The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 03, 2025
Filed:
Mar. 06, 2023
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Kevin O'Connell, Rochester, MN (US);
Timothy Clyde Buchholtz, Rochester, MN (US);
George Russell Zettles, Iv, Rochester, MN (US);
Karl Erickson, Rochester, MN (US);
George Paulik, Rochester, MN (US);
Jarrett Betke, Rochester, MN (US);
Timothy Lindquist, Rochester, MN (US);
Daniel Ramirez, Rochester, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A cable connector for counting a number of plug-in events and preventing further plug in attempts after a threshold number of plug-in events have occurred. An inner sleeve is located inside an outer sleeve, and is designed to move relative to the outer sleeve. The inner sleeve further includes a tab on an outer surface of the inner sleeve. A gear wheel is located inside the outer sleeve and perpendicular to the inner sleeve and has a number of gear teeth. A toggle plug counter rotates the gear wheel one tooth in response to a plug-in action of the cable counter. When the gear wheel rotates to a point where the tab aligns with a notch in the gear wheel an inner spring at the opposite end of the inner sleeve causes the inner sleeve to move through the gear wheel such that further plugging action becomes difficult.