Patent Publication Number: US-2010120278-A1

Title: Multi-angular power adapter

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a multi-angular power adapter which is a power conversion related equipment, and more particularly to a power adapter for electrically charging a small electric appliance. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     In general, the insert pins of a power adapter used for electrically charging a small electric appliance have a fixed direction, and it is very common for users to plug in the connectors of several electric appliances on a socket. There may not be sufficient space for plugging the connector of an electric appliance due to the adjacent connectors, and the electric appliance cannot be plugged or used, and thus such prior art causes inconvenience to users. Furthermore, the insert pins of the power adapter of this kind may not fit different types of sockets (such as the two parallel plate insert pins, two non-parallel plate insert pins, or two cylindrical insert pins, etc) required in different countries or districts requiring. The power adapter of this sort cannot be used for different types of connections required in different countries or districts. 
     Therefore, finding a way of designing a power adapter that can overcome the foregoing shortcomings of the prior art is a major objective that the inventor of the present invention intends to achieve. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Therefore, the present invention to provide a multi-angular power adapter that adopts a movable connector section to change the inserting angle of the connector section and solve the problem of the prior art that the connector cannot be inserted due to the limited space and interference of the adjacent connectors. 
     Moreover the present invention is to provide a multi-angular power adapter of the invention that adopts a detachable technique applied to the movable connector section, so as to overcome the shortcoming of the prior art that cannot fit the sockets in different countries or districts. 
     Furthermore the present invention is to provide a multi-angular power adapter that adopts an axial limit technique and a circumferential limit technique to overcome the technical issue of the movable connector section being loosened and mislocated. 
     One aspect of the present invention provides a multi-angular power adapter that comprises a casing, a circuit section, an output power cord, and a connector section connected to an external power supply, characterized in that the connector section comprises a fixed base, a movable connector base corresponding to the fixed base, and a limit section for restricting the movements of the movable connector base. 
     The fixed base is installed onto the casing and includes at least two fixed contact points electrically connected to a circuit section. 
     The movable connector base operates in coordination with the fixed base and can change its angle in a plane, said movable connector base has two insert pins, and the movable connector base includes two movable contact points respectively in contact with the two fixed contact points and electrically connected with two insert pins of the movable connector base. 
     If the space along the longitudinal direction of the socket is occupied or restricted and the power adapter cannot be used, then the direction of the insert pin can be changed to another angle for a transversal insertion or an aslant insertion to assure the use of the power adapter. 
     Further, the limit section includes an axial limit assembly installed between the fixed base and the movable connector base, and the limit section also includes a circumferential limit assembly disposed between the casing and the movable connector base. The axial limit assembly and the circumferential limit assembly are used to fix the movable connector base in the axial direction and the circumferential direction respectively to prevent the power adapter from being loosened or mislocated. 
     Further, the snap-in axial limit assembly includes a fixed latch member and a movable latch groove, and the fixed latch member is installed on an internal lateral side of the fixed base, and the movable latch groove is installed on the external edge of the movable connector base which is in contact with the fixed base. The fixed latch member can be accommodated into the movable latch groove. The snap-in axial limit assembly is easy to be installed and removed, and it thus can be switched to other inserting type of insert pins to fit the socket of different countries or districts and can assure the use of the power adapter in different countries or districts. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic view of the disassembled parts of a power adapter of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of a section of a power adapter after an axial limit assembly is assembled according to  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view of a section of a power adapter after a circumferential limit assembly is assembled according to  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic view of a connector section adopting a continuous serrated latch groove in the power adapter of the invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view of a connector section adopting a circular fixed contact point in the power adapter of the invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic view of a connector section adopting a circular plate with a circular fixed contact point in the power adapter of the invention; and 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic view of a connector section adopting an arc fixed contact point in a power adapter of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The present invention will now be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings that show various embodiments of the invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 to 7  for the multi-angular power adapter of the present invention, the power adapter comprises a casing  1 , a circuit section  2 , an output power cord  3 , and a connector section  4  connected to an external power supply. 
     The connector section  4  includes a fixed base  41  and a movable connector base  42 , wherein the fixed base  41  is disposed on the casing  1 , and the movable connector base  42  operates in coordination with the fixed base  41  and can change its angle on a plane. The fixed base  41  also includes at least two fixed contact points  411 ,  412  separately and electrically connected to the circuit section  2 . The movable connector base  42  includes two movable contact points  421 ,  422  respectively in contact with the two fixed contact points  411 ,  412  and electrically connected to two insert pins  423 ,  424  of the movable connector base  42 . The connector section  4  also includes a limit section  5  for restricting the movements of the movable connector base  42 . 
