CONNECTOR RECEPTACLE WITH EJECTION MEANS

Description

[0001] The present invention is related to a connector receptacle with ejection means. The connector receptacle according to the invention is particularly useful for easier removal of connector plugs from the connector receptacle.

[0002] One of the essential features of known connector receptacles is that they fix connector plugs by form-fitting. By properly sizing the contact pins of the connector plug, the force needed to pull out the connector plug from the receptacle is in the range of 9 - 54 N, the upper limit of which is unacceptably high. It is a common experience that the connector plug can be pulled out from the receptacle only by using both hands, since the connector plug is stuck in the receptacle. In such a case, the connector receptacle can be partly or entirely torn from the wall due to the increased removing force, which might cause an incident electric shock. In order to avoid such a dangerous situation, the receptacle should be held in place by one hand while pulling the connector plug with a proper force by the other hand. The risk of tearing the receptacle from the wall may be further reduced by using fixing tabs mounted to the concealed part of the receptacle. In order to make the removal of the connector plug from the receptacle easier and, in particular for invalids, to allow one-hand pull-out of the plug, there is a need for a connector receptacle that is provided with an auxiliary means to make the removal of the connector plug from the receptacle easier.

[0003] US Pat. No. 4,042,292 discloses a connector receptacle wherein a tilting plate of a double arm lever mechanism enhances the removal of the connector plug. One arm of the lever is an operating arm, whereas the other arm is in the form of a hinged plate which is used for direct ejection of the connector plug. A disadvantage of this solution is that due to the structural design of the hinged plate, the effective length of the contact pins of the connector plug must be shorter than usual, and - also for constructional reasons - the operating arm protrudes from the plane of the wall, and thus it might be damaged for example by moving a piece of furniture, or it might cause damage in other objects.

[0004] US Pat. No. 4,114,969 discloses a receptacle wherein the removal of the inserted connector plug is assisted by a compressed spring. Although the spring, which is compressed at plugging, make the removal of the connector plug easier, it is more difficult to insert the plug into the receptacle since before inserting, the plug is laterally surrounded by a movable house and thus the orientation of the contact pins of the plug cannot be seen. Another advantage of such a receptacle that the spring mechanism significantly increases the volume of the connector plug.

[0005] Patent description DE 2128601 discloses a connector receptacle provided with an ejection mechanism based on the principle of a double arm lever. At this solution, both the operating arm and the ejecting arm is arranged inside the body of the receptacle, and the operating arm is directly moved by a push bar projecting from the plane of the wall, said push bar being provided with a push button. The push bar is allowed to move perpendicularly to the plane of the wall. In order to remove the connector plug, the push bar is to be pushed towards the receptacle. A disadvantage of this solution is that the push bar protrudes from the front surface of the receptacle therefore wider connector plugs, like the charger of a mobile telephone, cannot be inserted thereto. Moreover, the design of such a receptacle does not satisfy respective standards.

[0006] The above document also discloses further connector receptacles provided with an ejection means essentially based on a single arm lever. In one of this receptacles, only the ejecting arm is arranged inside the receptacle, whereas the operating arm projects outwardly from the receptacle. In order to remove the connector plug, the operating arm, which is provided with a push button, is to be pushed away from the centre of the receptacle, in parallel to the plane of the wall. In the other type of receptacle, both the operating arm and the ejecting arm are arranged inside the receptacle, and the operating arm is directly moved by a wire and a handle, wherein the handle, which is connected to the wire, is arranged outside the receptacle. In order to remove the connector plug from the receptacle, the handle is to be drawn. A disadvantage of these solutions is that drawing movement is rather inconvenient, inefficient from the point of view of ergonomics and might tilt the receptacle in lateral direction.

[0007] Patent description DE 2512193 also discloses a receptacle with ejection means based on the principle of a double arm lever, wherein removal of the connector plug is assisted by a spring mechanism arranged inside the receptacle. In order to remove the connector plug from the receptacle, pushing force should be exerted on the operating arm by the spring mechanism including a ratchet mechanism, whereby a yoke connected to the ejecting arm exerts force on the contact pins of the connector plug, causing it to be ejected. Although forces exerting on the connector plug, in particular on the contact pins thereof, are perpendicular to the plane of the wall and thus stuck of the plug in the receptacle can be avoided during its removal, a great disadvantage of such receptacles is that the force needed to insert the plug exceeds double of the force usually required, which makes insertion of the connector plug more difficult.

