Electrical swivel contact assembly

Abstract

An assembly including a support plate carrying a contact member on each face. A power cord terminal has an electrically-conductive pin projecting through aligned holes in the support plate and contact members, and an electrically-conductive ring surrounding the pin and insulated from it. A spring cooperates with the pin to press the ring against one of the contact members and electrically connect the pin to the other contact member. This invention relates to an electrical swivel contact assembly which permits relative rotation between interconnected electrical terminals while permitting flow of electricity between the terminals. The invention will be described in connection with an electrically-heated curling iron. However, it is to be understood that the invention may be used advantageously with other hand-held electrical appliances, and other types of electrically-powered apparatus. When a curling iron is used, it is rotated about its longitudinal axis in order to coil hair around it. This rotation of the curling iron causes the electrical cord supplying electricity to it to become twisted. As time goes on, the twisted electrical cord becomes both an inconvenience and a danger. Therefore, it has been suggested in the past that curling irons include electrical swivel contact assemblies which permit rotation of the curling iron without twisting of the electrical cord. However, such swivel contact assemblies have been complex and expensive, both in the initial cost of materials and the cost of assembly. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an electrical swivel contact assembly which is very simple, inexpensive, and easy to assemble. It is another object of the invention to provide a swivel contact assembly in which one pair of relatively moving contacts is spring biased into engagement, the other pair of relatively moving contacts being electrically connected through the spring which provides the bias. A further object of the invention is to provide a swivel contact assembly in which two contact members are mounted on a single support plate adapted to be fixed within the housing of an electrical appliance, these contact members being cooperable, respectively, with two coaxial electrically-conductive elements presented by a power cord terminal. It is an additional object of the invention to provide such a swivel contact assembly wherein the power cord terminal and its electrically-conductive elements are rotatable with respect to the support plate and contact members which it carries, while good electrical contact is maintained between the electrically-conductive power cord elements and the two contact members, respectively. Additional objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description, in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings:

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.