Plug connector and receptacle

• US 4,403,824 A
• Filed: 03/02/1981
• Issued: 09/13/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: The Scott Fetzer Company (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: The Scott Fetzer Company (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Inventors: Scott, Ernest R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Abrams, Neil
• Application Number:
  US06/239,502
• Time in Patent Office: 925 Days
• Field of Search: 339/184, 339/186
• US Class Current: 439/680
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/64 Means for preventing incorrect coupling

Abstract

A female electrical connector which has a cross section distinguished by a deep keyway allowing it to be accepted by a complementarily shaped appliance receptacle having a discriminator blade which interfits with the keyway but which rejects other connector arrangements. The disclosed connector discourages possibly unsafe consumer practices in cord set use while affording a degree of manufacturing standardization with other connector and receptacle arrangements.

Claims

1. A detachable cord set in combination with an electrical appliance such as an electric vacuum cleaner having a housing, a receptacle on the housing, the receptacle including a cavity, a pair of flat electrical blades spaced from one another in parallel planes within the cavity and adapted to cooperate with means in the housing for connecting them to an electrical load in the housing, a flat discriminator blade in said cavity in a plane midway between said electrical blades, the cord set having at one end a connector for electrically energizing said electrical blades, said connector having an engagement end face, said end face having a pair of recesses adapted to receive said electrical blades, said recesses being narrow rectangular formations aligned with spaced parallel planes, said connector including internal contactors associated with each of said recesses and adapted to contact said electridal blades, a forward section of said connector being receivable in said cavity, said forward section being substantially a prismatic projection of the perimetric profile of said end face, said connector end face profile including two mutually opposed straight long sides and two mutually opposed short sides, the corners joining one long side to the short sides being beveled, the corners joining the opposite long side to the two short sides being rounded, said end face being substantially the same as that of the standard European connector type CEE-22 but with the central grounding contact recess being replaced by a narrow rectangular keyway, said keyway extending through the mid-zone of the one long side, the plane of the keyway being generally parallel to the recesses and in a plane midway between them, the keyway extending laterally into and beyond a plane common to said recesses, said flat discriminator blade of said receptacle being adapted to slide longitudinally into said keyway when the connector is inserted into said cavity, said discriminator blade with the connector inserted in the cavity extending laterally outward of the plane of the side of the connector associated with said keyway.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, wherein said discriminator blade is integrally formed with an insulator element extending across substantially the full distance between said electrical blades.

3. A detachable cord set for an electrical appliance having a receptacle with a geometrically coded cavity, the cord set including at one end a connector body for reception into the cavity, the connector body having a lead end face defining a perimetric profile complementary to the cavity with only one orientation acceptable thereto, a lead section of the connector body having a length at least generally equal to the depth of the cavity, the exterior of the lead section being defined by a generally prismatic projection of said lead end face profile, said lead end face profile including two mutually opposed straight long sides and two mutually opposed short sides, the corners joining one long side to the short sides being beveled, the corners joining the opposite long side to the two short sides being rounded, said end face being substantially the same as that of the standard European connector type CEE-22 but with the central grounding contact recess being replaced by a narrow rectangular keyway, said keyway extending through the mid-zone of the one long side, said end face being interrupted by a pair of recesses of relatively narrow rectangular form, the recesses being symmetrically spaced on opposite sides of the plane of said keyway and being in parallel alignment therewith, the keyway extending laterally inward from its associated long side into a plane common to said recesses, and an electrical contactor associated with each of said recesses within the body of the connector.