[0008] Patent description HU 208882 (WO-A-9220123) discloses a receptacle with ejection means comprising a double arm lever, wherein the ejecting arm directly exerts pushing force on the body of the connector plug. The operating arm of the double arm lever can be moved by a push bar projecting outwardly through the cover plate of the receptacle and being movable perpendicularly to the plane of the wall. In order to remove the connector plug from the receptacle, the push bar provided with a push button is to be pushed towards the wall. Although at this solution, ejection is not assisted by a spring, there is no need of additional force to insert the connector plug into the receptacle. A disadvantage of such receptacles is that significant forces concentrate on certain points of the power transmission mechanism, which might lead to the break of the respective parts. A further disadvantage of this solution is that during ejection, the line of ejecting action is being significantly dislocated, whereby the connector plug can eventually get stuck in the receptacle.

[0009] Patent description FR-A-2740618 discloses a connector receptacle with an ejection means comprising a receptacle body, a cover plate, several contacting elements and an ejection member for ejecting the connector plug. Furthermore a push bar is provided which is connected to one end of the ejection member. The ejection member is rotated by pushing the push bar, which causes the ejection member to emerge, thus ejecting the plug. This solution is also based on the use of a double arm lever, wherein one arm is the push bar itself, and the other arm is the ejection member.

[0010] The objective of the present invention is to eliminate the above mentioned disadvantages of the known connector receptacles and to provide an improved connector receptacle which is simple in construction, easy to mount and allows economic manufacturing.

[0011] Another objective of the present invention is to provide a connector receptacle in which the line of action of the forces exerting on the connector plug has no or hardly any movement during ejection. A further objective of the present invention is to provide an ejection means which is stronger than known ones, and to provide a larger surface for power transmission than in receptacles of the prior art.

[0012] To meet these and other objects, a connector receptacle with an ejection means is provided, the connector receptacle comprising a receptacle body, a cover plate covering the receptacle body, at least one contacting element arranged on and/or within the receptacle body, at least one ejection member for ejecting a connector plug directly or through at least one interposed member, and a push bar connected to one end of the ejection member, said push bar being guided in the receptacle body and/or the cover plate in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the cover plate and used to move the ejection member. The ejection member has a sliding surface matching a cylindrical surface of the receptacle body, said ejection member being adapted to slide along said cylindrical surface to eject the connector plug.
   In a preferred embodiment of the connector receptacle according to the present invention, the ejection member and the push bar are engaged with each other by a toothed push bar and respective toothed ejection member.

[0013] The connector receptacle according to the present invention will be described in more detail by means of the preferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings, where:

Fig. 1A shows a preferred embodiment of the connector receptacle according to the present invention in a plan view;

Fig. 1B shows the connector receptacle of Fig. 1A in perspective view;

Fig. 2 shows the connector receptacle of Fig. 1A in a cross sectional view along plane A-A before ejecting the plug;

Fig. 3 shows the connector receptacle of Fig. 1A in a cross sectional view along plane A-A after ejecting the plug; and

Fig. 4 shows a further embodiment of the connector receptacle according to the invention in a cross sectional view along plane A-A of Fig. 1.

[0014] In Fig. 1A, a connector receptacle 11 according to the present invention is shown in plan view with a connector plug 12 being inserted therein. The plug 12 can be removed from the receptacle 11 by pushing down a push button 19 embedded in the cover plate 22 of the receptacle 11.

[0015] In Fig. 1B, the connector receptacle 11 is shown in perspective view.

[0016] In Fig. 2, the connector receptacle 11 is shown in a cross sectional view along plane A-A before ejecting the plug 12. As a general concept of the present invention, the ejection member 13 is provided with an arcuate sliding surface 25 in such a way that the ejection member 13 can be moved by a push bar 14 along a matching, arcuate surface of the receptacle body, which is formed inside the receptacle body. The ejection member 13 and the push bar 14 are engaged with each other by form-fitting which may be in the form of either a combination of a toothed push bar 14 and a matching toothed ejection member 13, or a pushing shoulder exerting force on the end of the ejection member 13. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the push bar 14 is in the form of a straight and at least partly toothed bar, in particular a toothed rack. The push bar 14 is provided with a push button 19 on its upper end, said push button 19 allowing more convenient push-down of the push bar 14. In case the connector plug 12 is inserted into the receptacle 11, the top surface of the push button 19 and the cover plate 22 of the receptacle 11 lie essentially in the same level.

[0017] The ejection member 13 is allowed to move along an arcuate path 15 which is preferably circular. The ejection member 13 consists of two parts, one of which is an arcuate and at least partly toothed rack 16, whereas the other one is an end portion 17 conhected to the toothed rack 16. The end portion 17 is guided along the arcuate path 15.

