Apple patent adds magnetic drive actuation to UK-style folding pin USB adapter
Continuing a seemingly never ending quest for smaller form factor products, Apple engineers dreamed up a compact folding pin USB adapter design with the convenience of push-button magnetic actuation, as detailed in a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday.
For all intents and purposes, Apple's U.S. Patent No. 9,077,093 for a "Magnetic rotation actuator" does the same job as the new folding style 5-watt USB power adapter first introduced to the UK market with Apple Watch. The difference is in execution.
Source: USPTO
Instead of fixed prongs, like current U.S. adapters, Apple's folding design neatly tucks away live, neutral and ground pins into its plastic housing for ultimate portability and damage prevention. Each prong pivots up from its own slot when deployed, ready for insertion into a corresponding outlet. When a user is ready to pick up and go, the prongs retract and stow flush to the adapter housing for easy transport.
Like the UK adapter, today's patent also deals with three-prong units. However, instead of a manually manipulated spring-loaded hinge, the patent describes a magnetic drive mechanism that provides low friction, low wear operation with full electrical isolation between critical internal components.
In one embodiment, drive magnets disposed on an actuator slide interact with driven magnets attached to a rotatable shaft coupled to the earth prong. The actuator itself might be a button or slide that is operatively attached to the internal magnetic drive mechanism. When the slide or button is manipulated, drive magnets attract or repulse driven magnets to translate linear force into rotational motion, thus bringing the prong shaft into position.
Internally, the adapter's design is very similar to that of Apple's new UK-style product save for a few minor details. For example, the document notes bands are used to connect the first shaft with a second shaft operable to live and neutral prongs, an operation accomplished with spring-assisted arms on Apple's shipping product.
As with other Apple patents, it is unclear if or when the company plans to apply the magnetic drive system -- or UK-style manual folding design -- across its international power adapter lineup. In some ways Apple's current folding pin method is superior to its now patented magnetic drive design, as the simple flip up/flip down method relies on fewer external parts and is therefore less susceptible to breakage.
Apple's magnetic drive folding power adapter patent was first filed for in April 2014 and credits Mathieu P. Roy, Cesar Lozano Villarreal, Jean-Marc Gery and Vikas K. Sinha as its inventors.
For all intents and purposes, Apple's U.S. Patent No. 9,077,093 for a "Magnetic rotation actuator" does the same job as the new folding style 5-watt USB power adapter first introduced to the UK market with Apple Watch. The difference is in execution.
Source: USPTO
Instead of fixed prongs, like current U.S. adapters, Apple's folding design neatly tucks away live, neutral and ground pins into its plastic housing for ultimate portability and damage prevention. Each prong pivots up from its own slot when deployed, ready for insertion into a corresponding outlet. When a user is ready to pick up and go, the prongs retract and stow flush to the adapter housing for easy transport.
Like the UK adapter, today's patent also deals with three-prong units. However, instead of a manually manipulated spring-loaded hinge, the patent describes a magnetic drive mechanism that provides low friction, low wear operation with full electrical isolation between critical internal components.
In one embodiment, drive magnets disposed on an actuator slide interact with driven magnets attached to a rotatable shaft coupled to the earth prong. The actuator itself might be a button or slide that is operatively attached to the internal magnetic drive mechanism. When the slide or button is manipulated, drive magnets attract or repulse driven magnets to translate linear force into rotational motion, thus bringing the prong shaft into position.
Internally, the adapter's design is very similar to that of Apple's new UK-style product save for a few minor details. For example, the document notes bands are used to connect the first shaft with a second shaft operable to live and neutral prongs, an operation accomplished with spring-assisted arms on Apple's shipping product.
As with other Apple patents, it is unclear if or when the company plans to apply the magnetic drive system -- or UK-style manual folding design -- across its international power adapter lineup. In some ways Apple's current folding pin method is superior to its now patented magnetic drive design, as the simple flip up/flip down method relies on fewer external parts and is therefore less susceptible to breakage.
Apple's magnetic drive folding power adapter patent was first filed for in April 2014 and credits Mathieu P. Roy, Cesar Lozano Villarreal, Jean-Marc Gery and Vikas K. Sinha as its inventors.
Comments
Fragile! Ha! That should read "especially three-prong designed with sturdy, vicious, foot piercing ground pins"
Apple hardware design at its finest and probably the best part of owning an Apple Watch in the UK.
I love the design - so simple to use & it takes away any concern of the pins damaging my suitcase/clothing on my weekly trip into London.
The design is cool, but the fact that they actually care this much about the AC adaptor detail is even cooler.
$5 chargers have had this for years... oh wait.
Beautiful design. I hope any magnets used are not rare-earth. There is a growing shortage and this would not be an appropriate use for them.
Apple hardware design at its finest and probably the best part of owning an Apple Watch in the UK.
Luckily you can just purchase the charger on its own. Shame it's only available in a 5W version.
