Protection apparatus and travel adapter

Abstract

The present invention relates to a protection apparatus (100) for protecting an electrical circuit. The protection apparatus comprises a thermal protection device (10) for interrupting the electrical circuit at a specific temperature and also an insertion slot (20) for receiving a fuse (21) for interrupting the electrical circuit at a specific current intensity in the electrical circuit. The thermal protection device (10) and the insertion slot (20) are connected in series in the electrical circuit (40), wherein the insertion slot and the thermal protection device are arranged adjacently.

Claims

1. A protection apparatus for protecting an electrical circuit of a travel adapter, comprising: a thermal protection device for interrupting the electrical circuit of the travel adapter at a certain temperature; and an insertion slot for receiving a fuse suitable for interrupting the electrical circuit at a certain current intensity in the electrical circuit, the thermal protection device and the insertion slot connected in series in the electrical circuit, wherein the insertion slot and the thermal protection device are arranged adjacently; wherein the travel adapter has at least one socket of a first standard and at least one plug of a second standard, the socket of the first standard having at least one first and a second contact sockets and the at least one plug of the second standard having at least one first and second contact pins; and wherein one of the at least one first and a second contact pins of the at least one plug of the second standard and one of the at least one contact sockets of the socket of the first standard are electrically connected or connectable to each other via the series connection of the insertion slot and the thermal protection device.

2. The protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the thermal protection device is resettable.

3. The protection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the thermal protection device comprises an automatic reset.

4. The protection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the thermal protection device comprises a manual reset.

5. The protection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the insertion slot and the thermal protection device are arranged substantially parallel to one another.

6. The protection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the insertion slot and the thermal protection device are arranged in a common housing, wherein the common housing has a partition, wherein the insertion slot is arranged on a first side of the partition and the thermal protection device is arranged on a second side of the partition.

7. A travel adapter comprising: an electrical circuit; a thermal protection apparatus configured to interrupt the electrical circuit at a certain temperature; and an insertion slot configured to receive a fuse suitable for interrupting the electrical circuit at a certain current intensity in the electrical circuit, the thermal protection apparatus and the insertion slot connected in series in the electrical circuit, wherein the insertion slot and the thermal protection device are arranged adjacently, wherein the travel adapter has at least one socket of a first standard and at least one plug of a second standard, the socket of the first standard having at least one first and a second contact sockets and the at least one plug of the second standard having at least one first and second contact pins; and wherein one of the at least one first and a second contact pins of the at least one plug of the second standard and one of the at least one contact sockets of the socket of the first standard are electrically connected or connectable to each other via the series connection in series of the insertion slot and the thermal protection apparatus.

8. Travel adapter according to claim 7, wherein the at least one socket of the first standard has a third contact socket for an earth pin and the at least one plug of the second standard has a third contact pin comprising an earth pin.

9. Travel adapter according to claim 7, further comprising a fuse.

Description

(1) In the following text, the invention will be explained in greater detail with reference to figures which merely represent exemplary embodiments. The figures show:

(2) FIG. 1 A perspective view of a travel adapter;

(3) FIG. 2 A second perspective view of the travel adapter of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 A schematic view of a protection apparatus;

(5) FIG. 4 A detail view of the protection apparatus in a travel adapter.

(6) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a travel adapter 200. The travel adapter 200 has a socket side 210 and a plug side 220. On the plug side 220, several plugs of a first standard are provided. The respective contact pins of the plugs of the first standard are each arranged behind associated openings inside a housing 201 of the travel adapter 200. For the sake of clarity, only the contact pins 221, 222, 223 of one standard are designated, in this case the US standard. FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the travel adapter 200 of FIG. 1. The socket side 210 is visible in FIG. 2. The socket side 210 also has a plurality of openings, in which contact elements are arranged for receiving contact pins of a plug. The openings together with the contact elements represent contact sockets. For the sake of clarity, only the contact sockets of one standard are provided with reference numerals, in this case the contact sockets 211, 212, and 213 of the Italian standard.

(7) FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a protection apparatus 100. The protection apparatus 100 is represented schematically in a travel adapter 200. In the present case the protection apparatus 100 is disposed between a contact socket 211 and a contact pin 221. In this case, the connection between the contact socket 211 and the contact pin 221 forms a circuit 40. A thermal protection device 10 and an insertion slot 20 for a fuse 21 are arranged within the circuit 40. In the present case, the insertion slot 20 is arranged adjacently to the thermal protection device 10. The radiation of the heat from the fuse 21 towards the thermal protection device 10 is shown by arrows.

(8) FIG. 4 shows a detailed view from side X of FIG. 1 of the protection apparatus 100 in a travel adapter 200. The housing 201 of the travel adapter 200 is represented as being transparent, so that the protection apparatus 100 is visible inside the housing 201. The protection apparatus 100 is located in a second housing 30 inside the housing 201, which means that in other words it represents a common housing for the insertion slot 20 and the thermal protection device 10. The second housing 30 can be detached and thus separated spatially from the housing 201. The second housing 30 has two chambers 34, 35, which are not shown in greater detail, wherein one chamber 34 has the form of an insertion slot 20 in which a fuse 21 is arranged. The second chamber 35, in which the thermal protection device 10 is arranged, extends parallel to the insertion slot 20. The second chamber 35, in which the thermal protection device 10 is arranged, is separated from the insertion slot 20 by a partition 31, the insertion slot 20 being arranged on a first side 32 of the partition 31 and the thermal protection device 10 being arranged on a second side 33 of the partition 31. This arrangement makes it possible to physically separate the fuse 21 from the thermal protection device 10 but still position them sufficiently close together to ensure that the heat development at the fuse 21 acts directly on the thermal protection device 10. The fuse 21 may be arranged detachably or separably on the insertion slot 20. The insertion slot 20 has a first contact clip 22 and a second contact clip 23, which hold the fuse 21 against a first contact 24 and a second contact 25, and whereby the first contact clip 22 is connected to the second contact clip 23. Like the technical content of the claims and figures, the list of reference numerals is part of the disclosure. The same reference numerals denote identical components, reference numerals with different indices indicate functionally equivalent or similar components.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

(9) 100 Protection apparatus 200 Travel adapter 201 Housing 210 Socket side 211 Contact socket 212 Contact socket 213 Contact socket 220 Plug side 221 Contact pin 222 Contact pin 223 Contact pin 10 Thermal protection device 20 Insertion slot 21 Fuse 22 First contact clip 23 Second contact clip 24 First contact of 21 25 Second contact of 21 30 Second housing 31 Partition 32 First side of 31 33 Second side of 31 40 Circuit