes 310 of the plate 305 of the spacer portion. For example, the flanges may be formed of multiple rings of a plastic material, each ring for example protruding approximately 0.25mm outwards from the surface of the arm, and being spaced apart from the other rings by approximately 1mm.

In the illustrated embodiments, the plate is at the front side of the electrical back-boxes, and is located at one end of the legs. Alternately, the plate may be located at an alternate position, for example mid-way along each of the legs.

Furthermore, the plate may be replaced with an alternate spacer portion from which the legs extend, for example an open framework to save on the amount of required material for the spacer portion.

In the illustrated embodiments, the legs extend from the corners of the plate. Alternatively, the legs may extend from alternative positions along the first and second sides of the plate.

The width and length of the plate are typically set based upon how widely the electrical back-boxes are to be spaced, and on the size of the electrical back-boxes. The width/length ratio shown in the figures is simply for illustrative purposes.

In the illustrated embodiments, there are exactly four legs with corresponding slots, although additional legs may also be present in further embodiments. For example, six legs with corresponding slots may be provided, three of the legs being on the first side of the spacer portion and three of the legs being on the second side of the spacer portion.

Although the first and second sides of the spacer portion in the illustrated embodiments are on opposite sides of the spacer portion, alternate implementations where the first and second sides of the spacer are on adjacent sides of the spacer portion may also be envisaged.

It will also be understood that the spacer portion may have multiple sets of legs for securing multiple electrical back-boxes, for example the spacer portion may be square or rectangular with two legs on each of the four sides of the spacer portion for securing four electrical back-boxes in place.

Claims

CLAIMS1. An electrical back-box spacer for fixing the relative position of first and second electrical back-boxes, the electrical back-box spacer comprising a spacer portion and four legs extending from the spacer portion, each leg comprising a slot for receiving a wall of an electrical back-box, wherein two of the legs are on a first side of the spacer portion for engaging with the first electrical back-box, and wherein two of the legs are on a second side of the spacer portion for engaging with the second electrical back-box.
2. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 1, wherein each slot comprises an open end in to which the wall of the electrical back-box can be inserted, and a closed end against which the top of the wall of the electrical back-box can abut after insertion.
3. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 2, wherein the width of each slot is narrower at the open end of the slot than at the closed end of the slot.
4. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the spacer portion comprises a plate from which the four legs extend.
5. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 4, wherein the plate comprises a first cut-away extending between the two legs at the first side of the spacer portion, and a second cut-away extending between the two legs at the second side of the spacer portion.
6. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the plate comprises a roughened surface to assist adhesion to the plate.
7. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 4, 5, or 6, wherein the plate has raised edges along the first and second sides of the spacer portion.
8. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the plate comprises attachment means for attaching a front panel.
9. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 8, wherein the attachment means comprises holes in the plate.
10. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 9, further comprising a front panel having a plate with two arms extending from the plate, the arms for locating into the holes of the plate of the spacer portion.
11. An electrical back-box spacer according to claim 10, wherein the arms of the front panel comprise multiple flanges around each arm, the multiple flanges enabling the arms to be held at variable insertion depths within the holes of the plate of the spacer portion.
12. An electrical back-box spacer according to any preceding claim, wherein the first and second sides of the spacer portion are at opposing sides of the spacer portion.
13. A method of installing electrical back-boxes, comprising fitting the electrical back-box spacer of any preceding claim between two or more electrical back-boxes to fix the relative position of the two or more electrical back-boxes, and fixing the electrical back-boxes into a wall.
14. An electrical back-box spacer substantially as described herein or as shown in the accompanying drawings.