It's not superior at all, it doesn't have a 3rd ground pin which this does.
I guess you forgot the /. - at least I hope so. I mean...what's to like about having to live with the WORLD'S LARGEST MAINS PLUG? :no:
Who, in this green and pleasant land...wouldn't want this?...
[VIDEO]
The UK electrical standard is insane. How do people live with these massive power plugs? Whomever designed them and imposed that ridiculous standard should be shot.
For the benefit of all the Americans out there, the UK plug is the safest in the world. Our earth pin (the big one) keeps us safe, and our switched mains sockets also avoid any nasty 'flashes' you can get when plugging into a live socket. The UK 3 pin plug and socket should be a world standard.
Yeah, because the number of American deaths by electrocution with an electrical outlet clearly shows that's a priority issue... What on earth is wrong with you that not only you live with such an idiotic standard, but you're PROUD of it? We have small 3-prong grounded plugs that work very well without having to be the size of a small Korean hatchback. As to those laughable switched outlets, they may have been fantastic back in the '40s, but it's 2015, hello! The rest of the world does very well without anything this ridiculous, and just laughs at your engineering ineptness and utter lack of common sense.
For the benefit of Americans, our misguided cousins on the other side of the channel drive on the wrong side of the road, use a measuring system that's incompatible with the international, French-made one, and don't use the safest electrical plug in the world, which is French, of course.
Just wanted to clear this up.
Yeah, because the number of American deaths by electrocution with an electrical outlet clearly shows that's a priority issue... What on earth is wrong with you that not only you live with such an idiotic standard, but you're PROUD of it? We have small 3-prong grounded plugs that work very well without having to be the size of a small Korean hatchback. As to those laughable switched outlets, they may have been fantastic back in the '40s, but it's 2015, hello! The rest of the world does very well without anything this ridiculous, and just laughs at your engineering ineptness and utter lack of common sense.
Given that many other countries also use the Biritsh standard, I hardly think they're all laughing. Also, how does a switched outlet betray engineering ineptness, a lack of common sense, or ridiculousness? It's a switch. And how has engineering competence and common sense changed so significantly between the 1940s and 2015 to go from fantastic to ridiculous?
Finally, just some stats I found:
51,000 fires in the USA per year caused by electrical fault, and 490 deaths: http://www.esfi.org/resource/holiday-data-and-statistics-359
8,000 fires in England and Wales per caused by electrical fault, and 25 deaths: http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/news-and-campaigns/policies-and-research/statistics/
There's some data on fatal electrocutions, but it's not usefully structured for comparison.
Yeah, because the number of American deaths by electrocution with an electrical outlet clearly shows that's a priority issue... What on earth is wrong with you that not only you live with such an idiotic standard, but you're PROUD of it? We have small 3-prong grounded plugs that work very well without having to be the size of a small Korean hatchback. As to those laughable switched outlets, they may have been fantastic back in the '40s, but it's 2015, hello! The rest of the world does very well without anything this ridiculous, and just laughs at your engineering ineptness and utter lack of common sense.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best-wall-sockets-on-earth
The main thing to know about the U.K. wall plug is that while it is bulkier than other designs, every ounce of that additional bulk makes the design safer. This is accomplished in four main ways:
• Prong Design: Like standard U.S. grounded plugs, the U.K. wall plug has three prongs. But the design of these prongs makes it nearly impossible for you to shock yourself accidentally. Unlike in U.S. plugs, half of each prong is coated in insulation. Because of this, even if a plug is not fully inserted into a socket, touching the exposed part of the prongs can't give you a shock.
• Socket Design: Any kid with a fork or a screwdriver can light his hair on fire in the United States by jamming it into a wall socket. Not so in England, where it would take at least two screwdrivers to manage the same calamitous trick. The U.K. plug is designed so that the grounding prong is slightly longer than the prongs responsible for transferring current. Like a tumbler in a lock, this grounding prong is responsible for "unlocking" the socket, giving access to the more dangerous live and neutral terminals.
• Built-In Fuses: During World War II, a copper shortage resulted in the British government putting fuses into every plug, instead of wiring them directly. Although the built-in fuse adds bulk to the U.K. plug design, it's also safer: In case of an unexpected electrical surge, the fuse simply blows and the electricity shuts off, preventing fires, electrocutions, and other accidents. It also makes U.K. plugs easier to fix.
• Circuit Design: Finally, there's the wiring inside the plug itself. Not only is it extremely intuitive, but it has been thoughtfully designed so that if the plug is tugged and the wiring frays, the live and neutral wires are the first to become disconnected, while the grounding wires—the ones responsible for preventing human electrocution when they come in contact with a circuit—are the last to fray.
It's a truly brilliant design. The only caveat is that, as with Lego, the rugged, bottom-heavy design of a U.K. plug makes it an almost scientifically perfect caltrop.