While North American electrical plugs aren’t exactly tiny, our poor Ukensian brothers and sisters have to deal with horrible three-pronged knobs that turn British power cords into injection molded bolas. (Are they so big because there’s a fuse in the plug itself as standard?)
Sip your coffee deep then, as did I, so you may properly choke when this woman shows her idea for a folding plug that is as thin as a MacBook Air, but fully compliant with the UK plug standard, fuse and all. Screaming downstairs about how awesome it is when she shows the extra design for a multi-port plug when you mistake the sound of your dog for your girlfriend, then experiencing terrifying vertigo when the ceiling screams back, is—as always—completely optional. (Thanks, Charlie!)
Personally, I’m a big fan of the British plug. It might not be the slimmest plug in the world, but there’s never any chance of it falling out of its socket (unlike a lot of different countrys’ plugs), and various features such as the fuse and half-insulated live pins also make it one of the safest.
This new design, however, is a slice of fried gold.
Fuckin-A! Finally, a brilliant piece of industrial design that’s not a flying car or some redonkulous piece of Apple-fanboy-I’d-mortgage-the-house-for-that-crap type of design.
I’m in the US where our plugs are still big & lame, but it’s easy to see the value of this plug’s portability and versatility. Bravo!
I thought it was pretty cool, but the multi-plug? F’ing awesome! I want something similar here in the US.
So cool, I hope she gets her ideas into production and into the market really soon.
Want
wAnt
waNt
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I would buy about 20 of these and replace everything! Of course, there’s not much you can do about plugs integrated into their own converters… unless you use a conversion plug’n'cable.
very nice this woman should be seriously paid for this.I’ll take 50+. where do i order?
Clever design makes me a happy girl.
Beyond awesome and taken to the total next level by the multi-plug unit. KUDOS!
Say what you will about the size of US plugs, but the fact that you can electrocute or badly shock yourself while unplugging them because the metal contacts are exposed while they are still live is unacceptable. The British design, which ensures that the metal contacts are not exposed until they are disconnected, is MUCH safer (and I’m not just saying that because I have been shocked by US plugs on multiple occasions). I have done my fare share of cable and connector designs, and if I designed anything as stupid as a US electrical plug there would be no way it would pass UL or CE certification.
Of course, that said, I wouldn’t be opposed to a US-size plug with half-insulated contacts.
very interesting though i suspect more difficult that this makes it look , is it subject to cable wear? or is it on a brush and contact system which will make it vulnerable to knocks and short outages.
either way highly interesting.
(oh and UK plugs all have fuses. some don’t have earth if the units are double insulated.. i’m not sure what that entails exactly, they have a plastic earth pin)
I wish I could find out who did this… Help me, lazyweb!
ZAN, it’s pretty hard to electrocute yourself at 120 VAC 60 Hz single phase. I’ve been testing wires to see if they are live by poking them with my finger for at least 40 years, and I’m not dead yet.
US-style outlets are marginally safer when installed with the ground pin up (earth pin to you Brits). That way if you drop a conducting object on the top of a halfway-out plug it will hit the ground pin first rather than hitting hot & neutral simultaneously. No help if you’re using ungrounded plugs, but as I said marginally safer.
I’m British and I’ve always been rather a fan of our design over the rest of the world: saftey aside, they are nice, chunky, reassuringly solid and don’t fall out of the wall if you kick the cable. But dammit she’s right, they’re bitch when it comes to travel and I am gobsmackingly stunned by the beauty and originality of this design… AND the multiplug adapter option. It looks like you can even change the fuse without opening the thing up too.
We don’t drink coffee we take tea my dear.
#9: both European and Australian plugs now have the pins sheathed in plastic, with only the ends exposed. Given that the Australian plug is essentially the US plug with the pins rotated by 45 degrees each (so much so that one can buy international adapters which can work as either), it should be possible to produce US-compatible plugs with the shafts of the pins insulated.
Anyway, the original idea is brilliant; I hope she ends up getting these made. I’d buy half a dozen.
This is amazing. Want.
Now this a wonderful example what a product designer can do to improve our daily world! Well done, perfectly executed concept.
#10: The earth pin opens the socket– which is normally shuttered so the curious can’t stick forks into the holes. A plastic pin does just as well as a metal pin, if earthing is not required.
Does anyone here actually know someone who has been electrocuted by somehow touching both pins of a US plug while it is half in the socket? I could be wrong, but I don’t think it is much of a real problem.
Impressive technology there! But still, I prefer the American/Japanese plugs more, due to the fact that the pins can’t easily break off as the Euro and UK prongs can.
Brilliant, thank you, Joel. Are you talking to potential backers/manufacturers? If your plugs were for sale, I’d definitely buy more than one – great for travel (business or leisure), and as space savers at home. I use plugs that have 4 leads coming out of them for my office and hi-fi equipment which do the same job but they’re hard-wired in of course. Your solution is better as one could still remove individual plugs from the multi-adaptor.
