US3851226A

US3851226A - Electrical terminal box with removable terminal plates

Info

Publication number: US3851226A
Application number: US00392414A
Authority: US
Inventors: T Chen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1973-08-29
Filing date: 1973-08-29
Publication date: 1974-11-26
Anticipated expiration: 1991-11-26

Abstract

The present device includes a housing means comprising a base wall and two upright walls, each of the latter two walls having a receiving channel disposed horizontally along the length thereof. In addition, the present device includes a plurality of terminal plates whose dimensions enable them to readily slide into said receiving channels and upon which there can be mounted various forms of electrical devices such as female plug receptacles, toggle switches, lamps, fuses and the like. Each of said electrical devices is respectively wire-connected by a readily disconnectable means from the underside of each terminal plate to wires of others of said electrical devices. The chain of connected electrical devices is connectable to a power supply.

Description

United States Patent 1191 Chen [ Nov. 26, 1974 ELECTRICALTERMINAL BOX WITH 1 REMOVABLE TERMINAL PLATES [76] Inventor: Tung Chang Chen, 138 Wooded Ln., Villanova, Pa. 19085 22 Filed: Aug. 29, 1973 21 App1.No.:3 92,4l4

{52] US. Cl. 3l7/120, 174/53, 317/117 [51] Int. Cl. H02b l/04 [58] Field of Search 317/99, 112, 117, 118,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,200,244 8/1965 Meyer 174/48 3,461,349 8/1969 Meyer 317/120 3,585,456 6/1971 Phillips 317/112 3,728,470 4/1973 Maier 174/53 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,245,433 7/1967 Germany 317/112 Primary Examiner-Robert K. Schaefer Assistant Examiner-Gerald P. Tolin Attorney, Agent, or Firm-William E. Cleaver [5 7] ABSTRACT The present device includes a housing means comprising a base wall and two upright walls, each of the latter two walls having a receiving channel disposed horizontally along the length thereof. In addition, the present device includes a plurality of terminal plates whose dimensions enable them to readily slide into said receiving channels and upon which there can be mounted various forms of electrical devices such as female plug receptacles, toggle switches, lamps, fuses and the like. Each of said electrical devices is respectively wire-connected by a readily disconnectable means from the underside of each terminal plate to wires of others of said electrical devices. The chain of connected electrical devices is connectable to a power supply.

3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure l ELECTRICAL TERMINAL ox wmff REMOVABLE TERMINAL PLATES BACKGROUND In laboratory activities, job shop activities and the like, it is often desirable to have an electrical terminal box which can be used as a means to provide electrical power to drills, lathes, electric saws, heaters, radios, oscilloscopes, electric meters, breadboard circuits and a host of other items. In such uses, it very often is desirable to have a switch beside a female plug and in control thereof so that when the device which is receiving the electrical power; e.g. an oscilloscope, is connected to the female plug, it can be effectively disconnected by simply slipping the toggle switch. Further, such uses often employ lamps to advantage by connecting the lamps to indicate that the device using the power is in fact still connected to a hot line. In addition, such uses often employ fuses to protect the devices requiring the power. All of these interfacing elements; i.e., the female plugs, switches, lamps, fuses and the like are most conveniently mounted in a terminal box.

In the prior art these terminal boxs were custom made to a great extent and in cases where the box was not custom made it was devoid of any flexibility. Flexibility becomes important when for a job shop situation or a laboratory situation the need changes from two female plug receptacles and two controlling switches to four female plug receptacles or in the alternative three female plug receptacles and one fuse. In the prior art, once the terminal box was fabricated and there was a need for a change, the cover plate had to be removed and the entire assembly had to be reworked and remounted. In addition, in the prior art, the cost of such terminal boxes is substantially higher than the present invention because the manufacturer cannot build a good inventory. In short the manufacturer does not know what combinations of electrical terminals the user is going to order. Since it is not economical for the manufacturer to mass produce the prior art terminal boxes, his unit price is higher than if he produced the units in large quantities. The present invention lends itself to the economical mass production of terminal boxes.

