Heat sensing electrical receptacle

• US 7,501,926 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2005
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: BSafe Electrix, Inc.
• Original Assignee: BSafe Electrix, Inc.
• Inventors: Littlewood, Barry, Watchorn, Douglas, Kopelman, Robert Z.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gandhi; Jayprakash N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thomas; Bradley H
• Application Number:
  US11/088,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20050212646A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,447 Days
• Field of Search: 337/16, 337 36- 39, 337/380, 337/91, 337/113, 361/42
• US Class Current: 337/36
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 37/5409 Bistable switches; Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 37/5418 using cantilevered bimetallic snap elements
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 37/74 Switches in which only the opening movement or only the closing movement of a contact is effected by heating or cooling
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/652 with earth pin, blade or socket
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/7137 with thermal interrupter H01R13/7132 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 2103/00 Two poles
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 24/78 with additional earth or shield contacts
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 25/006 the coupling part being secured to apparatus or structure, e.g. duplex wall receptacle

Abstract

An electrical receptacle has an outlet and senses the operating temperature and automatically turns off when the temperature rises above a predetermined threshold. The receptacle has a reset button that must be manually operated to enable operation of the outlet to resume.

Claims

1. An electrical receptacle, comprising:

a live terminal having a first contact attached to a bimetallic dish,

a feed terminal having a second contact, and

a reset button having a columnar body with a cavity at its base and a button surface at its top and an extension portion located on one side of the columnar body, the extension portion having an arm on its distal end, the reset button also having an internal spring located in the cavity,

wherein,

in a normal reset state, the bimetallic dish bends inward so that the first and second contacts touch and the reset button is in an untripped position and the arm is prevented from moving upwards by the first contact, and

in a tripped state, the bimetallic dish bends outward enabling the internal spring to push upward the arm of the reset button between the first and second contacts so that the reset button is in a tripped position wherein the arm abuts the second contact, the presence of the arm between the first and second contacts preventing the first contact from touching the second contact even if the bimetallic dish bends inward again,

and wherein manual depression of the button surface of the reset button returns the reset button to its untripped position.

2. The electrical receptacle of claim 1, further comprising a cover, and wherein the reset button is flush with the cover in the normal reset state, and the reset button protrudes from the cover in the tripped state.

3. The electrical receptacle of claim 1, wherein the bimetallic dish changes from bending inwards to bending outwards at a predetermined temperature.

4. The electrical receptacle of claim 1, wherein the bimetallic dish is shallow and not dome-shaped.

5. The electrical receptacle of claim 1, wherein the electrical receptacle has at least two outlets, and in the tripped state, power is prevented from flowing in all of the at least two outlets.

6. A method of interrupting operation of an electrical receptacle, comprising:

in a reset state, the electrical receptacle having a line terminal electrically connected to a first contact attached to a bimetallic dish, the bimetallic dish being in an initial orientation, and a feed terminal electrically connected to a second contact, the first and second contacts touching,

in response to a temperature change, the bimetallic dish changing to a triggered orientation and moving the first contact apart from the second contact to be in a triggered state,

the electrical receptacle having a reset button having a columnar body with a cavity at its base and a button surface at its top and an extension portion located on one side of the columnar body, the extension portion having on arm at its distal end, the reset button also having an internal spring located in the cavity, the arm pressing against the first contact in the reset state,

wherein the separation of the first contact from the second contact by the changing of the bimetallic dish going to the triggered state enables the arm to be pressed upward by the internal spring so that the arm abuts the second contact and prevents the first contact from touching the second contact even if the bimetallic dish returns to its initial orientation.