The best of British luck to you!
I’m a MacBook user and I’ll be buying a few of these!
What are we waiting for?? Let’s get this in production right now! Really really love this clever design.
#20: I dont think i’ve ever seen the prongs break off of a uk plug – theyre damn near indestructible.
In fact, that brings me to my only criticism of uk plugs: they are seemingly designed to cause as much pain as possible if you step on an unplugged one in bare feet. I dont think any other plug in the world has this problem.
Jon Anderson @#19- Not electrocuted, but certainly shocked. It fried the nickel I was holding pretty good, too.
My only addition to the design would be a pin that presses in when the plug is inserted that prevents the flaps being folded back – say by an inquisitive child.
Jon Anderson: the reason for the British paranoia about electrocution by touching the pins is because over here, standard mains current is 230 volts, 13 amps, 50 hertz. You do not want to touch a 230 volt AC wire if at all possible, even briefly (been there, done that, stung for hours afterwards).
Mains current is also delivered to the input board as 415 volts 3-phase AC for driving hard-wired appliances such as electric cookers and heating systems. (We don’t, thankfully, use plug-based connectors for that stuff.)
Rickneck: I have never seen or heard of a British Standard plug pin breaking off in a socket. Maybe if you used a hammer and chisel …
I agree with the others that this is a very nice bit of design, and it will be interesting to see if the designer can (a) make the pivot point sufficiently strong, and (b) get the plug approved by the Ministry of Sockets.
I lived in England for a while in the 80s, and was struck by how many inconveniences that were unique to the UK were accepted by everyone on some questionable ground, usually “safety”. If giant fused plugs are safer, where’s the data that electrocutions or home fires are rarer in the UK than in those Northern European countries with puny unfused plugs?
Fortunately, I owned my flat, and could do things like put real electrical outlets in the bathroom and use US plugs and extension cords where safe and convenient (mainly on lamps).
Rickyneck – if you’ve ever stepped on a well hidden UK plug, you’ll know there’s no chance of the pins breaking. Your foot gives first.
Here in Switzerland there is a neat variant on the standard 3-pin plug with two extra pins for delivering full 3-phase from the wall! It’s handy for washing machines, cookers, etc. Still scares me though.
I need to know who designed this so I can chuck them a few pounds to develop this.
I sure hope she has a patent on that. And some funding. Can’t seem to find out who / where or any other info – I’d back it in a heartbeat. Anyone know how to get in touch with the designer?
And I agree re NEVER seen a pin break off a UK plug.
And UK plugs not biggest in world. Try South African 15amp round pin plugs!
Great design, but the designer may want to double-check that wiring before the finished product kills someone…
OTOH, the British practice of wiring outlets in a ring means that if there is a an open circuit, instead of giving an indication of problem by the simple expedience of NOT WORKING, the rest of the circuit is overloaded with no indication of trouble.
Bloody brilliant. After stepping on a British plug more than once I am not a fan one bit of them. This however would make them much easier to handle.
FYI-I’ve lived in many other countries and I can honestly say I never felt any safer in the UK because of their plugs. It’s a load of rubbish.
I suspect that it would be illegal to use this plug in its folded state. The spacing between the leads is intentional, and I would guess that having one of the current carrying wires so close to the ground would violate the standards used to design the regular plug in the first place.
Wow, I have never actually wanted to have the UK power plugs before If that whole system caught on I think I would prefer it. More power!
I am a fan of half sheathed pins on plugs. I grew up in a UK house where the plugs and sockets were the old UK round pin type. The square pin type came in in the 60′s so even into the mid to late 70′s the old style was still in common use.
I can say quite certainly that pulling out an unsheathed plug, as a small child with small fingers, it was very easy to get a full 240v belt and believe me it hurt a lot
This design is fantastic and I hope she is able to turn it into a production product. The triple-adapter with add-on USB transformer is brilliant.
@27 You’ve got it on the nose. I live in the US and being shocked by US-standard 110v/120v is not that big of a deal (though I don’t seek it out). It would be nice to have the half-shielded pins but
@19 as you say I don’t think the shock hazard is as big a concern here. I was an electrician and have worked with wiring all my life… had my fair share of shocks. In my limited experience I’ve never heard of someone being shocked by a half-exposed plug. A frayed wire is far more common…
The US plugs are much smaller and don’t lie with their pins up waiting for unsuspecting feet to step on them – that is a plus. . In favor of UK sockets, I really like the idea of built-in shutters. In the US we have to deal with plastic kiddie-cover-plugs or retrofit outlet plates with shutters to prevent exploration. Now if we can finally get rid of all the old unpolarized 2-prong sockets that don’t accept modern polarized plugs! That will be a godsend.
There’s a few problems with this – it probably won’t meet the British Standard for plugs and wouldn’t be allowed to be produced.
The main one is the fuse – the standard says you should not be able to interrupt the circuit by removing the fuse. This is why it’s on the bottom of moulded plugs and the screws are on the bottom as well.