SUMMARY The present device employs modular electrical tenninal units; i.e., a plurality of plates with electrical devices mounted thereon are fitted into a housing. Various combinations of electrical elements are mounted on a plate and a plurality of these plates are assembled so that the overall terminal box is made up of the overall combination of electrical devices on the plates. In other words, when a particular array of electrical devices or terminals is desired, the proper units (or combinations of elements) are selected and assembled in the housing. Accordingly, a relatively large inventory of plates or units can be produced to be assembled in these particular arrays, but the arrays need not be assembled until the terminal boxes are ordered by the ultimate user. In addition the units are connected one with another by readily disconnectable means (such as twisting the lead wires between units and putting caps thereon). This feature enables flexibility for the user or purchaser because he can change or alter his terminal box by simply disconnecting the units and replacing the units he no longer needs with units that he now wants to use.

The objects and features of the present invention will be better understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawing which depicts an exploded view of the terminal box with two mountable plates.

Consider the FIGURE wherein there is shown a housing device 11 made up of a base wall 13, a vertical wall 15 and another vertical wall 17. It will be noted that the vertical wall 15 has a receiving channel 19 therein while the vertical wall 17 has a receiving channel 21 therein. It should also be noted in the drawing that there is a terminal plate 23 as well as a terminal plate 25.

On the terminal plate 23 there is mounted a first female plug receptacle 27 and a second female plug receptacle 29. The wires for the

female plugs

27 and 29 are on the underside of the terminal plate 23. The female plug receptacle 29 is serially connected to the toggle switch 31 so that when the toggle switch 31 is turned to the On position the female plug receptacle 29 will be capable of delivering electrical power to a device which is connected thereto such as an oscilloscope or an electrical drill or the like.

In like fashion the female plug receptacle 27 has wires not shown on the underside of the terminal plate 23 serially connected to the toggle switch 33 so that when the toggle switch 33 is thrown to the On position the female plug receptacle 27 will be considered as a source of power to an electrical device.

It can be noted in the drawing that terminal plate 25 has a female plug receptacle 35 mounted thereon as well as a fuse device 37, a lamp 39 and a toggle switch 41. The toggle switch 41 as well as the female plug receptacle 35, and the fuse 37 are serially connected underneath the terminal plate 25 by wires not shown. The lamp 39 can be connected in parallel across the receptacle 35. In this arrangement, when the toggle switch 41 is turned On the female plug receptacle 35 will be available for electrical power and at the same time the device to which it is providing the power will be protected by the fuse 37. In addition when the toggle switch 41 is turned on by virtue of the separate connection thereto, the lamp 39 will be lit and hence indicating that the plug 35 is available for power. It is very often the practice to use terminal plate 25 as the master plate with all of the remaining terminal plates connected therethrough. Hence when switch 41 would be turned on, the entire box would be energized.

It will be noted in the drawing that the wires 43 which are connected to the toggle switch 33 and the wires 45 which are connected to the toggle switch 31 are connected in parallel with the wires 47 which are con-' nected to the toggle switch 41. The wires are simply twisted together and are covered by the

caps

49 and 51. If terminal plate 25 were to be used as the master tenninal plate then switches 33 and 31 would be wired in parallel and connected serially through switch 41 and to the return side of the line. The

caps

49 and 51 are the normally accessible bakelite or hard plastic caps which keep wires from shorting out one against another. The wires 53 are connected from the power line 55 to the toggle switch 41 and in parallel to the toggle switches 33 and 31. The power line 55 is of course available for electrical power through the plug 57 or other arrangements can be made. It should be further noted that when the terminal box is complete the end plate 59 secures a left hand end while the end plate 61 secures the right hand end. These

plates

23 and 25 can be simply slid into the

receiving channels

21 and 19 with a rather secure fit or can be mounted with screws which pass through the hole 63 in the respective plates into the receiving holes 65 and the housing.