     If the space along the longitudinal direction of the socket is occupied or restricted and the power adapter cannot be used, the direction of the insert pins  423 ,  424  can change to another angle such as an angle for a transversal insertion or an aslant insertion to assure the use of the power adapter. Further, the limit section  5  has an effect of fixing the movable connector base  42  to prevent the movable connector base  42  from being loosened or mislocated. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 to 3 , the limit section  5  includes an axial limit assembly  51  or a circumferential limit assembly  52  or both. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the axial limit assembly  51  is disposed between the fixed base  41  and the movable connector base  42  for fixing the movable connector base  42  and the fixed base  41  along the axial direction to prevent the movable connector base  42  from falling out along the axial direction. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 3 , the circumferential limit assembly  52  is disposed between the casing  1  and the movable connector base  42  for fixing the movable connector base  42  and the casing  1  along the circumferential direction to prevent the movable connector base  42  from being mislocated along the circumferential direction. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , one of the many structural designs of the axial limit assembly  51  is introduced here. The snap-in axial limit assembly  51  includes a fixed latch member  511  and a movable latch groove  512 , and the fixed latch member  511  is disposed on an internal side of the fixed base  41 , and the movable latch groove  512  used for containing the fixed latch member  511  is disposed at an external edge of the movable connector base that is in contact with the fixed base  41 . If the movable connector base  42  is installed into the fixed base  41 , the fixed latch member  511  will be latched into the movable latch groove  512 . Since the fixed base  41  is fixed onto the casing  1 , therefore the movable connector base  42  is fixed along the axial direction, and the movable connector base  42  will not be loosened or fallen out. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2  again, there are many solutions for the design of the shape of the movable latch groove  512 . For a convenient disassembling, the movable latch groove  512  preferably has an L-shape groove with an opening at the bottom to facilitating its manufacture. If the movable connector base  42  installs a fixed base  41  therein, the fixed latch member  511  is latched into the longitudinal groove of the movable latch groove  512  from the opening at the bottom of the L-shape movable latch groove  512 . If the fixed latch member  511  reaches the position of the transversal groove of the L-shape movable latch groove  512 , the movable connector base  42  is turned to latch the fixed latch member  511  into the transversal groove of the L-shape movable latch groove  512 , and the movable connector base  42  is fixed along the axial direction. Therefore, the direction of the insert pins can be changed to fit the socket in different countries or districts, and thus users can use the power adapter in different countries. 
     Reference is made to  FIG. 3 . Like the aforementioned axial limit assembly  51 , there are many solutions for the design of the circumferential limit assembly  52 , and one of the examples is used for illustration. The circumferential limit assembly  52  includes a latch groove  521  and a fixed latch handle  522 , and the latch groove  521  is disposed at a lower edge of the movable connector base  42 , and the fixed latch handle  522  is disposed on the casing  1 , and the fixed latch handle  522  is elastically connected to the casing  1 . A latch member  523  is protruded from the fixed latch handle  522  at a position corresponding to the latch groove  521 . After the movable connector base  42  is installed, the fixed latch handle  522  uses its elasticity to latch the latch member  523  into the latch groove  521  at the lower edge of the movable connector base  42 , so that the movable connector base  42  is fixed along the circumferential direction and cannot be rotated. If it is necessary to remove the movable connector base  42 , the fixed latch handle  522  is pressed to separate the latch member  523  from the latch groove  521 , and then the effect of limiting the movable connector base  42  no longer exists. Therefore, the movable connector base  42  can be turned freely and removed easily. This design can be used alone or together with the axial limit assembly  51 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 4  for turning and changing the angle of the movable connector base  42 , the latch groove  521  has a continuous serrated shape to assure that the latch member  523  can be latched into the latch groove  521  from several different positions to maximize its limit effect along the circumferential direction. 
     In addition, the number of the fixed contact points of the fixed base  41  can be 4, 6 or 8 according to different conditions and safety requirements of the electric appliances, and the fixed contact points are disposed symmetrically along the circumference to assure that the two movable contact points  421 ,  422  of the movable connector base  42  can be connected to the fixed contact points  411 ,  412  by a point contact. 
     For the power adapter that can be turned to change the angle of the insert pin, the fixed contact points  411 ,  412  cannot be designed as a point contact for the electric connection, but the fixed contact points  411 ,  412  must be designed in the shape of a strap as shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 . The fixed contact point  412  of the fixed base  41  is designed as a circular plate or a circular ring at the center, and the fixed contact point  411  and fixed contact point  412  are circular rings with different diameters. 
     The fixed contact points  411 ,  412  of the fixed base  41  as shown in  FIG. 7  can be designed as arc plates with equal diameter and symmetrically disposed along the circumference. 
     In summation of the description above, the multi-angular power adapter of the invention definitely can overcome the shortcomings of the prior arts, and further comply with the patent application requirements. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.