Patent Publication Number: US-2005130492-A1

Title: Receptacle having electric power code box installed therein

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a receptacle having an electric power cord box installed therein, and more particularly, to a receptacle having an electric power cord box installed therein, in which the power code box has protrusion rods on which redundant portions of power cords, telephone lines, LAN lines, etc., that are connected to various electric devices are wound up, thereby preventing them from getting twisted or tangled to orderly arrange the surroundings of the receptacle.  
      2. Background of the Related Art  
      In general, a receptacle has jacks formed therein for inserting a plug thereto so that the electric power can be supplied to electric devices, etc. A multi-receptacle having a plurality of jacks has recently been used due to the use of various electric devices.  
      The multi-receptacle is mainly used for electric/electronic devices where lots of the power is needed such as a computer, etc. Since the cords used for the electric devices are different in length, however, they often get twisted or tangled. For this reason, there have been problems in that the surroundings of the electric devices are not well orderly arranged and it is very inconvenient to make their surroundings clean.  
      Furthermore, the lengths of the telephone lines and the LAN lines are different from each other, causing the surrounding environment to be complicated.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a receptacle having an electric power cord box installed therein for containing redundant portions of an electric power cord therein with them wound up.  
      To achieve the above objects, according to the present invention, there is provided a receptacle including: a casing having an electric power cord box installed therein, and a plurality of cord through-holes formed at one side thereof; and a socket unit having a plurality of branch jacks formed at one side of the interior of the casing  10  and adapted to branch the electric power supplied thereto.  
      Preferably, the receptacle further includes winding means formed within the power cord box, for winding up redundant portions of power cords connected to plugs that are connected to the branch jacks.  
      Also, preferably, the socket unit further includes a power supply jack for supplying the electric power to the receptacle.  
      In addition, the socket unit further preferably includes a telephone jack and a LAN jack for connecting a telephone line and a LAN line thereto, respectively.  
      The winding means preferably includes a pair of protrusion rods on which the power cords are wound up in such a manner that they are extended between the protrusion rods.  
      Also, preferably, the receptacle further includes a cover hingeably coupled to the casing.  
      Further, preferably, each of the cord through-hole has a U shape.  
      In addition, the power supply jack and the branch jacks are formed at one side of the interior of the casing in such a manner as to be oriented toward the power cord box.  
      The socket unit further preferably includes a switch formed in each of the branch jacks and the power supply jack thereof.  
      Also, preferably, the switch further includes an indicator lamp formed at one side thereof.  
      It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view illustrating a receptacle according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,  
       FIG. 2  is a plan view of the receptacle shown in  FIG. 1 ,  
       FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view of the receptacle shown in  FIG. 1 , and  
       FIG. 4  shows the receptacle to which the power supply line is integrally coupled according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.  
      A receptacle according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail hereinafter with reference to FIGS.  1  to  4 .  
      As shown in the drawings, the receptacle includes a casing  10 , a socket unit  20  and winding means, as essential elements.  
      The casing  10  has a quadrangular shape and has an electric power cord box  11  installed therein. Further, the casing  10  has cord through-holes  12  at its one side. At this time, it is preferred that each of the cord through-holes  12  has a U shape.  
      The socket unit  20  has a plurality of branch jacks  21  formed at one side of the interior of the casing  10 , for branching the electric power supplied thereto.  
      In the above configuration, a power supply jack  22  for supplying the power may be formed in the socket unit  20 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , a power supply line  23  may be directly integrally coupled to the socket unit  20 .  
      It is preferable that the power supply jack  22  and the ramification jacks  21  are formed at one side of the interior of the casing  10  in such a manner as to be oriented toward the power cord box  11 .  
      The winding means may be further formed within the power cord box  11 .  
      Thus, unnecessary power cords may be received within the code box  11 .  
      The winding means is configured such that redundant portions of the power cords connected to a plug are wound up thereon, and includes a pair of protrusion rods on which the power cords are wound up in such a manner that the power cords are extended between the protrusion rods.  
      A telephone jack  24  and a LAN jack  25  which are connected to a telephone line and a LAN line may be further formed in the socket unit  20 .  
      It is preferable that each of the telephone jack  24  and the LAN jack  25  includes a jack introduced from the outside and a jack connected to the electric device.  
      At this time, both the telephone line jack  24  and the LAN line jack  25  are oriented toward the power cord box  11  like the branch jacks  21 .  
      Furthermore, a cover  13  is hingeably coupled to one side of the power cord box  13 . The cover  13  has a press-fitting protrusion  15  formed at one end thereof so that the press-fitting protrusion  15  is snap-fitted into a press-fitting hole  15  formed in a sidewall of the casing  10 .  
      Switches  26  for connecting/disconnecting electric power source of the power supply jack  22  and the branch jacks  21  are formed in the socket unit  20 . A display lamp  27  is formed at one side of each of the switches  26 .  
      The action of the receptacle according to the present invention will now be described hereinafter.  
      The power supply line  23  that is leaded from an electric outlet (not shown) installed at the wall of a house is connected to the receptacle having the power cord box  11  of the present invention.  
      At this time, the power supply line  23  may be connected to the power supply jack  22  via a plug or directly connected to the receptacle without the power supply jack  22 .  
      The electric power source is connected/disconnected by the switches  26 . Further, whether the power is supplied or not is displayed on the indicator lamp  27 .  
      Furthermore, power cords connected to respective electric devices pass through the cord through-holes  12  formed at one side of the cord box  11 . Redundant portions of the power cords are then wound around the pair of the protrusion rods  30 , which are spaced apart from each other by a certain distance within the code box  11 . Next, the plugs connected to the ends of the power cords are inserted into the branch jacks  21  for electrical connection.  
      The telephone line and the LAN line are also wound around the protrusion rods  30  through the cord through-holes  12  so that redundant portions of the lines can be simply orderly arranged.  
      As described above, according to a receptacle according to the present invention, redundant portions of a power cord and/or line are wound up around a pair of protrusion rods formed within a power cord box, thereby preventing them from getting twisted or tangled to orderly arrange the surroundings of the receptacle in a simple manner.  
      Further, in case of a telephone line or a LAN line, redundant portions of the line are wound up around the pair of the protrusion rods so that the surroundings of the receptacle can be orderly arranged.  
      While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.