Even as it stands, it looks pretty dangerous – if you see how the fuse is loaded in the wiring diagram, if you were to pull out the fuse whilst he plug had power, as you withdrew it, it would first break the circuit, and then the contact of the fuse would go past the live contact whilst you could be holding onto the other end.
@27 Charlie Stross
There actually is a 415V 3-phase British plug – I saw a socket clearly labeled as 415V on a restaurant counter in Wales. It looked like a twist-lock socket, and was surprisingly small. Perhaps the 415V sockets are only for commercial use.
In US practice, anything above 240V split-phase (120V phase-to-neutral) is not allowed in residential installations. Three-phase 480/277 is common in commercial and industrial applications, and is normally hard-wired.
This can be easily fixed in a number of ways:
1. Connect the outer terminal on the live wire (the one the fuse would be touching while you are holding it) to the appliance side – that way it won’t be at live tension until the fuse is fully inserted.
2. Make a locking mechanism for the fuse that won’t allow it to be removed until the flaps have been folded back.
3. Insert the fuse from the other side – that way it will be impossible to remove it while the plug is in the socket.
All in all I think this is one of the neatest things I’ve seen all week. The UK plugs are bulky, heavy, and much more complicated than they need to be. Therefore they’re also more expensive than they need to be.
The fuse in the socket is one such unnecessary detail: If the appliance malfunctions, the fuse in the household fusebox (I assume that the UK has them) would trip just as quickly. The fuses in the household fusebox are also much less likely to be damaged by being stepped on, dropped, soaked in water, or any other such mishap that could change their behaviour in undesirable ways. Household fuses can also be the reset-able kind, instead of the disposable fuses in the plugs, which saves money and inconvenience in the long run.
Kudos to the inventor of this new plug.
It’s the Amps that kill, not the Volts.
If you didn’t trip the fuse, you did not get the full force of the the available electricity, most probably because you weren’t grounded at the time.
I wouldn’t try your finger-poking trick while connected to ground in any way – grab the live wire with one hand, and a faucet with the other and it is likely to stop your heart or give you fatal arrhythmia.
Ooops, there I go again, talking out of my ass.
In the UK, the Ring Circuit system was introduced in a war-time effort to save copper. This means each appliance must have a fuse.
Still, the war was over 64 years ago, isn’t it time to modernise?
I hope that you have considered the Intellectual Property on your very clever design….
I’m afraid that you won’t be able to apply for a patent since, unless you have already done it, you have made the principles and manufacturing method available to the public in your clip.
You might like to consider registering the design of the folded and the open plug as this would mean that you would be able to stop them selling it without proving that they have copied your design – you can apply for this at the European level: I think that Hong Kong and some of the other “colonies” also use the UK design….
A snappy trademark would really help your commercialisation and is not very expensive….
The Italian and Swiss plugs are exceptionally neat designs too
[img]http://images.youbuy.it/prodotti/280×280/wak5011Bg.jpg[/img]
Italian plug.
Normal European grounded CEE 7/7 plugs are pretty bulky too, although not quite as bad as their UK counterparts, and small appliances can use the flat 2-pin non-grounded version which makes life a lot easier if you are carrying devices around with you.
Design wise, this looks very attractive. The ability to gang plugs into a small space is wonderful and to be commended.
My points would be;
as these plugs appear to have no cable clamps, and no means of removing or replacing the leads, they would have to be a throw away item when damaged.
This leads to the point that a damaged plug will need a complete new lead to the appliance, necessitating entry into that appliance possibly breaking guarantee of the appliance (don’t think Macbook would want you opening up their sliver of tricks).
The remaining protruding section of the plug when inserted into a wall socket is not as robust and resistant to knocks such as would be experienced with children and their toys or furniture shifting, with the possibility of exposing a live element than the current ‘solid’ design. A broken plug therefore may be more likely and entire cable replacement with it.
Physically, the weakest point of this design has to be the hinge. Not only of the strength of the pivot points, but also there may be a fatigue element affecting the electrical wire upon swivelling the live/neutral section.
Very attractive, excellent space saving, but damage prone and unrepairable. This appears to be a simple design, but incorporates some complexity, inevitably embodying some created weaknesses – not least being cost of manufacture.
The ‘ugly’ chunky lump we have has its merits. I can see one of these when damaged being replaced with a more robust standard 13A plug of conventional design, chopping off the ‘new’ design and refitting with ‘old’ – because it’s easier and cheaper.
Don’t we all love something that is repairable?
This plug would burn your house down.
There are standards on how close the positive and negative poles can be from each other so they don’t arc. This is especially important in the UK because they use 230 V instead of the 120 V that we use here in the USA. There are also standards that require flame resistant plastic to be used, and that fire proofing is based on the plastic thickness being over 2 mm. Furthermore, the British are required to use a fuse in their plug while we, in the USA, do not have this requirement. This fuse would not fit in her design. But it is good to design things without knowing the real constraints because it pushes the boundaries.