When the terminal box is assembled the

plates

23 and 25 are pushed into the

receiving channels

21 and 19, followed by the

end plates

59 and 61. It will be noted that there is sufficient room in the housing 11 to permit the

wires

45, 43, 47 and 53 and the additional wires not shown which connect up the various electrical elements to hand loose in the lower portion of the terminal box. lf it should become necessary to reassemble or to change the need of the terminal box use, the

plates

25 and 23 can simply be removed by removing the end plate 59, disassembling the wires, by unscrewing the

protective caps

49 and 51 and simply removing the one or both of the terminal plates. Thereafter, some other terminal plate or terminal plates can be put into the terminal box and some new combination of electrical devices such as four female plug receptacles or three female plug receptacles and a fuse or other combinations of switches, lamps, fuses, etc. can be mounted in the housing of the terminal box to provide a new combination. Some of such other terminal plates are illustrated by

plates

69 and 71. Plate 69 has two

plug outlets

73 and 75 which are respectively fused by

fuses

74 and 76. Such a plate enables sensitive equipment which will be energized from

plugs

73 and 75 to be carefully fused to prevent damage. Plate 71 has a toggle switch 77, a fuse 78, a plug outlet 79 and a rheostat 80. This plate would be particularly useful for controlling the speed of a motor. The flexibility of the modular terminal box becomes quite apparent.

lt should also be understood that this flexibility lends itself to easy and economical fabrication. For instance, the manufacturer can make up a number of terminal plates with popular combinations of electrical devices mounted thereon. Accordingly, a reasonably large inventory of these tenninal plates can be fabricated and their unit price accordingly is reduced. When there is an order for a particular combination of electrical devices, or a particular array of terminal plates, the

proper plates are simply chosenfrom inventory and readily assembled in the housing 11 of the terminal box.

Now it should be understood that while the drawing shows only four terminal plates in the exploded view, there can be any combination of number of terminal plates depending upon the size of the housing 11 that is fabricated. For instance if the user wants four terminal plates then the size of the housing 11 is increased to accommodate four terminal plates such as

terminal plates

23, 25, 69 and 71. The fact that the present terminal box can be so readily assembled of course provides for the flexibility or the changing of terminal plates and secondly provides for an economical fabrication of this terminal box.

What I claim is:

l. A modular electrical terminal box comprising in combination: a housing means having a base wall and two upright walls, each of said two upright walls having a receiving channel, forming a pair of receiving channels, disposed horizontally along the length thereof and disposed a substantial distance from said base wall; a plurality of terminal plates, each having an upper side and a lower side and each of which has edges formed to readily slide into and along said pair of receiving channels, each of said terminal plates having its said edges disposed within said receiving channels with its upper side facing away from said base; a plurality of electrical devices mounted on the upper side of each of said terminal plates and having connecting wires protruding from said lower side of each of said terminal plates; first and second end pieces each having at least one section formed to fit into said pair of receiving channels and further formed to be removably secured to said housing, and each having its said section disposed within said receiving channels.

2. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein there is further included electrical current conducting means connected to at least one of said electrical devices and further adapted to be connected to a source of electrical power.

3. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein said electricacl devices include toggle switches, lamps, female plug receptacles and fuses.

Claims

1. A modular electrical terminal box comprising in combination: a housing means having a base wall and two upright walls, each of said two upright walls having a receiving channel, forming a pair of receiving channels, disposed horizontally along the length thereof and disposed a substantial distance from said base wall; a plurality of terminal plates, each having an upper side and a lower side and each of which has edges formed to readily slide into and along said pair of receiving channels, each of said terminal plates having its said edges disposed within said receiving channels with its upper side facing away from said base; a plurality of electrical devices mounted on the upper side of each of said terminal plates and having connecting wires protruding from said lower side of eaCh of said terminal plates; first and second end pieces each having at least one section formed to fit into said pair of receiving channels and further formed to be removably secured to said housing, and each having its said section disposed within said receiving channels.

3. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein said electrical devices include toggle switches, lamps, female plug receptacles and fuses.