[0018] When the connector plug 12 is inserted in the receptacle 11 and the ejection member 13 is in its initial position, the upper surface of the end portion 17 of the ejection member 13 is either in the same plane as or under the internal surface 18 of the receptacle 11. Lower teeth of the push bar 14 and lower teeth of the toothed rack 16 are engaged with each other. The lower end of the push bar 14 projects into the receptacle body 20 in which a guiding member 21 is formed to guide the push bar 14. As shown in Fig. 2, the guiding member 21 is preferably straight.
Ejection of the connector plug 12 is carried out in the following way. By pushing the push button 19, the push bar 14 moves inwards the wall. At this point the push bar 14 exerts a tangential force on the arcuate toothed rack 16, causing it to slide along the arcuate surface 15. Due to this motion the free end of the end portion 17 emerges from the surface 18 of the receptacle 11 in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the wall, and it ejects the inserted connector plug 12.

[0019] In Fig. 3, the connector receptacle 11 is shown in a cross sectional view along plane A-A after ejecting the connector plug 12. In this state of the ejection mechanism, the push bar 14 is entirely pushed in. At this point only the upper teeth of the push bar 14 and the upper teeth of the ejection member 13 are engaged. The end portion 17 of the ejection member 13 emerges to sufficiently high for an easy removal of the connector plug 12 from the receptacle 11.

[0020] In Fig. 4, a further embodiment of the connector receptacle according to the invention is shown in a cross sectional view along plane A-A. The push bar 14 is connected to a spring 23. In the initial state of the ejection mechanism, the spring 23 pushes out the push bar 14, therefore the push button 19 and the cover plate 22 form a smooth surface.

Claims

1. A connector receptacle with an ejection means, the connector receptacle comprising a receptacle body, a cover plate (22) covering the receptacle body, at least one contacting element arranged on and/or within the receptacle body, at least one ejection member (13) for ejecting a connector plug (12) directly or through at least one interposed member, and a push bar (14) connected to one end of the ejection member (13), said push bar (14) being guided in the receptacle body and/or the cover plate (22) in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the cover plate (22) and used to move the ejection member (13), characterised in that the ejection member has a sliding surface (25) matching a cylindrical surface (15) of the receptacle body, said ejection member (13) being adapted to slide along said cylindrical surface (15) to eject the connector plug (12).

2. The connector receptacle according to Claim 1, characterised in that the ejection member (13) and the push bar (14) are engaged with each other by a toothed push bar and respective toothed ejection member.

Revendications

1. Embase de connecteur dotée de moyens d'éjection, l'embase comportant : un corps, une plaque de couverture (22) couvrant le corps de l'embase, au moins un contact arrangé sur et/ou dans le corps de l'embase, au moins un membre d'éjection (13) destiné à éjecter une prise mâle (12) la façon directe ou par un membre interposé, et une tige poussoir (14) connecté à une extrémité du membre d'éjection (13), ladite tige poussoir (14) étant guidée dans le corps de l'embase et/ou dans la plaque de couverture (22) dans une direction perpendiculaire au plan de la plaque de couverture (22) et étant utilisée à déplacer le membre d'éjection (13), caractérisée en ce que le membre d'éjection (13) comporte une surface de glissade adaptée à une surface cylindrique (15) du corps de l'embase, ledit membre d'éjection (13) étant destiné à glisser au long ladite surface cylindrique (15) pour éjecter la prise mâle (12).

2. L'embase de connecteur selon la revendication 1, caractérisée en ce que le membre d'éjection (13) et la tige poussoir (14) sont engagés l'un avec l'autre par une tige poussoir dentée et par un correspondant membre d'éjection denté.

Ansprüche

1. Mit einer Auswurfeinrichtung versehene Steckdose, welche Steckdose einen Sockelkörper, eine den Sockelkörper abdeckende Deckplatte (22), mindestens ein Kontaktelement, welches an dem Sockelkörper und/oder innerhalb des Sockelkörpers angeordnet ist, mindestens ein Auswurfelement (13) zum unmittelbaren oder über mindestens ein zwischengefügtes Element erfolgenden Auswerfen eines Anschlußsteckers (12) und einen an dem einen Ende des Auswurfelementes (13) angeschlossenen Druckstab (14) aufweist, wobei der genannte Druckstab (14) in dem Sockelkörper und/oder in der Deckplatte (22) in einer zur Ebene der Deckplatte (22) senkrechten Richtung geführt ist und zum Bewegen des Auswurfelementes (13) dient, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Auswurfelement eine gleitende Fläche aufweist, die einer zylindrischen Fläche (15) des Sockelkörpers angepaßt ist, wobei das genannte Auswurfelement (13) dazu geeignet ausgebildet ist, entlang der genannten zylindrischen Fläche (15) zu gleiten, um den Anschlußstecker (12) auszuwerfen.

2. Steckdose nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Auswurfelement (13) und der Druckstab (14) durch einen gezahnten Druckstab und ein entsprechend gezahntes Auswurfelement miteinander in Eingriff stehen.

Drawing