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Schlessinger; Marc A.

Marc A Schlessinger

Myron E Ullman

Mark E Rosenkranz

Ronald Rich

Housing and bracket portions of an electrical receptacle

An electrical receptacle includes a housing that is defined by identical nonconductive housing halves which are held in side-by-side assembled relationship by a metal mounting bracket. The mounting bracket carries a ground wire connection screw that extends through a rear wall of the housing and threads into a threaded rear end region of a metal post which extends centrally through the housing to provide a threaded front end region configured to receive a cover plate mounting screw. Two nonconductive rotors are journaled by the housing for independent rotation between 'off' positions and various 'on' orientations for selectively supplying electrical energy to sets of female contacts that are carried by the rotors. A leaf spring is carried within the hollow interior of the housing for engaging detent formations of the rotors for releasably retaining the rotors in 'off' and 'on' orientations. The rotor carried contacts have front end regions that are configured to receive and conductively engage the metal prongs of conventional male plugs, and rear end regions that are configured to selectively engage forwardly facing conductive surfaces provided on at least one circuit board which is carried within the hollow interior of the housing near the rear wall of the housing. Wire connection terminals carried on opposite sides of the housing deliver electrical energy to the electrically conductive surfaces of the circuit board. Crimpable formations provided on the metal mounting bracket and/or the metal post may be utilized to maintain the assembled relationships of components of the receptacle.

Variable orientation switching type electrical receptacle

An electrical receptacle includes a nonconductive contact carrier that mounts a set of female electrical contacts that are configured to receive and conductively engage plural conductive prongs of a male plug. The carrier has a generally cylindrical outer wall that is received within a generally cylindrical chamber that is defined by a nonconductive housing. The housing mounts the carrier for rotation about a center axis that extends centrally through the chamber. When the carrier is rotated about the center axis relative to the housing to an 'on' position (that resides within a relatively wide angular range of 'on' positions), housing-carried electrical contacts that extend through housing-defined passages engage carrier-carried electrical contacts that extend through carrier-defined passages. When the carrier is rotated about the center axis relative to the housing to an 'off' position, electrical connection is interrupted between selected pairs of the housing-carried and carrier-carried contacts. A detent preferably is interposed between the carrier and the housing for releasably retaining the rotatable carrier in its 'off' position. The rotatability of the carrier while remaining within its range of 'on' positions permits a male electrical plug (and an appliance cord or other form of electrical wire that is attached to the plug) to be oriented as desired relative to the receptacle for such purposes as minimizing wear and tear, and/or to accommodate the positioning of furniture at locations near where the receptacle is installed.

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Beachwood, OH, United States of America

Marc A Schlessinger